County approves new positions for Child Haven

Clark County officials have approved new hires to counter staffing shortages and cut overtime costs at the county's emergency shelter for abused and neglected children.

However, overtime will still be needed and it's not yet known when more staff will come to the rescue at Child Haven, county officials said.

"We really want to stay away from making that a permanent situation, but we do see spikes," County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani said on Wednesday. "We need families. We would rather have them (the children) in a safe place than to have them at Child Haven in the long run."

County commissioners last week approved nine new child development technician II positions at a projected cost of $579,307 for the remainder of the fiscal year. Two more positions will come through transfers within the Department of Family Services, said Jeff Wells, an assistant county manager.

The Review-Journal in August reported that chronic staffing shortages at the shelter led to $2.5 million in overtime paid so far this calendar year. It also revealed the shelter is using county juvenile justice workers to fill the gap, paying them about $1 million in overtime.

"We increased our state license to 90 (residents), but we don't have enough staff to handle the spikes," Wells said on Tuesday.

The 11 positions will bring the shelter's total full-time positions to 65, but there could still be a few vacancies, he said. Adding staff will reduce, if not eliminate, the need to use juvenile justice workers, he said.

"We are looking forward to the additional staff," Dawn Sanchez, manager at the shelter, said Friday.

Wells said he expects the recruitment and interview process to be completed by month's end, with background checks taking longer.

The shelter's population has remained high, in part because of a continued scarcity of foster parents to provide an alternative. Also, the county's population "has gone back into a growth mode," Wells said.

The census at Child Haven fluctuates every day. The average daily population over the past 30 days has been in the low 60s to low 70s, according to county documents.

The shelter was housing 66 children on Tuesday, Wells said. That number went down to 60 as of Friday morning.

Despite efforts to recruit more fosters parents, more families are still needed, Wells said.

"It takes us a little bit longer to place children when we don't have as many foster parents," he said.

Overtime is needed at Child Haven to comply with licensing regulations.

Family Services' overtime budget for the current fiscal year, which runs July 1 through June 30, 2016, is $2.3 million. Since July 1 the agency has spent $1.4 million of that, said county spokesman Erik Pappa. It isn't clear how much of the $1.4 million went to Child Haven specifically.

In fiscal 2015, Family Services' overtime budget was $1.5 million, which was exceeded by $3 million to $4 million, Pappa said.

"We won't get rid of it (the overtime at Child Haven), but it will reduce it by about three-quarters," Giunchigliani said of the new positions.

County Manager Don Burnette said it's somewhat unusual to request positions so early in the fiscal year, but the shelter is incurring overtime at a rate that exceeds budgeted.

"At this point there's no indication that's going to change, and it's the opinion of staff that the appropriate way to provide staffing isn't through overtime — it's through the creation of permanent positions," he told commissioners last week.

Contact Yesenia Amaro at yamaro@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3843. Find her on Twitter: @YeseniaAmaro.