Commission Briefs

Nurse rate increased

Mason County commissioners amended the contract with Healthcare Delivery Services for Jail Registered Nursing to $85 an hour from $60.

According to the information packet, the vendor requested to modify the contract prior to the expiration of the contract at the end of the year due to nursing market competition and being unable to recruit qualified applicants. The commissioner’s briefing July 18, 2022, asked for a wholesale increase of $472,000, and the commissioners were not in favor of the contract adjustment.

The county conducted a poll for other local jail health care expenses, and Healthcare Delivery Services requested an adjustment to at least the registered nurse wages, which Commissioner Kevin Shutty mentioned previously as an alternative to a wholesale raise.

The market adjustment for RN

wages would result in a $146,000 annual contract increase. HDS is struggling to compete with hospitals and other RN employers at the existing rate of $60 an hour. If the rate was not increased, HDS may have had to withdraw from the contract.

Commissioner Randy Neatherlin commented on the action item before passage, stating he has emails and texts from people who are upset.

“Looking at the surface, I can understand why but what they don’t understand, this is actually a great move that occurred,” Neatherlin said during the meeting. “I’ve got to give credit to commissioner Shutty on this because he asked a question. We were sitting in a situation where they asked for a huge increase in order to make all of these things happen that would have covered a whole broad range of area that they were asking to get paid for. We have the ability to say no, of course, but then that means we also could end up with no services during that time and we did. There were a lot of hours that were not filled by RN staff that we were left without them because they couldn’t fill it. So with that, during that discussion of the huge large increase, commissioner Shutty asked them, is it possible to look at just bisecting that one issue out and see if they would consider something like that and that’s what occurred. With that, that’s where the $25 increase comes in, this big compared to the big picture what they were trying and asking for, it takes care of that one specific issue to have people on the ground. I want to make it clear we had many hours that we had nobody there to do what needed to be done. Although this looks really bad, an increase, I usually would balk at such a big increase, if you look at the whole picture and our responsibility as a commission, I think we did exceptionally well to change it from (big) to (small) and still hopefully get us the nursing staff we need.”

Neatherlin said they will open the contract up at the end of the year to see what options are available.

Commissioner Shutty said the county is not immune to recruiting and retaining workforce in the health care industry.

“When you factor in that it’s jail medical, it’s a tough environment to work in and the challenges there are many,” Shutty said. “If folks read the briefing document attached to this, you’ll see that even with this increase that I think is a reasonable compromise on both the health care providers side and the county’s, for the rest of this year, we’ll still be in a pretty good position relative to our neighboring counties. Throughout the life of this contract, we’ve seen costs skyrocket like everything else and commissioner Neatherlin was talking about fiduciary responbility to the Department of Natural Resources, we have a statutory responsibility to provide health care services for our inmates when they’re in our care and custody. I just appreciate Chief Hanson and the administration over there at the Sheriff’s Office going back to our health care provider and having these conversations and they’re well aware recruiting and retention issues on their side. There’s a ton of sympathy to go around when these conversations are happening. We don’t want to pay people an unfair wage for their labor and so this is a really good compromise and we’ll see what the future holds to provide these services in the jail but I can tell you that they’re not going to get cheaper.”

Crossroads Housing leases office space

County commissioners granted approval for County Administrator Mark Neary to sign a lease agreement with Crossroads Housing to provide office space to veteran service officers for 2023 at $550 per month.

According to the information packet, the Revised Code of Washington authorizes counties to establish a veterans assistance program to address the needs of local indigent veterans and their families. The program is funded by the Veterans Assistance Fund created under RCW. The Veterans Advisory Board was established and it administers Mason County’s Veterans Assistance Program.

The office space is at 140 NE state Route 300 and the lease is through the end of the year. The lease will be available to renew upon agreement by both entities. The office will be paid for through the Veterans’ Assistance Fund 190.

Procurement from federal government

County commissioners approved a resolution authorizing procurement from the United States government’s purchasing agent, the U.S. General Services Administration at the Jan. 31 meeting.

According to the information packet, the Revised Code of Washington authorizes local governments to purchase supplies, materials and equipment from federal contracts. This is not considered “piggybacking” as purchases are exempt from bidding by local governments and are not subject to RCW. The U.S. General Services Administration schedule contract allows direct access to the largest buyer of goods and services in the world.

The GSA program simplifies procurement for the government buyer and the contractor. The GSA schedule contract is a pre-competed governmentside acquisition contract with “fair and reasonable pricing” as GSA’s contracts go through a bidding process. An order placed against a GSA schedule contract represents the best value and lowest overall cost. Before purchasing from the federal contract, the local legislative authority must adopt a one-time resolution authorizing the procurement.

County renews hearings contract

Mason County commissioners approved renewing the contract for hearing examiner services with Olbrechts and Associates at the Jan. 31 meeting.

According to the information packet, Mason County community development needed approval from the commissioners to renew the contract. The hourly rate is increasing to remain competitive. The hearing examiner conducts public meetings for all Type III reviews and appeals of administrative decisions according to Mason County Code.