A scramble to shave $1.8 million from county budget

EVERETT — The Sno­homish County Council approved a 2009 budget on Monday, but county leaders must still figure out how to save $1.8 million to balance the $815 million plan.

About 160 positions have been cut. That means about 80 people will lose their jobs. The rest of the positions already are vacant.

More jobs could be on the line if County Executive Aaron Reardon can’t negotiate a plan with local union leaders for county workers to take unpaid time off next year.

“This action as it stands right now will result in layoffs in January,” Reardon said Monday after the council approved its 2009 plan.

The council in October asked department heads to come up with plans to trim 9 percent of their budgets. Those plans are reflected in the budget the council approved Monday.

Now, the council wants department heads to go back to the drawing board to find ways to trim another 1 percent, in case union leaders don’t agree to unpaid furloughs for county workers.

Councilman Mike Cooper said the budget approved on Monday is balanced because the savings the council is asking each department head and the union to come up with is factored in.

“We’ve asked department heads for a monthly report on their savings,” Cooper said, adding that the council will likely decide exactly where those savings will be found by the end of January.

Councilman John Koster, the council’s lone Republican, was the only man on the five-member board to vote against the budget. He expressed concern about positions that have been added over the past year, including two staff members for the council, in such economically troubled times.

As many as half of the 160 jobs cut Monday are currently vacant, council Chairman Dave Somers said.

Department heads said they’ve already notified employees who will leave their posts by Dec. 31, but they’re bracing for another round of pink slips.

“If we continue to have an economic downturn, we will have more layoffs,” Auditor Carolyn Weikel said. “I don’t see any way around that.”

The budget process this year has been fraught with sour feelings between the council and Reardon, and an economy so crippled that it’s expected to cause a $21 million shortfall in 2009 revenue compared to the county’s 2008 budget. Weikel and other elected department heads complained that Reardon cut them out of the budget process before he unveiled his suggestions for 2009 spending and revenue. Somers promptly tossed out Reardon’s proposed budget, saying he’d rather start from scratch than alienate other elected officials. Councilmen also complained that Reardon’s plan wasn’t realistic.

Koster said Monday that Reardon’s budget was “based in naivete or wishful thinking.” Budget woes were complicated last week when the council discovered that county cash reserves, which should total 11 percent of the general fund budget, have dipped down to 7.5 percent, Somers said.

“It just means that our revenues are lower than expected,” he said.

The 2009 budget approved Monday is $68 million less than the 2008 budget.

The council voted early this month to dissolve the county’s Corrections Department and place it under the supervision of Sheriff John Lovick. Lovick promised then that he could save the county up to $500,000 each year by regulating overtime and instituting other cost-saving measures.

Koster and Councilman Dave Gossett said then that there hadn’t been a thorough study done to determine whether the change would in fact save money.

The budget passed Monday doesn’t reflect any savings from the move, said Cooper, who proposed the change. He said nobody can know for sure whether the corrections move will save the county money.

Cooper acknowledged that the council’s budget, despite dozens of layoffs, isn’t adequate to address the shortfall.

“It’s with great difficulty that I sit here and know I’m going to take that kind of a vote the week of Thanksgiving,” Cooper said before he voted to approve the budget. “And I don’t believe for a moment that we won’t be back here the first of the year.”

The council has asked the union to consider implementing a “furlough program,” under which each union-represented county worker to take 10 days of unpaid time off throughout the year.

The Washington State Council of County and City Employees represents about 2,000 of Snohomish County’s 2,800 workers. Reardon said he’s met with union leaders several times in recent months to discuss unpaid leave in lieu of layoffs. He said those meetings weren’t fruitful because the council waited until Monday to decide on an exact dollar amount the county needs to save through unpaid time off.

“It’s been frustrating because of the council’s lack of direction in terms of parameters has greatly inhibited our ability to work out an alternative,” union President Chris Dugovich said.

Jobs could have been saved had the union been looped in earlier, Dugovich said. A voluntary furlough program won’t bring significant savings, he said, but the union is willing to consider a furlough if it is required for all county workers, including council members and their staff.

“We expect the council to do the same thing. They need to take the lead,” Dugovich said.

The council intends to trim 1 percent of its own budget, Cooper said. Beginning in January, allotments for mileage reimbursements to councilmen will be cut in half. That will total $16,000 of the $71,000 the council must save.

Those measures may not be enough to save county government from an economy that’s devastating budgets around the nation, Prosecuting Attorney Janice Ellis said.

“The challenge in front of me right now is, do I go forward and reduce staff beyond what the budget requires now, or do I want until 2009 to see if the economy recovers?” she said. “Because I’m inclined to believe the economy is not going to recover.”

Ellis already has asked sheriff’s deputies to refer property crime cases valuing $1,000 or less to city prosecutors. With six jobs being cut this round, and possibly more in the coming months, Ellis said her staff simply can’t handle the workload.

“If these cases happen in the unincorporated part of the county then obviously it’s ours, but this will impact city budgets,” she said. “For larger cities like Lynnwood and Everett and Marysville, this could be significant.”

Monday’s cuts will affect workers at every level of county government. Spokesman positions for both Reardon and the council, currently filled by Christopher Schwarzen and Fred Bird, respectively, were both cut.

Drug Court and Project Self-Sufficiency, programs designed to help troubled residents get on their feet, were both saved in the council’s budget. Funding to Snohomish County’s senior centers was also preserved, despite a complaint from Koster that funding for the centers began several years ago and was meant to be a one-time provision.

Initial funding was meant to be seed money at the senior centers, but has turned into an expected hand-out, Koster said.

Koster also said he opposes the hiring of an “inclusion manager,” a position the council OK’d despite his opposition in February. The new manager will be tapped to ensure that the county is a friendly place for minorities. The 2009 budget includes money for the job, which will pay about $75,000.

The new budget approves a staff of 27 for the five-member council. That’s two fewer workers than the council initially planned for, but more than what the council once had. Koster said a staff of 23 was adequate at one time.

“We’ve had to make some very difficult decisions, and on some accounts we missed the mark,” he said.

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