To help alleviate the expanding budget deficit at the sheriff’s
office, the board of supervisors agreed to eliminate three
positions from the jail today, a week after delaying the action to
allow a search for additional funding or negotiations with union
representatives.
To help alleviate the expanding budget deficit at the sheriff’s office, the board of supervisors agreed to eliminate three positions from the jail today, a week after delaying the action to allow a search for additional funding or negotiations with union representatives.
Supervisors approved the elimination of the three positions in two separate votes as Supervisors Jaime De La Cruz and Margie Barrios hoped to save the jobs of two correctional officers. In a unanimous decision the board agreed to eliminate one inmate program manager and in a 3 to 2 vote agreed to eliminate the two correctional officers.
The recommendation to eliminate the three positions was first brought to the board during August’s budget hearings. Then-sheriff Curtis Hill, asked the board for more time to search for additional funding sources. The board granted him until the end of the year, but he never found more sources of funding.
Because of the delay in eliminating the positions, the sheriff’s deficit has grown to more than $280,000, County Administrative Officer Rich Inman said last week. If the board agreed to save the positions, the deficit would have compounded to nearly $400,000.
“Regardless of what the board does today, there will be a sizable hole in the sheriff’s budget,” Inman said.
At the last meeting in February, the item was brought back to the board, but members from the Service Employees International Union persuaded the board to postpone the decision to look at other avenues to save money.
After a two-hour meeting Friday, the board’s budget ad hoc committee, which consists of De La Cruz and Supervisor Robert Rivas, discovered no other sources of funding.
“We have two choices: either eliminate the three jobs or eliminate one or two of the jobs and dig deeper into an already deep hole,” Rivas said.
Union representatives and jail workers again asked the board to take a closer look at their budget and discretionary spending.
Reading through a list of ideas, union representative Jim Stevens asked the board to look at management contracts.
“Everything should be looked at,” he said.
Correctional officer Nick Cummings, who was one of the affected workers, said he didn’t know what he was going to do.
“It’s hard,” he admitted.
Despite the findings from the ad hoc committee, De La Cruz believed the jobs should be saved because it would put the county at risk for a lawsuit – ramifications of an understaffed jail.
“It will expose the county to a liability issue and because of that, I cannot support this,” he said.
De La Cruz also offered to take a second five percent pay cut.
Supervisor Barrios agreed with De La Cruz and said the workers deserved more time, but warned that the jobs would most likely be eliminated during the budget process. Barrios also asked for more help from union representatives in cutting their costs to the county.
“This is not going to go away,” she said. “Look at yourselves first.”
Rivas believed it was necessary to cut now to prevent bigger than expected cuts in the future, he said.
“I’m disappointed that the county put itself in this position,” Rivas said. “This didn’t happen over night.”
Supervisor Anthony Botelho was adamant that the cuts needed to be made immediately.
“We are going to have a tremendous hole to begin with because we didn’t make these cuts in July like we should have,” he said. “I don’t look at employees as union workers or non-union workers but as public servants, but I have a responsibility and I know my role. It’s to take county resources and do the best job I can. Nobody wants to lay anybody off.”
Botelho wanted for more consolidation and streamlining of services from all departments to help prevent a $7 million deficit, he said.
“I’m going to support this recommendation and it’s with a heavy heart and I don’t think it will be the last one,” he said.
Supervisor Jerry Muenzer believed there was no choice.
“The cuts need to be made,” he said.
