Saying a “growth spurt” has stretched her office staff thin, Clallam County Assessor Linda Owings-Rosenburgh on Monday asked county commissioners to declare a budget emergency and release funding to pay for two temporary employees.
The commissioners gave county Administrator Dan Engelbertson the go-head today to allow Owings-Rosenburgh to recruit and hire up to two employees.
They would be paid between $15 and $18 an hour without benefits and work four to five months after June, Owings-Rosenburgh said.
The temporary employees would help the assessor’s office deal with the rise in appraisals, a result of rapid growth, particularly in the Dungeness Valley.
“I don’t want to expand the staff on a permanent basis,” Owings-Rosenburgh said.
“It’s just to get the job done.”
Including the assessor, the office has a staff of 15.5 employees.
2,600 new constructions
“We now have at least 2,600 new construction properties to inspect so far this year, with as many as 80 new building permits coming in per week,” Owings-Rosenburgh said in a memo to the commissioners, adding that it is twice the workload over last year.
“With only one full-time person and two half-time assistants to work these properties — and the other appraisers still working physical revaluation — we will be unable to appraise all these new construction properties until much later in the year than usual.”
Engelbertson said Owings-Rosenburgh “makes a good point, that permits are way up and so to keep up with it she’s asked for temporary help.”
The commissioners are expected to take formal action on Owings-Rosenburgh’s request in June during a mid-year budget emergency session, Engelbertson said.
