BY JIMMY LAWTON
North Country This Week

CANTON —- St. Lawrence County Legislator John Burke is asking if it’s time to end the hiring freeze and to streamline the hiring process at the county level, but at least one legislator strongly opposes the idea.

Burke said he raised the question at an Aug. 8 operations committee meeting after he heard St. Lawrence County Sheriff Brooks Bigwarfe discuss the difficulty in filling public safety positions.

Since 2008 St. Lawrence County has had a non-essential hiring freeze. The goal of the freeze is to ensure all positions filled by the county are deemed necessary to daily operations.

Since Aug. 2015, the vacancy review committee must first approve filling positions before being approved by the board.

Burke said those ideas may have had merit at the time, but times have changed.

Although the exact number of vacant positions at the county is unknown, several discussions in the past year have centered on the county’s struggle to recruit and retain employees.

Burke says the process to fill positions may be adding to that difficulty.

“Traditionally we never had a problem with recruitment. Now that we have a problem it seems like it’s taking longer to fill jobs. I think it’s our responsibility to ensure that we are filling the jobs we’ve budgeted and making sure we are providing the services we offer,” he said. “I threw the question out there to the full board. I’m only one of 15 members but in my mind we should be considering a different approach. I think we need a shorter process.”

The current process can delay filling vacancies by as much as three months.

Burke said that he believes St. Lawrence County Administrator Ruth Doyle is capable of handling decisions related to filling vacancies.

“Ruth has proven her abilities as an administrator and demonstrated that she follows the will of the board. My opinion is that the legislators set the policy, we approve the budget and we hire Ruth and other administrators to carry it out,” he said.

Burke said he sees removing the hiring hurdles as restoring power to the county administrator.

“Our number one objective is delivering the services that we are supposed to deliver. I think our current system may be impeding that,” he said.

But not everyone shares that idea.

St. Lawrence County Legislator Kevin Acres, who chairs the finance committee said he believes it's the legislators responsibility to make sure that county jobs are necessary before they are filled.

Kevin said that private companies weigh benefits of filling vacant positions and the county should too.

He said that department heads are part of the review process, but at the end of the day spending is decided by the legislators.

Kevin said legislators must make sure that taxpayer funding is expended responsibly and take accountability for their decisions.

Not other legislators joined the discussion.