PORT ANGELES — Clallam County employees will have a 37.5-hour work week next year.
Commissioners reached that consensus at the end of an eight-hour budget meeting with individual departments Thursday.
Meanwhile, elected law and justice officials pitched a one-tenth of 1 percent juvenile justice sales tax to maintain mandated public safety services.
They said the tax would generate about $1 million per year for critical services.
The cut in hours will affect the 164 county employees who haven’t already had their hours cut. It will not affect sheriff’s deputies and sergeants, Corrections staff and judges.
The move will save $460,000 in the general fund, county Administrator Jim Jones said.
Commissioners plan to declare a financial emergency and approve the shortened work week in a resolution before they pass a 2012 budget in early December.
$2.4 million shortfall
County officials are struggling to make up a $2.4 million shortfall in the $30.4 million general fund.
Jones recommended 30 layoffs when he presented his latest budget Oct. 4. He was required by law to produce a balanced recommended budget.
But commissioners decided last week that they cannot operate county government with an 8 percent reduction in a 385-member workforce.
In the marathon meetings held Oct. 7 and Thursday, each department presented ideas for new revenue or cuts in an attempt to save jobs.
After those meetings, Clallam County is still $800,000 short of a balanced budget.
The 37.5-hour work week helps but still leaves the county $340,000 in the red.
About half of the county’s workforce went to a 37.5-hour work week in 2002.
The 6.25 percent cut could mean shorter hours or unpaid furlough days for the 164 employees affected in 2012.
“We cannot put a budget together right now, absent passing a tax that our experts told us is the minimum they need to run the county,” said Jones, who is taking a 10 percent pay cut next year along with the three elected commissioners.
Since the earliest such a tax could be placed on the ballot is February, the law and justice departments proposed to use a portion of the county’s reserve fund to balance the budget.
Jones has said the reserve fund is off limits this year.
He said the county must maintain a minimum of $6.5 million to pay for emergencies, like a crash of its 12-year-old computer system.
The law and justice proposal — including the sales tax — was signed by Sheriff Bill Benedict, Prosecuting Attorney Deb Kelly, District Court Judge Rick Porter and Superior Court Judges George L. Wood, Ken Williams and S. Brooke Taylor.
Recommended cuts
Two weeks ago, Jones recommended $674,850 in cuts to the Sheriff’s Office, which is the largest department in the county.
Benedict identified $400,000 in a combination of cuts and new revenue but is still $274,850 short of the recommendation.
Superior Court is $74,321 short of its $195,425 in recommended cuts.
The Prosecutor’s Office is $136,782 short of the $196,932 it needs to cut. In the proposal, Kelly said present staffing shortages are already affecting public safety, with fewer cases filed and prosecuted.
Juvenile Services is $76,564 short of its $143,564 in recommended cuts.
District Court can save most of the $208,293 it needs to cut by folding its West End court into Clallam County District Court 1.
There would still be a judge in Forks, but the administrative work would be handled in Port Angeles.
If the proposed law and justice tax is placed on the ballot and approved by voters, Jones said, an 8.5 percent sales tax would still be lower than most jurisdictions in the area.
“We’re not going to lay off 30 people,” Jones said.
“We just can’t run government with that many people gone. But we’re still about $400,000 short.
“It’s a real problem.”
Emails in protest
Jones said the county has received many emails protesting recommended cuts to such programs as Streamkeepers, juvenile probation officers and Master Gardeners.
“We’re getting emails from people about everything on that list. . . . lots of emails,” Jones said.
The Washington State University Master Gardeners program would lose some county support under the proposal, with the county cutting money for a full-time administrative assistant position and a part-time position that now oversees the Master Gardener program, Jones said.
The county would continue paying its contracted one-third of the coordinator’s salary, he said, and would continue providing an office and utilities.
All of the recommendations are only proposals, Jones emphasized.
“No decision will be made until it is finalized Dec. 6,” he said.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
