LM, they did both add overtime to get things caught up and hired Temps to assist with the processing as directed by the Governor. It took a little longer than was expected to get the Temps hired but once they got them they got caught up and back on schedule quickly.
A couple of comments on what has happened, and what we can do to effect this from not happening again.
The NSP got caught with their proverbial pants down here, there are 2 people to process these and a supervisor that can also assist. While the supervisor was out on medical leave both of the people who work this area quit. They were slow to react do to the supervisor also being out. This is a staffing issue, the NSP needs to have more personnel involved in this processing, it may not be someones primary job to do this but they need to be cross trained to cover these shortages. This means they need a couple more people involved in multiple area's, I'm certain that processing CCW permits is not the only area they have a small staff, that can fill in when and where needed. Unfortunately with budget constraints that is a luxury the NSP does not have at this time. If we would like to help the NSP avoid this issue in the future, as one of the Senators that I spoke with about this issue said, we need to support the NSP when their budget is being looked at and when their staffing is being discussed in the Legislature.
We also need to realize that things like this can and will happen, and corrective measures can take a little time (.gov hiring is a slow process). That does not mean we should not communicate with those that can effect the situation in a positive manner (contacts to the Governor and the Ombudsman's office, as well as the NSP helped to move things forward. The NSP new they had a problem but was limited in what they could do about it, once the Governors office and Ombudsman's office got involved money and resources that otherwise would not have been available to the NSP were made available.
Overall the NSP is our friend and we need to support them so they can support us, they admit their failure and we need to be willing to help them fix the problem.