Memorandum
Date: September 24, 2024
To: The Honorable Lake County Board of Supervisors
From: Anthony Arton, Health Services Director
Craig Wetherbee, Environmental Health Director
Subject: Approve Advanced Salary Step Appointment of Cheryl Bennett to Registered Environmental Health Specialist Senior and Approve Advanced Salary Step Appointment for Environmental Health Specialist Senior for Marc Benchimol
Executive Summary:
The Environmental Health Division is responsible for ensuring the public's safety through inspections, health enforcement, and education in areas such as food safety, hazardous materials, waste management, and more. The role of Registered Environmental Health professionals is critical in protecting the health of Lake County.
Due to the state licensing and education requirements, filling the role of Senior Environmental Health Specialist has been a significant challenge, leading to increased workloads for existing staff. The role of Environmental Health Specialist, Senior, has been vacant for one year, and we have been unable to hire a supervisor for this position since 2018. With the Bureau of Labor Statistics projecting a 12.1 increase in demand for Environmental Scientists and Specialists in California in the coming years, we anticipate increasing difficulty recruiting for this critical role. Rural Northern California counties in particular have had an exceedingly difficult time recruiting for this position.
Given the critical need to fill this vacancy, we seek your Board's approval to hire Cheryl Bennett and Marc Benchimol at Step 5 for the Environmental Health Specialist role.
1. Cheryl Bennett: A former Senior Environmental Health Specialist for Lake County with a Bachelor of Arts and Science, who left in 2021 after 10 years of service. Cheryl was an outstanding team member whose presence was missed by both her colleagues and the regulated community. Chery Bennett was a Senior Environmental Health Specialist from 2015 un...
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