PORT ANGELES — Clallam County Administrator Jim Jones told county commissioners Monday his recommended budget will leave the county with a “robust” reserve at the end of 2019, but that increasing personnel costs make the budget unsustainable into the future.
The $49 million budget is the last budget Jones will recommend to the board of commissioners. Monday was his last day before he retired.
The recommended budget projects the beginning general fund balance next year to be $12 million with $47 million in revenues and expenditures of $49.2 million, using about $2.2 million in reserves, leaving about $9.7 million in reserves at the end of 2019.
Jones said about $1 million of the $2.2 million deficit is because of one-time costs, but that about $1.2 million is made up of ongoing costs.
“Overall I think our budget is solid,” Jones said.
“The ongoing issue for sustainability is about $1.2 million and most of that is people and that is above what I expect revenue to be,” he said.
He said personnel salaries and benefits are projected to increase by $1.7 million — up 6 percent from the 2018 budget — to $29.6 million.
That includes adding 6.33 full time equivalent staff and approved salary increases to most elected officials, including a 12.47 percent increase to the prosecuting attorney.
That 12.47 percent raise triggered automatic adjustments to deputy prosecuting attorneys and public defenders by the same amount.
Jones told commissioners that the county typically under spends what is budgeted for personnel costs because of the county’s turnover.
Each year employees leave unexpectedly for other opportunities. Often they provide two weeks notice, meaning there is often a few weeks before someone new is hired.
“We end up with two, three, four weeks of pay that is in the budget … that doesn’t occur,” Jones said. That has translated to a savings of about $400,000 to $800,000 each year, he said.
“The caution is, one of the things I heard from nearly every single department … is that department heads are tired of being short, they are tired of not having someone coming in for three or four weeks,” Jones said. “They are all pretty much asking for additional revenue to pay for crossover time.”
Jones said commissioners will likely be asked to consider including funds in the budget to pay for transition periods, allowing newly hired people to work with the people they are replacing.
“If it happens, that cushion goes away,” Jones said. “We won’t be able to rely on that any more.”
Commissioner Randy Johnson questioned what the cost of loss in efficiency is when having a new hire start their job without having the opportunity to work with the person they are replacing.
“There’s a cost,” Johnson said. “That needs to be something we all of us talk about because I don’t particularly enjoy that fact when you go to every department and look at that and oh, here’s someone new who doesn’t have any training and any backup.”
Jones said he does not expect the $400,000 to $800,000 cushion to remain as the county recognizes how important transition time has become.
Jones said the county can handle the increased personnel costs in 2019 without any problems, but he’s worried for the future.
“It has become more and more of a burden to the department heads and I agree,” he said. “What I’m telling you is, moving forward, I genuinely think you are about $1 million more than you can sustain in numbers of people.”
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Reporter Jesse Major can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56250, or at jmajor@peninsuladailynews.com.
