Published: July 19, 2008 12:15 am         

Correctional officers allowed to keep saved holiday time

The Allegany County commissioners on Thursday approved a contract amendment to allow Allegany County Detention Center officers to keep earned holiday time beyond the June 30 expiration date.

It’s difficult for officers to be given holidays off for an operation that runs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, officials said, and officers were allowed to “save” that holiday for another time and hold up to four saved holidays at a time. But the current staffing shortage made it even harder to ensure officers get their earned time off. The current agreement, signed in March, set a deadline for officers to use their saved holidays, earned since July 1, 2007, by June 30.

The amendment to the collective bargaining agreement allows the officers to hold onto those days until Oct. 31. Jim Bestpitch, of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 1521, told the commissioners the center, located on U.S. Route 220 in Cresaptown, was “in crisis mode.”

“A lot of it’s due to the shortage of correctional officers,” Bestpitch said. “I know (the extension) will be greatly appreciated.”

Bestpitch said the 4 p.m.-to-midnight shift was particularly affected. Allegany County Sheriff David Goad said the center needs four more officers to be at full staff. Another four officers were hired recently — but it takes four months or more to train and orient a new correctional officer, Goad said.

“How can you let them off when there’s no one there to replace them?” Goad asked.

The amendment indicates that staffing shortages required detention center officials to implement an emergency staffing plan earlier this year which made it “impossible” for officers to use their saved holidays before the end of the fiscal year.

If there is a shortage, said Commissioner Jim Stakem on Friday, “we can continue to address that. We may need to look to enhance the pay of (officers). It just goes to show you a lot of people don’t want to do those jobs.”

Goad said a salary increase would help with both recruitment and retention efforts.

Stakem said the problem could be similar to a lack of qualified dispatchers at the Allegany County 911 Joint Communications Center. Some dispatchers, Bestpitch said last week, are having to work up to 16 hours at a time and skipping union-negotiated breaks during a shift to fill holes in the schedule. The union has presented the county a proposal to require 12-hour shifts, up from the normal eight, on a temporary basis until the staffing issues are addressed.

Contact Kevin Spradlin at kspradlin@times-news.com.