Which personnel policies apply to a CHSA?

Employees of a CHSA are subject to county personnel policies by default, unless the board of county commissioners elects to subject the employees to the State Human Resources Act (SHRA).  See G.S. 153A-77(d). If the BOCC wants to keep its social services and public health employees subject to the SHRA when creating a CHSA, it must explicitly elect to do so in the form of a resolution. Typically, counties that elect to keep employees covered under the SHRA do so as part of the same resolution that creates the CHSA, though this could be achieved through a separate (or later) resolution if desired. If the resolution creating a CHSA stays silent on the issue of personnel, the CHSA’s employees will automatically be covered under county personnel policies instead of the SHRA.

Additionally, G.S. 153A-77(d) mandates that all CHSAs comply with the federal requirements for merit personnel systems, which are found in Title 5, Section 900.603 of the Code of Federal Regulations. For counties that elect to keep their CHSA employees subject to the SHRA, the CHSA will generally be compliant with the federal merit personnel standards simply through abiding by the SHRA’s procedures. However, when a county wants to remove its CHSA employees from the SHRA, it should first instruct the county attorney (or outside counsel) to conduct a careful review of county personnel policies, procedures, and ordinances to ensure that they meet each of the federal standards. To the extent that they do not reflect the federal merit personnel system standards, these documents and practices will need to be modified specifically for CHSA employees. The county is not required to adhere to the federal merit personnel system standards for all county employees, though it may choose to do so.

More information regarding CHSA personnel policies and decisions for counties related to CHSA personnel is available here.