DATE: October 24, 2023
TO: Board of Supervisors
SUBMITTED BY: Hollis Magill, Director of Human Resources
SUBJECT: Salary Resolution Amendment - Department of Agriculture
RECOMMENDED ACTION(S):
TITLE
1. Approve amendment to the Salary Resolution consolidating Agricultural/Standards Specialist Trainee with the Agricultural/Standards Specialist I classification, effective October 30, 2023, as reflected in Appendix “A”; and
2. Approve amendment to the Salary Resolution adjusting the salaries of the of the Agricultural/Standards Specialist I/II/III/Supervising, Agricultural/Standards Investigator, and Entomologist effective October 30, 2023, as reflected in Appendix “A”.
REPORT
Approval of the recommended actions would consolidate the Agricultural/Standards Specialist Trainee with the Agricultural/Standards Specialist I and increase the salary for the Agricultural/Standards Specialist I/II/III/Supervising, Agricultural/Standards Investigator, and Entomologist to make these classifcations more comparable within the local market and address recruitment and retention issues. This item is countywide.
ALTERNATIVE ACTION(S):
If your Board were not to approve the recommended actions, the Agricultural/Standards Specialist series structure and associated salary would remain unchanged and uncompetitive within the local market contributing to continued recruitment and retention issues.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The cost of the first recommended action in FY 2023-24 is estimated at $14,976 ($4,493 NCC). The cost of the second recommended action in FY 2023-24 is estimated at $506,600 ($151,980 NCC). Sufficient appropriations are included in the Department of Agriculture’s FY 2023-24 Adopted Budget for Org 4010 and will be included in future budget requests.
DISCUSSION:
The Department of Human Resources recently completed a class study of the Agricultural/Standards Specialist classification series in which the salary and series structure were evaluated. A comparative salary survey was conducted wherin similar positions from other County agencies within the comparable area were evaluated in the development of the study analysis and subsequent recommendations. This survey showed that the Agricultural/Standards Specialist classification series is no longer competitive within the local labor market in both structure and salary.
The first recommended action will consolidate the Agricultural/Standards Specialist series from five levels to four levels: Agricultural/Standards Specialist Provisional, Agricultural/Standards Specialist, and Senior/Supervising Agricultural/Standards Specialist. This better aligns the classification structure with comparable agencies within the local labor market.
The second recommended action increases the salary of the Agricultural/Standards Specialist I/II/III/Supervising by ten percent (10%). An evaluation of recent attrition and recruitments indicates the Agricultural/Standards Specialist classification series has suffered from turnover and recruitment issues due to below local labor market compensation. In addition, this recommended action increases the salary of the Agricultural/Standards Investigator and Entomologist classifications to maintain the historic internal equity between these classifications and the Supervising Agricultural/Standards Specialists. Approval of the recommended actions will increase compensation to be competitive within the local labor market and address recruitment and retention issues.
Additionally, as the Agricultural/Standards Specialist I is being reclassified to the Provisional level, current Agricultural/Standards Specialist I incumbents with permanent status will maintain their permanent status within the provisional level classification but must obtain the required licenses to advance to the next classification level.
ATTACHMENTS INCLUDED AND/OR ON FILE:
Salary Resolution Amendment - Appendix “A”
CAO ANALYST:
Paige Benavides