PORT ANGELES — The Clallam County assessor’s office is seeking to extend its reduced public service hours through August 1 due to ongoing staffing shortages and a growing workload.
Assessor Pam Rushton told county commissioners in a work session yesterday, says they’ve made a dent, but there’s too much to do still.
“We’re still really backed up. We really needed to start another audit, it should’ve begun back in April. We’re still trying to finish the last one. On top of that, I just got a notice from the Department of Revenue — they’ve changed the law on auxiliary dwellings for senior exemptions, so we’re likely to see an impact from that too,” said Rushton
Reduced hours began in January after a 7 percent budget cut lowered staffing from an average of 18.5 full-time employees to 17.25. The office is struggling with backlogs, especially in processing senior and disabled tax exemptions, which has delayed some property tax adjustments.
County Administrator Todd Mielke almost all departments are having workload processing issues. He told commissioners there’s discussion about ways the county might reduce public hours to help all departments catch up. But those adjustments are tricky.
“If we want to be consistent across the board, we wouldn’t open first thing in the morning. That way, staff would have time to process work and get tasks done before opening to the public. For example, we could open at 9:30 and stay open through the end of the day, keeping in mind that working folks often try to come in during their lunch break or after work. It’s a balance—we need to manage staff workload while also recognizing that we’re a customer service organization. We don’t function without our customers,” said Mielke.
Commissioners will vote on the assessor’s request next week and are expected to approve it.