Amador County – The Amador County Board of Supervisors hosted a third budget workshop Tuesday hearing that budget shortfalls could require more than 20 layoffs if county employees do not return to furloughs in the new fiscal year, or if other revenue is not realized.
County Administrative Officer Chuck Iley requested a budget analyst assistant in his budget, among those submitted by department heads and elected officials. He said they are “looking at well over 20 total cuts to the county.” Some smaller divisions are losing more personnel but many in public comment spoke about the loss of 2.47 full time equivalent positions as proposed in the budget submitted by Animal Control Director John Vail.
Iley reported that a budget error was found Monday that gave the county $100,000 more in contingencies, which would climb to $600,000. But he said contingencies were lowered from $1 million to balance the budget.
Iley said the budget analyst position would help with the budget full-time about eight months of the year, then be an analyst the rest of the year. He has borrowed employees to shore up his shortfalls. He said he cannot be in multiple places at one time, and there is only so much time in a week.
Supervisor Vice Chairman Richard Forster said Iley has spent an inordinate amount of time on the budget, let other areas slide, and employee negotiations would take even more time. Iley said state regulations now require that before they can declare an employment salary negotiation impasse, they have to go and do “fact finding.”
Iley said he has been waffling on this position because he understands the nature of this climate, and he did not want to ask for something that we don’t truly need. Forster said last year, the union took action, and Iley had to respond to the Public Employees Relations Board. Iley said the “fact finding would make that pale in comparison.”
Supervisor John Plasse said both of Iley’s predecessors, Terry Daly and Patrick Blacklock had assistant CAOs under their charge, and he handles all of the work, which is more difficult in a budget environment. Iley said with the correction on contingencies, and modified revenues, the numbers look to be pretty correct now.
Plasse commented on an earlier public comment about Animal Control being disproportionately cut. He said the General Fund revenue is consumed by each department at a particular percentage share, and each department head was required to cut their budgets by that percentage. He said most of our department heads and elected officials were not able to make the required percentage of cuts.
Forster said some were “not willing to make those cuts or layoffs so it becomes the responsibility of this board.”
Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
