Council updates CASA executive-director job description after hiring; funding reallocated

Council members approved a change to the Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) executive director job description to mirror the version previously approved for a candidate who would have required a law degree, but without that law-degree requirement.

The change follows the recent hire of Nikki Boskin to the CASA director role; Jeff Hanson, chief probation officer, told council that Boskin, a CASA employee since 2017, was selected for the position in the past two weeks. Hanson said Boskin had planned to introduce herself at the meeting but had a conflict.

Matt Kant (job classification and compensation committee) explained that the county had been unable to find an applicant who held a law degree and the committee therefore recommended adjusting the executive director description to remove the law-degree requirement while otherwise matching the previously approved description. Kant moved the revision and the motion passed on roll call.

Jeff Hanson also described a related transfer of funds: money that had been set aside in the CASA director salary line in anticipation of hiring an attorney will be transferred back into CASA contractual services to pay for an attorney as needed; $1,000 of the reallocated funds will be used for an Adobe subscription. Hanson said the director position was filled recently and the transferred funds will be used for program needs.

The council recorded a roll-call vote with the motion passing unanimously. No other changes to CASA program structure were reported at the meeting.