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After learning that Del Norte County’s financial situation isn’t as dire as it was in June, county supervisors found out that its vacancy rate had also improved.

The county’s overall vacancy rate dropped from 25% last year to 20.5% in 2026, Human Resources Director Kerri Vue told supervisors on Sept. 8. Out of 483 authorized full-time positions, 99 are currently vacant, she said.

“This reflects an official drop from triple digit vacancies for the first time in many years,” Vue said.

Vue presented these statistics to county supervisors after they opened the public hearing process ahead of final adoption of Del Norte’s 2026-27 budget. County supervisors learned that despite reporting a $9.6 million deficit in June, last-minute revenue and efforts from departments to reduce expenditures led to more resources than anticipation.

Despite the positive news — among which was a drop in vacancies within the Del Norte County Employees Association SEIU 1021 from 33.9% last year to 24% this year — DNCEA President Amy LaFreniere said staff still face challenges that hinder recruitment.

Compensation continues to be a concern despite raises that were negotiated into the latest agreement between DNCEA and the county, LaFreniere said. Medical benefits are another — employees pay 5% out of their paycheck for their insurance plus co-pays and deductibles, she said. 

Workload is a third concern. LaFreniere used the Del Norte County Animal Control Division as an example. According to her, administrative secretaries and animal control officers are performing kennel attendant duties.

LaFreniere also raised concerns that the Merit-CalHR job openings system has presented challenges for recruitment and employment. Employees and potential applicants describe being rejected for employment because they don’t meet the requirements for positions they are eligible for, she said. 

“Leave the Merit-CalHR system,” LaFreniere said, stating that a county employee who was applying for a new position no longer qualified because Merit changed the job description. “Had Del Norte County changed the duties for that position? No, but other counties had so the global job description and minimum requirements had changed. Merit uses a computer program to screen applications, which looks at job titles and matches for key phrases. How many potential employees are we missing out on?”

According to Del Norte County’s website, Merit System Services administers “specific county jobs” within the county’s Social Services Branch and Child Support Services Department.

Vue said Merit System Services was responsible for 43% of the vacancies within SEIU 1021 and 38% of the vacancies in the county’s mid-management group.

In response to District 1 Supervisor Darrin Short, who quoted colleagues at a Rural Counties of California meeting as stating that the Merit system is a “pain in the neck,” Vue said the county may be able to opt out of the program and develop an internal system.

“That opt-out program does have to be approved by Merit before we can take that in-house,” she said. “That is something we are exploring — what that may look like and the opportunities for the county to improve our procedures.”

Vue’s Workforce Vacancies, Recruitment and Retention report, and the public hearing supervisors held last week, are part of an amendment to the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act, which took effect on Jan. 1, 2025. This amendment requires public agencies to present their vacancy rate as well as their recruitment and retention efforts at a public hearing at least once per fiscal year.

The agency’s employee associations are also given an opportunity to respond.

According to Vue’s presentation, the statistics she reported on are from September 2025 through August 2026. In her report, she highlighted her department’s work with UKG, a new-to-the-county system for tracking applicants as well as promoting internal growth and professional development. That system is expected to go live next month, Vue said.

Vue’s report also reflects the implementation of Del Norte County’s Compensation Organization and Structural Analysis study. The results of that study are being reflected in the county’s starting wages, she told supervisors.

In addition to providing the overall vacancy rate for Del Norte, Vue informed supervisors that the county received 1,571 applications over the past 12 months and hired 111 new employees.

“Employee separation has dropped to 71 departures as a 17% reduction compared to last year’s 86 and from 108 in 2023-24,” she said. “That shows retention trends are moving in the right direction.”

There were also more than 600 candidate interviews conducted over the past 12 months with a 96.15% acceptance rate, the HR director said. However Vue also described bottlenecks in the hiring process. According to her, 708 applicants failed the initial screening for qualifications and 183 candidates are currently going through the hiring process.

“Of those, 97 were duplicative,” she said, referring to duplicate job applications requiring processing. “There were 144 no shows or unavailable for scheduling and 162 withdrawals during the recruitment process.”

Of the county’s main bargaining groups, SEIU’s vacancy rate is still the highest at 24% even with the improvement. According to Vue, the Human Resources department processed 486 applicants for positions within SEIU 1021. The hiring process currently averages 95 days from when the job is posted to when a candidate receives an offer, she said.

Within the Mid-Management Group, out of 72 total positions, there were 13 vacancies making for a vacancy rate of 18%, according to Vue’s presentation. She noted that the Mid-Management Group’s vacancy rate increased from 7.58% in 2025.

One-hundred and fifteen applicants sought jobs within the Mid-Management Group, which has an average 61-day processing time.

Finally, the Sheriffs Employees Association has a 14% vacancy rate with 10 open positions out of 62, Vue said. The county has received 104 applicants for positions within the SEA. The average hiring timeline is 93 days, she said.

When asked to account for the long processing time from when a job is posted to when an applicant is hired, Vue said it’s important to consider the department. Some require extensive background checks, sometimes positions are on hold before they’re posted, she said. 

There’s also some time involved between when the department is able to get the job listing approved for posting, Vue said.  

“There are going to be many folks that are going to give a resignation notice so it extends the total time from when a vacancy becomes available and when somebody’s in the seat that is longer than that period,” she said. 

Vue said there has been an improvement, though she didn’t include the numbers in her report, but those metrics aren’t a good indication for the county’s progress due to the better tracking system being constructed over the last year. The current system was “just getting us by” until the new system is implemented next month, Vue said.

“What we’re doing with that is we’re breaking down that pipeline from the very beginning when a position becomes vacant to when a department has to post it, when it’s approved, when it goes to the job posting so we can see each section and identify those areas that might have the most need,” she said.

The new system will reflect more information than how long the actual recruitment process took, Vue told supervisors.

“Now we’re going to be able to develop that pipeline again and say OK, each section takes ex amount of time,” she said. “Once we build that up over the next couple of years, we’ll have much better metrics to rely on.”