(The Center Square) – Nearly one-fourth of the positions vacant at a North Carolina agency that provides mental health care prompted one state senator to question the agency using open positions as a “slush fund” for other expenses such as travel and computer equipment.
“I’m very concerned that we have got 4,200 positions and the average time is 612 days that they’ve been vacant,” Sen. Steve Jarvis, R-Davidson, said at a joint legislative committee meeting Tuesday. “If it was a business, you couldn’t operate that way as a slush fund whenever you go in and create a budget. We’re not getting a true outcome of what that budget needs to be in dollar and cents.”
Stephanie Olson, chief operating officer of the Department of Health and Human Services led by Secretary Dev Sangvai, explained some of the factors that have led to 4,130 unfilled positions – a rate of 23%.
About 300 beds in the state’s mental health hospitals are going unused because of the vacancies, Olson testified.
Some of those are positions either the House of Representatives or Senate have proposed in their budgets to eliminate, Olson said. The state budget due July 1 remains unsigned.
“We are required to hold those positions vacant,” she told legislators.
The Health Department also faces recruiting challenges because it is competing for personnel with both the private sector and other state and local agencies.
“We in particular compete with the private health care system, managed health care systems and consulting firms for our talent,” she said. “That is particularly true in our state-operated health care facilities where we are competing for nurses, health care technicians, doctors – you name it.”
The private sector can often offer higher salaries, even signing bonuses, and have a quicker hiring process than the state.
“We do find that when we are competing with the private sector, we do oftentimes miss out on that talent, unfortunately,” Olson said.
The unspent money from open positions is used to help cover agency operating expenses that were not included in the regular budget appropriated by the Legislature, Olson said.
“Oftentimes, we need to bring in temporary or contracted staff to fill critical roles,” she saId. “We also have overtime expenses that occur because there are staff that are filling in for those critical positions.”
Staff training and travel, equipment such as laptops, monitors and phones, are also covered with lapsed hiring funds, she said.
