A “perfect storm” created a shortage of Clark County Juvenile Detention workers in 2014, forcing the department to rack up tens of thousands of dollars in overtime, Juvenile Court Administrator Pat Escamilla said.
Of the top 20 overtime earners in Clark County’s government last year, four work in juvenile detention, according to salary data The Columbian obtained through a public records request. The rest work in the Clark County Sheriff’s Office as deputies, sergeants or corrections officers in the Clark County Jail.
Juvenile detention worker Murphy Moikeha, for example, earned $49,878 in overtime on top of his $53,835 salary, making him the top overtime earner in Clark County.
Those employees aren’t necessarily among the highest paid at the county, however. They’ve just logged the most overtime. County Medical Examiner Dr. Dennis Wickham earned $216,708 in 2014, $211,908 of which was his base pay.
Though Escamilla has said that the county hopes to address the problem and hire more workers, the Clark County Juvenile Detention Officer’s Guild gave Escamilla and the rest of the Juvenile Department management team a vote of no confidence this spring, citing concerns over staffing shortages. Paul Coiteux, executive board member of the guild, said the county needs to strike a balance between keeping inmates safe and employees alert and healthy.
“If you’re putting all this money into overtime, why aren’t we hiring people?” Coiteux said.
Moikeha was among those guild members who agreed to the no-confidence vote, in part due to the amount of overtime he worked.
Moikeha said he’s more likely to volunteer for overtime, but added that he feels compelled to knowing that the department struggles to provide adequate services as a result of short staffing. The no-confidence vote included claims that the county is forced to place juvenile inmates in lockdown for hours at a time. Moikeha said he wants to do his part to alleviate that problem.
“We’re having to step up so we don’t have that happen,” he said. “We know when the youth are locked up, they can start acting out.”
But Escamilla said the staffing shortage is only a temporary concern, and the county is already making efforts to hire additional juvenile detention officers. In May, the county approved moving an unfilled probation position in juvenile court into detention.
Escamilla called recent staffing struggles unpredictable.
Until about 18 months ago, the county worked with NW Staffing Resources, a local temp agency that provided workers if a detention officer called in sick or went on vacation. The partnership was ended due to concerns that using untrained temporary workers is a liability, especially in situations where detention officers may have to subdue an unruly child.
“They’re not trained in that,” Coiteux said. “They’re not properly accredited.”
Escamilla also cites the implementation of the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative, which works to reduce the number of children being detained for lesser crimes, for increasing overtime. The Clark County Juvenile Detention Center closed two pods and moved seven people from detention into rehabilitative services for children.
Employees’ long-term illnesses, vacations and pregnancies also contributed to increasing overtime, Escamilla said.
“You can’t predict some of these things,” he said.
Sheriff’s office
As for the sheriff’s office, overtime is a typical, and often predictable, part of being a deputy. In addition to the unpredictable nature of police work, deputies often provide security at concerts and events such as the Clark County Fair, leading to overtime.
Sheriff Chuck Atkins, however, said it’s cheaper to pay overtime than to use additional resources to train and provide benefits to new deputies.
“The overhead goes up,” Atkins said.
Sgt. Fred Neiman, who earned $28,019 in overtime on top of his $87,029 base pay, has been the department’s public information officer for four years. He was the 10th highest overtime earner in Clark County.
Neiman doesn’t volunteer for most of those hours, he said. Many come when he’s called to a scene or asked to write a news release on weekends or after hours.
“Not everyone would be willing to be tethered to call-outs 24/7, holiday or not,” Neiman said. “Not everyone has been out to family dinner and had to tell your kids to eat up, dad just got called back to work, or had to get up in the middle of church service to answer a 911 page, or sleeps with a note pad, map book and cellphone on their headboard, but thousands of first responders across our nation do, and I’m proud to be one of them.”
