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DISTRICT ATTORNEY / PERSONNEL - District Attorney Matt Rogers
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Requested Action(s)
recommendation
a) Request approval of the revised classification specification of District Attorney Investigator I/II - Extra Help, effective 4/8/25
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Financial Impact:
There are no costs associated with the revisions of the classification specification. Costs could be incurred if the Department hires a candidate who needs to attend the recertification course. The Department has sufficient funds to cover the associated recertification course. Any costs associated with the lodging will be paid by the Department and partner agencies.
Background Information:
The District Attorney requests to revise the classification specification for District Attorney Investigator I/II - Extra Help. The Department utilizes this classification for many assignments, such as Department of Social Services Security, Tobacco Education and Enforcement in partnership with Tehama County Department of Education, and General criminal investigations as needed.
The Department has found that hiring and retaining qualified peace officers in an extra help capacity is extremely challenging. Many candidates are retired peace officers who are looking for part-time work that have been retired for more than a year or two. The challenge with this is that their Peace Officer Standards of Training (POST) qualifications have lapsed, and they are therefore unable to perform the duties of a peace officer. In some instances, the Department has been able to recruit peace officers who have transitioned from full-time to part-time and are content with part-time work, but those candidates are extremely rare.
POST offers a recertification course which is two to three weeks long, however, the course comes with a cost, along with the cost of housing, meals and fuel. The Department cannot reasonably expect a qualified candidate to bear the cost of the recertification course but cannot pay for the course without the candidate first being an employee of the County.
With this in mind, the Department is requesting to revise the qualifications for the District Attorney Investigator I level. The qualifications currently require the candidate to possess a current POST Basic Certificate at time of hire. The revisions will allow a candidate who has an expired POST Basic Certificate to recertify within six (6) months of hire date. If approved, this would allow the Department to conditionally hire an otherwise qualified candidate as District Attorney Investigator I Extra Help, and after hire, the candidate may attend the POST recertification course, paid for by the District Attorney’s Office and partner agencies.
The Department is not proposing to increase their training budget in conjunction with the update to the classification specification. It is anticipated that the Department will be able to bear the cost of POST recertification and that partner agencies will help cover that cost as needed.
Without these proposed revisions, the candidate pool will continue to be very small and the Department will continue to struggle to attract and retain qualified extra help candidates. Without expanding the candidate pool, the Department will likely will unable to continue with some programs that use extra help candidates.