EVERETT — For the third time this year, the Snohomish Health District has cut its work force, eliminating 20 more jobs on Tuesday.
Dr. Gary Goldbaum, who heads the public health agency, told board members that the cuts, “while truly unpleasant and discomforting to me,” needed to be made to put the agency on a sound financial footing, allowing it to move ahead without further cuts.
The latest cuts, effective Oct. 1, cover a range of programs. The public health agency’s clinic for sexually transmitted diseases, which treats about 2,000 people each year, will be closed. Patients can be treated for sexually transmitted diseases at other clinics in the community, Goldbaum said.
The agency’s fund for emergency preparedness will be drained. Cuts will be made in its tuberculosis program, although the agency will continue to notify people who may have been exposed to the disease.
The one-person hepatitis prevention program will be cut.
A program that sends health district nurses into homes to provide nursing, nutrition and case management services to pregnant women and their infants through the first year of life, called First Steps, also hit the chopping block.
Although the savings are relatively small for the last three months of this year, about $143,000, the cuts will provide much bigger savings next year, roughly $1 million.
The job cuts were caused by an economy that is still struggling, causing revenues to drop dramatically. Meanwhile, district officials said they need financial reserves of about $1 million to ensure that the agency can pay its bills.
The layoffs will bring the public health agency’s work force from the equivalent of 203 current full-time employees down to 183 by Oct. 1.
The first round of cuts this year at the public health agency took effect on Jan. 1, when about 18 positions were cut. The second round of layoffs, effective Aug. 1, affected about 13 jobs. (Some employees work part time, so the full-time-equivalent positions are rounded off.)
The health agency’s cost-saving plan also calls for nonunion employees to take five days of furlough next year and for administrators to take 10 days.
The health district’s 157 unionized employees will not be required to take furloughs, according to Christine Scarlett, human relations director.
Still in limbo is a health district program that sends employees into the homes of families at risk for problems such as domestic violence and child abuse, called the nurse-family partnership.
It was on the list of programs to be cut to save money. If its seven jobs were eliminated, it would save the health district an estimated $283,298 next year.
After about 90 minutes of discussion, and the rejection of two other cost-cutting plans, health board members finally agreed on which programs to cut.
They also asked Goldbaum to come back with a plan next month to try to fund the nurse-family partnership. The board considered, but ultimately rejected, a proposal to cut a program that compiles and analyzes local health trends, such as on chronic disease, obesity and lack of access to health care.
Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486, salyer@heraldnet.com.
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