By DOUGLAS GRAVES

Special to The Press

The labor shortages created by the pandemic hit especially hard the Lehigh County Jail and the two Cedarbrook Senior Care and Rehabilitation facilities.

Both were losing employees and new hires are hard to get.

While Lehigh County government has struggled with this labor shortage, one solution was to increase the pay of workers in these departments which includes the 911 Communication Center.

Commissioners on May 11 approved a first reading of the bill that would amend the county’s Personnel Policies and Procedures Manual to provide for compensation incentives in “essential 24-hour departments” in response to issues in the labor market.

If approved, the bill would grant the commissioners authority to enact temporary wage increases in response to critical labor shortages that place the department at risk of understaffing.

Employees in essential 24-hour departments, including corrections (Lehigh County Jail), Cedarbrook Senior Care and Rehabilitation, and the 911 Communication Center, are the departments that are deemed critical and thus the need to respond to critical labor issues.

Requests by department heads of these “24-hour departments” must be sent through Lehigh County Executive Phillips Armstrong for approval by commissioners.

The bill cites the Home Rule Charter as the ruling document on this procedure.

The new legislation would also allow the county to make increases of pay of people staffing critical jobs such as security guards at Cedarbrook.

The contractor providing security services has previously appealed for a change in the contract so it could pay security guards more to keep a full staff.

“Until the [Home Rule] Charter changes, this is the best that we can do,” Commissioner Geoff Brace said.

Commissioner Bob Elbich offered an amendment to the bill which was unanimously adopted by the board.

Commissioner Dan Hartzell brought his newspaper experience to offer editorial changes.

Lehigh County Director of Corrections Janine Donate reminded commissioners that her staffing levels were mandatory.