County budget: 160 jobs expected to be cut

Published 10:59 pm Saturday, November 22, 2008

EVERETT — After months of negotiations, debates and bickering, the Snohomish County Council is scheduled Monday to adopt the county government’s 2009 budget.

The news is not good.

“In my 23-plus years at the county, this is the grimmest picture I’ve ever seen with respect to the budget,” County Clerk Sonya Kraski said. “There simply isn’t the money available that we truly need for our full operation.”

None of the county’s 25 departments will be spared job cuts. By Jan. 1, every staff will be smaller, and a host of county services will be gone.

Council chairman Dave Somers, County Executive Aaron Reardon and other officials declined to discuss the budget. They expected to continue negotiating the details through the weekend.

But no amount of tinkering or foraging for pocket change can save county government from what’s to come: a $21 million shortfall and pink slips for at least 160 people. The national economic crisis is expected to reduce county government revenues by 10 percent compared with this year.

That could mean longer lines at the clerk’s office, where county residents must show up for jury duty, file land-use petitions, or submit divorce papers and other legal filings. Eight positions, five of which are vacant, are likely to be eliminated in Kraski’s office.

There may be a lag between when the County Council votes on a key issue and when the results are available to the public. The job of Fred Bird, council spokesman, is on the line.

Six people who work in Reardon’s office, including two analysts, three administrative assistants and one executive office administrator, could lose their jobs.

It’s the same for every department: a severe slashing of staff that could mean headaches for everyone who uses county services, from jail inmates to people who want to file to run for election.

Even so, there are some bright spots.

Councilmen and department heads discovered some creative ways to make and save money. For example, the Corrections Department likely will make $2.4 million by renting out unused beds in the county jail to the state Department of Corrections and other counties or cities. The Auditor’s Office can save $100,000 by getting rid of 15 of the county’s 20 ballot collection centers and closing eight of the county’s 10 voting booths. Most of the county’s voters mail in their ballots.

Most county staff will travel less and eat fewer meals out on the county’s dime.

The general property tax levy isn’t likely to go up.

Reardon released his 2009-10 budget proposal in early September. He suggested cutting Project Self-Sufficiency, a program that helps people with troubled pasts get back on their feet. He also said county leaders should cut the fairgrounds manager position and lay off two animal control officers, among other cutbacks. Since then, the projected budget shortfall has skyrocketed to the worst county leaders say they’ve seen in decades. The council opted to tackle just the 2009 budget, instead of a two-year spending plan as they’d earlier hoped. They also asked department heads to propose 9 percent cuts to their budgets. County leaders, including Superior Court judges, said then that such drastic cuts would obliterate important programs including Drug Court, which offers a second chance for people convicted of buying and selling controlled substances and helps turn addicts away from crime.

The council’s proposed budget includes money for one Drug Court coordinator and 1.5 juvenile probation counselors. That’s just enough to keep the program running, according to budget documents.

The council’s proposed budget also would keep Project Self-Sufficiency, both animal control positions and the fairgrounds manager position.

Final details, including the exact amount of the 2009 budget and the exact number of jobs that will be lost, are expected to be made public at Monday’s hearing.

Reporter Krista J. Kapralos: 425-339-3422 or kkapralos@heraldnet.com.

Public hearing

The Snohomish County Council plans a public hearing to adopt the 2009 budget at 10:30 a.m. Monday in the Henry M. Jackson Board Room on the eighth floor of the Robert J. Drewel Building, 3000 Rockefeller Ave., Everett. The meeting will be shown live online at www1.co.snohomish.wa.us/Departments/Council.

For more information, call 425-388-3494.