BERRIEN COUNTY COMMISSION UPDATE

By DEBRA HAIGHT
BCR Correspondent
ST. JOSEPH – Staff shortages remain a concern for the Berrien County government although officials say that the situation is slowly improving after the pandemic.
County Commissioner James Martin was the first to bring up the topic at a recent County Board of Commissioners meeting. He questioned why the county is paying so much to outside engineering firms instead of hiring engineers to work directly for the county.
He noted that the county has spent $550,000 in recent months alone for road department engineering work. “I think we need to try something to have it done in house,” he said. “We would still save money if we paid in house engineers 25 percent more, that would more fiscally prudent.”
Martin later was the sole no vote on approving the county’s new 2023 budget. He said he didn’t feel it properly addressed the needs of county employees or how money should be spent.
The new 2023 budget calls for $179 million in revenue and $184 million in expenditures, with $5.3 million being taken from reserves. The general fund budget within the overall budget will be balanced with nearly $68.2 million in revenue and expenditures.
Other commissioners and County Administrator Brian Dissette painted a different picture of the county’s employment situation.
County Commissioner and Administration Committee Chair Jim Curran noted for example that the Trial Court has hired six new people recently. He added that the Berrien County Juvenile Center is also hiring new people.
Dissette said that while the county still has vacancies to fill, progress has been made. He pointed out that the road department has been able to hire six new people with the county paying for them to get their CDL training and license.
“Our past practice was to require experience and a CDL certification,” he said. “Now we’re taking a chance on new people. We will pay for their certification if they stay with us for two years. If they leave before that, they will reimburse the county.”
“We are trying to be creative,” he added. “We had 80 vacancies six months ago and that number is down to 59 now. We are getting creative, we’re actively recruiting at trade shows and at area colleges.”
County Board Chairman McKinley Elliott noted after Dissette’s comments that Dissette himself started with the county as an intern 20 years ago. Dissette went on to have other jobs in the area before coming back to the county in 2020 when he was hired as the county administrator.
Dissette’s comments came after remarks by resident Adolph Peltzer. He said the county needs to start hiring people who don’t necessarily have job experience. “Everyone wants one or two years of experience and where are people going to get it?” he asked. “We need to have a program like student teaching or internships.”
People can get an idea of the extent of the county’s employee vacancy problem by looking at the job postings on the county’s website. The postings in a recent week showed 32 pages of job descriptions and openings.
Martin brought up the issue again at last week’s county board meeting. He pointed out that the county has spent nearly $1 million this on outside engineering work for the county road department. “We need to do something to get engineers into the department,” he said. “Maybe we need to something more progressive like maybe hire people right out of college.”
“$1 million is way too much to pay for engineering when we could hire people and cut that figure way down,” he added. “That would leave more money to give employees needed wage increases.”
Dissette again presented a counterpoint argument to Martin’s claims. He said five people are going through an apprenticeship program with the road department and there are advertised opening for engineering tech and senior tech positions that require two year and four year degrees respectively.
“All of the departments are actively recruiting, no one is dodging the need to get the engineering work back in house,” Dissette said. “But local firms are having trouble too. If anyone knows people who are looking, send them our way, we’ll happily look at them.”
He noted that the county’s efforts to recruit people have included everything from having a booth at the Berrien County Youth Fair in August and at other area community events to taking part in career day type activities to reach out to high school students to get them interested in working for the county in the future.
Dissette reminded county commissioners of one of the vacancies that they will have to fill soon. Berrien County Chief Public Defender Paul Jancha, Jr. is resigning after being elected earlier this month to be a Berrien County Trial Court judge.
Dissette noted that the job has been posted internally, on the county website, with the Michigan Bar Association and with the Michigan Association of Counties. He said he will be bringing forward a candidate to fill the role on an interim basis while the search is done for a permanent replacement.
Jancha was the county’s third public defender and the first from Berrien County, serving in that post since March, 2020. Carl Macpherson started the office in 2017 and came to the area from the West Coast. He resigned in 2018 to take a job in Portland, Oregon.
Christopher Renna was the county’s second public defender. He worked as a federal public defender as well as an assistant public defender in Washtenaw County before coming here. He resigned in 2020 to take a position in Kalamazoo County but died unexpectedly before he could start that job.