A reason to squawk!

It's time to stop listening to Albemarle’s Board of Supervisors, County Executive, and his Staff when they squawk about the alleged difficulty in retaining County employees. A document from their own Human Resources Department shows this squawking needs to end.

Here are the most current employee turnover rates for Albemarle County Government by department (FY2014-2015). These percentages don’t include employees who retired, just the percentages of employees who resigned (or maybe were asked to leave?) their jobs with Albemarle County.

Department name (# of employees): % turnover rate

Community Development (64): 1.6%

Fire/Rescue (105): 1.9%

Human Resources (22): 4.6%

Police (164): 4.9%

Parks and Recreation (20): 5.0%

Finance (50): 12.0%

Social Services (114): 12.3%

Emergency Communications Center (47): 12.8%

Office of Management and Budget (5): 40.0%

The following County departments had 0% turnover rates in Albemarle’s most recent annual personnel report: General Services (with 25 employees), Information Technology (20), County Executive’s Office (9), County Attorney’s Office (8), Facilities Development Office (8).

It would seem that County officials — elected, appointed, or hired — shouldn’t be squawking too much or at all about employee retention in Community Development, Fire/Rescue, Human Resources, Police, and Parks & Recreation with turnover rates ranging from only 1.6% to 5.0%.

Also, there are relatively low annual turnover numbers in both the Finance Department and Emergency Communications Center at 6 employees each, especially when much higher rates might be anticipated due to the stress in a 9-1-1 Center or the repetition in a finance office. Meanwhile, with only 5 employees working in Albemarle's Office of Management and Budget, any resignations there will naturally skew the turnover rate high and cause this percentage to look artificially abnormal.

From the data collected and reported by Albemarle’s Human Resources Department, it would seem that the only place where County officials may have room to squawk is in the Department of Social Services where they are having to replace around 14 employees per year.

The obvious answer, then, would seem to be: solve that department’s problem — and stop squawking where squawking isn’t warranted.

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By the way, you may recall a Whatever Albemarle blog entitled “Feedback — as requested. Answers — also requested” that I posted on June 14, 2016. In that entry — and in an e-mail I sent to all six Democrat Board of Supervisors members and the County Executive — I asked 11 questions and requested 14 definitions, lists, or names of items mentioned in the County’s newly-approved “Strategic Priorities.”

Now, 15 calendar days — or 11 County Government business days — later, I have received answers to exactly 2 questions. Still unprovided are any definitions, lists, or names of undefined, unlisted, and unnamed items associated with the “Strategic Priorities” that the Board of Supervisors and their (not our) County Executive and his (also not our) Staff want you and I TO PAY FOR!

Now there’s a reason to squawk!

Oh, and a special note to those of you living in the Jack Jouett, Rio, and Samuel Miller Districts: you’ll get a chance in November 2017 to squawk where it counts — in the voting booth.