PORT ANGELES — If Clallam County is to avoid the 30 layoffs recommended by its chief administrator to cover a $2.4 million budget shortfall, county officials and the eight unions that represent the employees will have to get back to the bargaining table soon.
“Practically, it’s not too late,” county Administrator Jim Jones said Wednesday.
“The reality is there are a whole lot things we would have to do, and we don’t have a lot of time. It’s completely up to the commissioners at this point.”
Jones was required by county charter to present a balanced budget to the three commissioners and the public Tuesday.
His recommended budget contained $30.4 million in revenue and $30.4 million in expenses in the general fund.
But to get there, Jones had to cut $2.4 million from a preliminary budget. Commissioners Mike Doherty, Mike Chapman and Steve Tharinger will approve a final budget Dec. 6.
Beginning Friday, commissioners will meet with elected officials and department heads to look for new revenue in hopes of averting some layoffs.
In his presentation, Jones said the unions would not give up their cost-of-living pay increase or bargain for 24 unpaid furlough days.
Those measures would have left an $800,000 deficit, which Jones could have made up without resorting to layoffs.
He said the county is facing unprecedented economic challenges, such as a $2 million reduction in interest income, and can’t continue to balance the budget by drawing from a dwindling reserve fund.
In the wake of Tuesday’s news, Jones said he “felt that the unions were getting a blacker eye than they deserved.”
Despite the fact that the unions wouldn’t accept a one-year waiver on a pre-negotiated 3 percent cost-of-living pay raise, Jones said, the unions “agreed to bargaining, and they didn’t have to do that.”
“They weren’t the bad guys,” he said.
Larry Clark, a representative for Local 1619 of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which has six unions in Clallam County government, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
The county commissioner candidates who are running to replace Tharinger — who is simultaneously a member of the state House of Representatives — told a Port Angeles Rotary Club audience Wednesday that they hope the county and unions can reach a better agreement.
“The dollar shortfall is real,” said Jim McEntire, a Sequim Republican and Port of Port Angeles commissioner.
“For the short run, I don’t think that the county is out of time to go back and reopen the discussions with the unions and see if there cannot be some sort of a combination that’s fair to both sides.
“When you get right down to the bottom line, head count matters when you’re running an operation, either a hospital, a sheriff’s department with 24/7 coverage, a jail with 24/7 coverage, so on and so forth.
“You need a certain number of employees to do the proper job that only government can do in those respects.”
McEntire’s opponent, Linda Barnfather, a Democrat from Sequim, said the loss of 30 jobs would have a “domino effect” in the community.
“Actually, I was a little disappointed that the unions did not have some kind of agreement going forward and that they would actually hold onto those contracts and allow 30 employees to have their jobs cut,” said Barnfather, a legislative assistant to state Rep. Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim.
“I think that’s very worrisome. I hope that they’ll come to some kind of agreement on that.”
Thirty layoffs is 7.8 percent of the county’s 385½-member workforce.
One of Jones’ recommendations is to merge the two Clallam County District Courts, which are now based in Port Angeles and Forks.
The move would save the county more than $200,000 per year, Jones said.
The way he envisions it, Jones added, the county would consolidate the recordkeeping and administrative functions to the courthouse in Port Angeles.
The merger would eliminate two administrative positions and a half-time court commissioner and cut rental costs in Forks from $36,000 to $12,000 per year.
Clallam County would still have the equivalent of 1.6 full-time District Court judges — Judge Rick Porter in District 1 and Judge Erik Rohrer in District 2.
“The judges would be each other’s pro tems,” Jones said.
Misdemeanor cases and traffic infractions would still be handled on the West End in District Court 2, which covers the area from the west side of Lake Crescent to the Pacific Ocean.
District Court 1 in Port Angeles would continue to serve the rest of the county.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
