Del Norte County SEIU 1021 members confront Board of Supervisors over staffing crisis threatening the community
Tuesday, October 22, the public servants who keep Del Norte County running – including mental health professionals, child nutrition specialists, building inspectors, and registered nurses – confronted the Board of Supervisors over the staffing crisis threatening the Del Norte community.
The Del Norte staffing crisis is severe and pervasive. Del Norte is 30% understaffed in child support; 37.5% understaffed in mental health; 35% understaffed in roads; 60% understaffed in its Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children; 46% understaffed in social services; and 59% understaffed in probation, just to name a few.
Norma Williams, the SEIU 1021 Del Norte County chapter president and a public health program specialist who has been working for Del Norte County for 31 years, said: “Del Norte’s short staffing crisis isn’t just about us. The short staffing crisis also impacts the broader community. The County must take action now to make sure we can adequately provide child nutrition, mental health, and infrastructure services to Del Norte.”
Roxanne Cameron, a coordinator for Del Norte’s Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, said, “I’m currently doing the positions for three people in my office. If I am out sick or have to take a vacation, the office is basically shut down from serving our clients.”
The message of Del Norte’s public servants is clear: Del Norte deserves better.
While the Board of Supervisors wants to delay addressing Del Norte’s severe, pervasive staffing crisis until 2025, Del Norte’s public servants are echoing what the larger Del Norte community has been screaming: We can’t wait.
Norma Williams told the Board of Supervisors, “By asking us to wait, you’re asking the people we serve to wait. Already you have County employees who have huge case loads. You have phone calls coming from the public going unanswered, and members of the public are having to wait.
“Valiant employees are working their butts off to provide for our community. But there are too many cases that are literally backlogged. And those cases have an impact on the very people who you were elected to serve. Is that fair? By asking us to wait, you’re asking them to wait. That could have an impact on a child in need, whether a child is in crisis or a child is in need of formula or diapers or healthy nutrition.
“You’re also asking our judicial system to wait — criminal justice, probation, the youth opportunity center. You’re also asking the public to wait to be safe as well. And yes, you’re also asking people to wait to have the roads repaired as well.”