Thumbnail photo by Paul Critz
Norma Williams rejected a suggestion from District 5 Supervisor Dean Wilson that artificial intelligence might allow Del Norte County departments to increase productivity despite struggling to hire and keep staff.
Williams, Del Norte County Employees Association SEIU 1021 president, provided public comment following an update of the county’s 2024-29 strategic plan on Tuesday. She reminded Wilson that many county services are state- and federally-mandated. The technology staff use to provide those services was created by the state or federal government and, therefore, the responsibility to update those systems rests with the state or federal government.
Del Norte’s vacancy rate is still high and AI can’t replace everyone, Williams said.
“I doubt very seriously that the community at large is going to want to talk to an AI,” she told supervisors. “When they walk through the door they want to see a live human being. Someone who can understand them, who can speak with them and who can serve them.”
Williams’ tepid response to the county’s strategic plan came before Jennifer Ortman and Jocelyn Woodrall, program managers with the county’s Public Assistance/Employment & Training Branch, told supervisors that their division had a 45 percent vacancy rate. Currently 15 staff members each handle an average caseload of about 709 when the ideal would be from 250 and 300.
“Right now everybody’s doing everything,” Woodrall said, “They’re having 700 cases and also processing all intakes as well as helping with front office duties [and] screenings.”
The Public Assistance/Employment & Training Branch helps residents access CalWORKS and CalFRESH benefits, including child care and homeless assistance, as well as healthcare through MediCal and Covered California.
About a year ago, the Del Norte County Board of Supervisors approved the strategic plan’s “foundational elements,” which included addressing staff vacancies, combating homelessness, economic development as well as improving county programs, services and infrastructure. The Board adopted a finalized version that included creating a standalone Human Resources Department, holding job fairs and creating an employee appreciation program to reduce turnover and increase retention.
The county’s pallet home and emergency homeless shelter project on Williams Drive is part of the strategic plan as is efforts to transition the juvenile detention center into a youth opportunity center. Hooper said the creation of an economic development manager position as well as a technical advisory committee focusing on strategic planning was also part of the 2024-29 strategic plan.
County supervisors on Tuesday appointed Wilson and District 1 Supervisor Darrin Short to that technical advisory committee.
“One of the notes that were made with regard to how this plan was going to be administered was that it really is a living plan,” Hooper said. “And as we run into different capacity issues, as we run into different technical issues, we have presented recommendations to the Board that adjustments be made and the plan be fine tuned as we go.”
Administration also sought the opinion of county employees — Hooper called them stakeholders — asking them to indicate what focus areas they thought were most important on a scale of 1-5. Sixty-three responded.
When it came to county staffing and capacity, Hooper showed a multi-colored bar graph indicating that reducing vacancy rates and turnover and increasing improvement and retention were of the utmost importance.
“A little bit less so [was] improving access to housing opportunities,” he said. “I think this may be kind of a change in the times. Maybe a change for the good in the sense that housing is more available.”
The 63 staffers that provided their input also indicated that maintaining and improving county facilities was important, Hooper said.
In the area of the strategic plan focusing on law, justice and homelessness, Hooper said employees showed strong support for addressing homelessness and “expanding opportunities for justice-involved youth within the community.”
According to Hooper, 84 percent of the 63 employees who provided their opinion found value in the strategic plan as an internal tool for setting the county’s priorities. But 66.7 percent rejected the idea that the Board of Supervisors should also adopt strategic plans for other community needs, he said.
Hooper said county administration would ask employees to provide input on the strategic plan’s progress and present that information to the Board of Supervisors annually.
Wilson said other counties are integrating AI into their systems, saying it’s able to analyze large groups of data and get things done at a “much quicker rate.” If Del Norte successfully deployed AI, it wouldn’t have to be dependent on having “heavy staff or even marginally adequate staff in many cases,” he said.
Wilson lamented the county having to rely on “legacy IT systems” to provide services to residents.
“The greatest example I can say right at the moment is the Department of Defense — when the new director holds up a 7 inch floppy disk and says ‘we’re still using these,’” Wilson said. “The reason they’re still using these in many cases is because the legacy system cannot integrate with new technology. AI, I think, is going to be the process by which a lot of that becomes doable where under the current process it’s not.”
Following the Public Assistance Branch presentation, Wilson told Ortman, Woodrall and Deputy Director Dorothy Waddelow the lack of staff concerned him. If it continues, he said the Board may need to look at how many people the county’s individual programs serve.
“We have programs that serve very few [people] in proportion to the population of our county. They may be mandated, but they don’t serve as many,” Wilson said, adding that programs that serve a higher percentage of the community are more important when it comes to staffing. “As we go forward and we have issues with staffing levels, we may look at having to discontinue programs in one location and move that staff to the programs that serve a greater portion of our community.”
Williams blamed the Public Assistance Branch’s staffing challenges on low pay, with some who decline jobs because of compensation and others who move to another area within the county. The staff that are currently there are under overwhelming stress, she said, adding that the “union has heard their cries of frustration.”
Williams also warned that Del Norte County would enter dangerous territory if the Board of Supervisors tries to determine a mandated program’s value based on the number of people it serves.“If you’re going to weigh who is worthy or not worthy, then you walk into a very dangerous area,” she said. “Because you will definitely face some serious backlash. Yes, a lot of these programs are mandated but they provide very important services across all areas, the entire spectrum of Health and Human Services.”
