PORT ANGELES — Clallam County commissioners Tuesday evening unanimously passed a $31.2 million budget for 2012 with no changes.
EARLIER REPORT:
PORT ANGELES — After months of painful budget cuts, tense union negotiations and 15 layoffs, Clallam County has arrived at a final budget for 2012.
County Administrator Jim Jones said Tuesday that the $38,326 shortfall in the general fund is “considerably better” than the $2.7 million gap that appeared in September’s preliminary roll-up budget.
To get there, the county had to lay off 15 workers, reduce four other positions and implement 16 unpaid furlough days for all county employees except for those who provide 24-hour law and justice coverage.
Annual cost-of-living pay raises were exchanged for added health care costs in the same amount.
The county was on the precipice of laying off an additional 16 workers last week until the Teamsters Local Union No. 589 agreed to the same wage concessions that were offered by the six AFSCME 1619 — American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees — unions at the county.
The budget is contingent on the seven employees in the Prosecuting Attorney’s Association agreeing to the concessions.
Furlough days
The chief concession was the 16 furlough days that will be taken as unpaid vacation days next year.
After voting against the concessions Nov. 17, Teamsters members approved them after union members expressed dissatisfaction over the original vote at the Nov. 22 commissioners meeting.
The county will cover the remaining shortfall in the general fund with its $9.4 million reserve fund.
County officials said the reserve, which is used for future financial emergencies and to make payroll without borrowing money, can no longer be used as a life preserver to cover significant budget shortfalls.
The county’s general fund is $31.1 million.
Sixteen unpaid furlough days amounts to a 6.13 percent pay cut. Managers and other salaried workers will take a corresponding pay cut.
Jones and the commissioners offered to take a 10 percent pay cut.
Commissioners were finalizing the budget Tuesday.
Budget hearing
In a morning budget hearing, Clallam County Superior Court Judge Ken Williams presented a letter signed by himself and fellow Superior Court Judges George L. Wood and S. Brooke Taylor that requested that the county amend its budget to preserve the existing salaries of the salaried employees of Superior Court.
“These are the family court commissioner, a judicial officer and the Superior Court administrator,” Williams said.
“They are unlike other employees and are unlike other department heads,” Williams said.
“And because of our constitutional mandate to remain open, we simply are not going to be able to take furlough days in exchange for a reduction in pay.”
Williams described a “relationship of mutual trust and respect” between the county and its law and justice components.
He said judicial days are established by the state Legislature, not counties.
Salaries for elected superior court judges and the elected prosecutor are set by the state.
“We’re in charge of the rest of the salaries,” Commissioner Mike Chapman said.
“I’m not going to just carve out a special deal for one employee. Everybody across the spectrum is taking a pay cut except for those four individuals.”
Budget Director Kay Stevens and Jones drafted 13 versions of the budget this year compared with two draft budgets in a typical year.
Jobs, services
County officials said saving jobs and core services were the top priorities.
They also grappled with balancing mandated functions in county government, such as law enforcement, against staff support for such popular volunteer programs as Streamkeepers and Master Gardeners.
The county managed to save both Master Gardeners, which teaches county residents how to grow their own food and feed the needy, and Streamkeepers, a robust volunteer water-quality monitoring program, by shuffling support staff.
The Clallam County government is “one of the largest economic engines available anywhere on the Olympic Peninsula,” Jones said.
The county projects to take $28.1 million out of the local economy through taxes, licences and fees in 2012 while injecting the economy with $61.8 million in salaries, benefits, contracted services and capital projects.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
