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Q&A
Council Member Sandy Nurse questions DOC on addiction counselor hiring and programming vacancies
1:15:09
·
112 sec
Council Member Sandy Nurse inquires about the Department of Correction's plans for hiring addiction counselors and filling programming vacancies. Deputy Commissioner Nell McCarty provides updates on the hiring process for addiction counselors and explains the current state of vacancies in the division of programming.
- Five addiction counselor positions have been interviewed for and are in the final vetting stage
- The addiction counselor positions are grant-funded through fiscal year 2027
- The number of vacancies in the division of programming has been reduced from 34 to 20, including new positions
Sandy Nurse
1:15:09
In terms of the opioid opioid stimulant and substance program, We've got money for hiring five addiction counselors to provide persons in custody with individual plans, counseling, connection to community based organizations.
1:15:25
When do you all anticipate filling these positions?
Nell McCarty
1:15:29
Hello.
1:15:30
Are I'm Malma Crissey again.
1:15:31
We have interviewed for the five positions.
1:15:35
We have actually submitted for them as well, so we are considering them in the pipeline.
1:15:38
We're waiting for them to get their final vetting to be able to onboard them.
Sandy Nurse
1:15:43
Okay, great.
Nell McCarty
1:15:44
We are also posting for a supervisor.
1:15:46
So that should be going up shortly.
Sandy Nurse
1:15:48
Okay, and we see that the funding stops after fiscal year twenty seven.
1:15:54
Is there any reason for that that you're aware of?
Nell McCarty
1:15:57
That was the length of the grant.
1:15:59
So this is a grant funded position, and so the length of the grant is is for those few years, and we we hope to be able to bring those folks on full time with our own lines.
Sandy Nurse
1:16:10
Okay.
1:16:11
I wanted to ask a question.
1:16:13
Well, while you're up here, have just one more programming question.
1:16:17
You had 34 vacancies in the division of programming, which you credited for the lack of staff to your inability to meet the mandatory five hours, how many of those positions have been filled and how many are still vacant?
1:16:30
Think you answered this earlier, but just
Nell McCarty
1:16:32
Yeah.
1:16:32
So when we last spoke and we came up with or we spoke about that number, we reduced that number down to 12 vacancies With the addition of a few actually new needs that came in, we currently have 20 vacancies, but those weren't accounted for when we were speaking at the preliminary budget hearing.
1:16:48
So I just want to flag that, and those actually include like the five lines for the substance misuse counselors that we're trying to bring in in the pipeline.
1:16:56
So right now it's 20 that we have as true vacancies.