Let’s back up a bit. What is JESAP? It is the Jobs Evaluation Salary Administration Program. Any county job that is created has to be approved by JESAP. They also decide the “grade” of each position which is a direct result of the compensation and benefits. So needless to say, this is an important committee. And no surprise to me, the chair of this committee, wielding all the power is … wait for it… Judge Patrick Deakins. Here’s a quick video of Mac Mayfield speaking to the committee pleading to rehire the CJC after Deakins fired the previous Coordinator with NO PLANS to backfill the position.
Why is backfilling CJC so important? The Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee (CJCC) is floundering. As of this writing, there are no CJCC subcommittee meetings for this month. That means no Pretrial Committee; no Courts Committee; and no Programs Committee meetings. We can’t get anything done without proper communication and meeting frequency.
We will continue to push for this position to be filled, but we need to fight for the person to have a background in criminal justice and they must be a well-qualified and properly trained individual.
There are a few other needs to help round out the CJCC. They need a data analyst. Someone who can collect data, analyze it, and distribute it where the committee members and public can study the data points and make informed decisions. Judge Deakins speaks at almost every CJCC meeting about the need for “metrics” and “data,” but we don’t have anyone trained to gather the data, analyze the data, and make informed decisions on how to proceed. AND all of the folks sitting on the CJCC don’t have the bandwidth to dig into the data. So, yes Judge, I agree, let's provide the CJCC with the tools they need to fix this problem.
I wrote Judge Deakins and HR Director Patty Burchett and asked them to help me create a position for a data analyst to be presented at next month’s JESAP meeting.
This was Judge Deakins’ response to my request:
“We are not interested in pursuing this. Thanks.”
No explanation given.
Click this link if you want to look into the salary regrades that were approved at this meeting as well.
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