Nguyen Executive VP Letter

VOTE NGUYEN FOR EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT

The best short term fix to reducing the counties dependence on MOT is through incentivized overtime pay. In 2022, I was the FIRST to inform the MCCDA President that King County had just received 2.5x OT pay to address their staffing issues related to Covid and shortly after Clark County was able to get 2.25x OT pay as well. MCCDA members were able to find a short reprieve with regards to MOTs through our own 2x OT pay that we were able to get two short stints. Last year, by their own words, Mult Co’s budget was described as historic, and this year their budget has increased by 17%, yet there has been nothing done in the short term to reduce the workload and stress placed on staff due to their negligence in addressing staffing years ago.

The Executive Vice President has a lot of responsibilities and duties, but I believe the most important one is leading the Contract Team. In less than a year, the next Contract Team will need to be selected and begin to prepare if they want to get a contract ratified before the current one expires. Long term, I think the best fix to our staffing crisis and our MOT situation is to ensure we not only have the best contract in the state, but that we work toward getting back to our position 10+ years ago in terms of base pay for topped out staff. It was for this reason that I was the most vocal member of the Contract Team in favor of prioritizing our base pay at the expense of some of the incentives. Our staffing levels were great back 10+ years ago because our base pay was higher than command staff in other agencies and we were getting a ton of applicants without having to market and recruit because our wage did the talking, and right now many of us are getting targeted ads from Washington County Sheriff’s Office telling us to come work for the highest paid Jail Deputies in the Oregon. How much easier would it be to recruit if you could have that fact in your recruiting material?

Looking at the position summary there are roughly 3 OPSRP members for each Tier 1 or 2 members in the association, but throughout my entire 15 year career, both OPSRP or Deputies have never held the majority of the E Board positions, and there have been times when members of the E Board have acted in their own best interest at the expense of the majority. All 3 other candidates running against me will likely be retirement eligible before the next contract is ratified, and each of them could be just 1 bad day away from deciding to retire in the middle of contract negotiations or in the middle of their term like our two previous presidents which resulted in special elections. If I’m elected, I won’t have that luxury…if the next contract isn’t any good, I will have to lay in the bed that I made because I can’t just decide to leave when things get too bleak. I can’t step away in the middle of my term if our finances are in disarray because I have at least another 14 years to go before I can entertain that option. I will be here wishing I wasn’t getting MOTed just like the majority of you.