Staff morale, permanent administrative leadership and health insurance options lead County work session discussion

On Tuesday morning, December 1, the Warren County Board of Supervisors met in a work session to discuss several pending policy and budgetary items. Those items included:

1 – six “Action Items” determined from the board’s recent weekend “Strategic Planning Session”;

2 – Lord Fairfax Community College’s proposal on the use of COVID-19 related funds for Workforce Solutions Scholarships targeting people negatively impacted financially by the Coronavirus pandemic and its limitations placed on business operations from state and local social distancing and other safety precautions;

3 – a new health insurance option proposal designed to safeguard county employees due to the ongoing Valley Health-Anthem Blue Shield/Blue Cross health insurance provider negotiating impasse;

4 – and a presentation by the United Way of Front Royal/Warren County on its programs and partnerships within the community in providing volunteer service and health care, among other options to community members in need.

FR/WC United Way Board President Shane Goodwin, at the podium and live broadcast wall screen, and Executive Director Steven Schetrom make their case for continued municipal support of United Way community assistance programs and partnerships. Their PowerPoint was well-received. Royal Examiner Photos by Roger Bianchini – Royal Examiner Video by Mark Williams

Beginning with that final United Way presentation, the full board present seemed to concur that United Way helps orchestrate a valuable community service and deserves continuing municipal support for its endeavors. A PowerPoint on recent activities was presented by United Way Executive Director Steven Schetrom and Board of Directors President Shane Goodwin. And Schetrom reminded the supervisors that all the funding United Way receives is spent locally within the community.

County Board Chairman Walt Mabe cited an existing need for shower facilities at the County’s cold-weather Thermal Shelter for the homeless at the 15th Street Health and Human Services complex, as a potential immediate project for United Way to tackle.

Lord Fairfax’s Carlene Hurdle presented an overview of the college’s Workforce Solutions program and the initiative to funnel some partnered scholarship municipal funding into programs designed to equip students with skills to acquire jobs there is a higher immediate demand for.

Carlene Hurdle virtually explains Coronavirus pandemic change of direction in LFCC’s Workforce Solutions scholarship plans.

Interim County Administrator Ed Daley seemed to speak for the board when he said the County’s intention would be to see the scholarships were directed toward students who had been economically “displaced” by consequences of the Coronavirus pandemic, not just people looking for a more lucrative career change. Hurdle responded that the County could dictate how the money it invested – $30,000 was cited – since it was its money earmarked into the scholarship fund.

“It sounds like a real opportunity for those in need,” Fork District Supervisor Archie Fox observed. Daley explained that while the County contribution had originated in CARES Act related funding, having been transferred into the County’s General Fund it was now administered as a county General Fund budgetary item, which would remove the necessity to have the money spent by the end of the calendar year.

Daley also noted that, as with its cooperative arrangement with LFCC on the tractor-trailer driving school off Kendrick Lane, the Warren County Economic Development Authority would work with the County and LFCC to promote the scholarship program.

And speaking of the interim county administrator, in the lead-off topic on the “Strategic Advance Action Items” concerning future “Critical Issues, Goals, and Strategies” a debate arose over a suggested time frame for the hiring of a permanent replacement for Daley and departed County Administrator Doug Stanley. The suggested timeframe was a permanent county administrator in place by the spring of 2022.

Despite acknowledging the excellent contributions Daley has made since assuming the interim administrator’s role, Happy Creek Supervisor Tony Carter questioned the wisdom of that long delay – over a year and a half – in putting a permanent hire into the county’s top administrative position. North River Supervisor Delores Oates countered that the additional time gave existing departmental staff the necessary time to fill key positions either open or coming open in order to create a more stable staffing environment for the new administrator to step into.

Socially distanced into the spectators’ front row by PowerPoint presentations that bumped him from the former and occasional press table, Tony Carter questioned the board majority plan to not name a permanent county administrator until spring of 2022, nearly two years after Doug Stanley’s ouster.

Carter argued that the new permanent replacement would be better positioned to help create a stable staffing environment they had been instrumental in creating. Carter also noted that Daley’s interim contract called for him to only be paid for 28 hours a week’s work, pointing out it was not unusual for a municipal manager to work a 40-hour-plus week.

Daley seemed to speak for the post-Strategic Planning board majority in pointing out it was felt bringing the new administrator in mid-stream of the staff and departmental stabilization effort was not the best option. He pointed to necessary upgrades in county IT (Information Technology) as an example. Earlier, Deputy Emergency Management Director Rick Farrall cited the need for “modernization across the board” of the County’s Information Technology, including the hiring of an IT Director “ASAP”.

Above, Deputy Emergency Services Manager Rick Farrall tells the board there is a need for ‘modernization across the board’ of the County IT department, including filling an empty director’s position. Interim County Administrator Ed Daley, below, appears paper bound as he explains board majority rationale for making needed staff replacements and soft and hardware upgrades prior to re-advertising for a permanent county administrator.

“Our new finance director is here, and he can start moving with IT to do something about our software. And then the new IT and hardware programming, both of those overall – that is a year-and-a-half process … So, the way this is set now, we can start that. And we will fill the deputy county administrator’s position so that you have someone coming up,” Daley said of the advantage of having the permanent administrator in place either before or after the stabilization and upgrading process of county government.

“I believe the direction that we need to go in is to give our county some stability,” Chairman Mabe observed, adding, “and to give them the stability that they need … we need a lot of things before we ever look for a new county administrator … I agree the potential is there for that county administrator to not necessarily like everybody we’ve selected and got into the positions. But with a stable organization, we are more apt to get a better county administrator.”

“I agree,” Oates chimed in.

Mabe also addressed staff morale, seemingly in disrepair after the rapid one-two loss of the county and deputy county administrators this summer. Deputy County Administrator Bob Childress announced his retirement shortly after Stanley’s forced July departure.

After a perhaps rocky start, Board Chairman Walt Mabe wants county staff to know the new board majority, considers them a valued part of the county government ‘team’.

“Our staff that’s looking into this, all of us, there’s going to be a lot of … for lack of a better word, camaraderie. We’re going to understand there’s fear. We’re going to give them the opportunity to know that we like the staff that’s working for us; and we’re working as a team,” Mabe said of the board effort to heal any wounds that may have been opened in the last year.

“And they are much more important,” Daley added nodding to Board Deputy Clerk Emily Ciarrocchi and other staff present, “to your stability than whoever sits here (in the administrator’s seat).

“That’s correct,” Mabe concurred.

Another Strategic Agenda item was a reduction of legal fees. Oates pointed to $2.8 million spent to date on the EDA civil litigations, against Jennifer McDonald and co-defendants and by the Town of Front Royal against the EDA. That latter case related to another Strategic Agenda item, “improved public trust and relationships with the Town of Front Royal and partnering agencies in order to make the best decisions for our community”. Maybe the newly hired permanent town manager can help out on that front.

The other item was a presentation by Human Resources Director Jodi Saffelle, Daley, and Assistant County Attorney Caitlin Jordan concerning another option for the county to deal with impacts of the Valley Health – Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield insurance coverage negotiation impasse on county staff. Saffelle credited Daley with what she called an “out of the box” alternative to coverage in introducing it to the board.

“If it’s a bad idea, it’s my idea,” Daley observed to some laughter at Saffelle’s passing credit to him.

Senior Assistant County Attorney Caitlin Jordan tells the board that even if Valley Health and Anthem overcome their contractual dispute impasse, depending on eventual rates the County may have found a viable health care coverage alternative.

More seriously, the option which Jordan noted the County might stick with even in the event of a late settlement between Valley Health and Anthem. – “If they come to terms we still may go with the new provider depending on the rates,” Jordan observed of the potential of a late settlement in the high-stakes health provider/health insurance poker game – was cited as protecting employees who might have to go to a Valley Health hospital in the event of an emergency medical situation during any lapsed insurance coverage period.

See the discussion of these health insurance variables and the other matters of concern to the county’s future operations and involvement with outside agencies in this Royal Examiner video: