Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
DAVENPORT—The Lincoln County Health Department has been allotted $490,000 a year over a two-year span in Foundational Public Health Funding as part of the state budget. The money will be disbursed in six-month increments beginning July 1, public health administrator Ed Dzedzy told the Lincoln County Commissioners at the commissioner’s meeting Monday, Nov. 15.
Dzedzy said the department expects that funding will increase as time goes on.
The department hopes to fill two new positions and re-hire an existing unfilled position with the funds. The new positions include an environmental health director and a communicable disease specialist. The unfilled position would be a prevention specialist that would assist in community health education.
Filling these positions would require a re-organization of the health department with the new positions coming on. It’s a re-organization that the department hopes will come with pay increases.
Dzedzy presented the commissioners with comparable rates paid by other county health departments in the region. He admitted the county can’t compete with pay rates offered in Spokane County but expressed concern with losing staff members due to a lack of competitive wages.
“Our last two communicable disease specialists left due to higher paying jobs,” Dzedzy said. “I’m hoping we can do a salary comparison and develop a standardized approach consistent with other counties around the state to reach a mid-level salary range for the region.”
The proposed pay raises would come with a 5% step increase, he added.
Commissioner Rob Coffman agreed that pay raises would likely help incentivize employees to stay in Lincoln County but wanted to evaluate Dzedzy’s proposal further before making any motion.
“Other county departments who wanted re-classifications agreed to do take two steps back before doing increases, which still amounted to a raise,” Coffman said. “The comparisons (Dzedzy) has are in the ballpark, but I’m concerned about what the other county departments would say and I want to keep things equitable.”
Dzedzy agreed with the sentiment of keeping pay scale increases equitable across the county, but worried about losing more staff in the future if the county’s pay scale can’t compete regionally.
“That’s something we’ve heard from many department heads,” Coffman responded.
Dzedzy later told The Times that in addition to new positions, the state funds would be used to enhance training, improve I.T. infrastructure and Internet/social media access.
Drew Lawson is the editor of the Davenport Times. He is a graduate of Eastern Washington University.
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