EVERETT — Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon told a roomful of worried county employees Friday that he will do what he can to save their jobs even as he considers tough choices to fill a $6.7 million hole in the budget.
At least 200 county employees packed a conference room on Friday afternoon to hear Reardon’s take on the budget, and their fate.
“My number-one priority right now is not to lay anybody off,” he said.
Some employees called the talk helpful, while others said they didn’t learn much. Most of the hour-plus presentation dealt with national trends that have played out in the local economy.
Last week, the executive’s office released projections showing that revenues are lagging by millions of dollars. Sales tax is the biggest portion of the projected deficit, or about $4.5 million. Poor home sales and low interest rates also are taking a heavy toll.
The revenue loss could force the county to shave about 3 percent from its $206 million general-fund budget.
County Councilman Brian Sullivan, the finance committee chairman, said he wants to make sure the county has reliable budget forecasts.
“We just gotta nail these numbers down,” he said. “I just want to make sure that we only need to do this exercise one more time before the end of the year.”
Some options for dealing with the budget hole are furloughs, shortening the work week, enacting a hiring freeze or eliminating some county-issued equipment, such as BlackBerries.
“I’ll probably be turning in my phone,” Sullivan said. “We’ll be looking at everything.”
Sullivan has proposed legislation to extend the county’s hiring freeze. Reardon said he agrees, though he and Sullivan have different opinions about how it would work.
Reardon promised by Monday to give the council proposals for dealing with the budget problems. He met with councilmen individually on Friday.
Councilman Dave Gossett said his meeting with Reardon went well.
Councilman Dave Somers said he too hopes to avoid layoffs, but added without furloughs for county employees, “It’s not possible.”
“It’s my feeling that we could absorb most of this with furloughs,” he said.
Last fall, as the county braced for record layoffs and drew up plans for reducing services, the executive and the council agreed to about $6 million in pay raises for county workers.
Taking 10 or so unpaid furlough days would essentially wipe out the 5 percent to 6 percent raises that employees received last fall.
Reardon’s negotiators were scheduled to meet with union officials this weekend. Earlier talks about furloughs for the 2,000 county employees represented by the largest union have stalled.
The local president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, largely blames the county council for the failure to strike a furlough deal. Chris Dugovich said that he presented an offer back in December that the County Council rejected.
Council members confirmed they’ve yet to receive an acceptable offer. Though the executive’s office negotiates the contract, they decide whether it is approved.
“There hasn’t been any new progress since at least January,” Chairman Mike Cooper said this week. “All (Deputy County Executive) Mark Soine keeps on telling us is that negotiations are ongoing.”
Dugovich said members of his union already have accepted furloughs in King and Kitsap counties, as well as in the city of Kent. He doesn’t understand why the same thing can’t happen in Snohomish County.
“We’re not living in a cave here, and we’ve worked out arrangements that have saved jobs,” he said.
Cooper, a former union president, said he understands concessions. He said he made them to save jobs during the 15 years he spent as a local union president when he worked as a Shoreline firefighter. Snohomish County employees and their unions — not just AFSCME— need to understand that if they don’t embrace furloughs, the county’s options are limited.
“People will lose their jobs if the union doesn’t agree to concessions,” he said. “If it’s not furloughs, then what is it?”
Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465 or nhaglund@heraldnet.com.
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