Goal of hiring more minorities established

BY STAN MADDUX

Agoal has been set for the workforce in La Porte County government to equally reflect the racial make-up of its population.

The La Porte County Council Monday, Feb. 27, unanimously adopted a resolution asking minority job applicants be actively pursued so the racial make-up of county government employees at least equals the racial demographic of the county.

Specifically, the request is for the county commissioners, department heads and human resources personnel who play roles in filling job openings.

According to the resolution, 11.4% of La Porte County residents are African Americans, who represent 8.5 percent of the county government workforce.

Hispanics make-up 7.4% of the population and 1.9 percent of county government workers, according to the resolution.

About 750 people are employed by La Porte County government in a county with just over 112,000 residents.

La Porte County government has worked harder in recent years to hire additional minorities in response to pressure mostly from the black community in Michigan City.

The resolution was presented by councilman Randy Novak, who said the measure is not a mandate but something in writing to work toward.

“Hopefully, it starts the dialogue and we get things moving forward and put this item behind us, In 2023, we shouldn’t be having this conversation,” said he said.

Councilman Mark Yagelski said the minority hiring numbers have gone up some but there’s still work to do.

To get there, he said what’s needed most is no longer requiring a high school diploma for certain positions in areas like maintenance or turning away job applicants deemed now as “over qualified.”

Yagelski said he’s referred people simply wanting to switch from a high demand to less stressful job for a few years before retiring, but they were rejected.

“How in the world can somebody be over qualified for a job. It just irritates me,” he said.

Councilman Earl Cunningham also expressed a need for minorities in more positions with duties out in the public to show the hiring practices are not so negative.

Cunningham said most of the minority workers here are behind the scenes in places like the county jail, community corrections and juvenile services center.

“Most people would be shocked to realize that we’re as close as we are. They’re just not in places that are highly visible and we need to improve that considerably,” he said.

Novak said the council doesn’t perform the hiring but adopted the resolution to have some influence in closing the racial make-up gap.

“It’s a way of opening a better dialogue with other elected officials in the county and trying to just better represent all of the residents of La Porte County,” he said.