With a $5.9 million budget deficit expected for this year, the Board of Supervisors gave County Administrator Julie Ayers permission to take drastic measures.
This led to the recent layoffs of eight staff members in the Development Services Department.
With a $5.9 million budget deficit expected for this year, the Board of Supervisors gave County Administrator Julie Ayers permission to take drastic measures.
This led to the recent layoffs of eight staff members in the Development Services Department.
Development Services Director and Floodplain Administrator Ken Spedding said three permitting support staff, two building inspectors, two plans examiners and one planner were laid off.
He said the department will save $308,000 in addition to disposing of two vehicles, shutting down eight work stations, turning off the laid-off staff members’ cell phones and other matters.
Spedding said the reason these individuals lost their jobs is that new development and construction activities are down. These staff members were the ones who dealt with the permitting process for new construction.
Another factor taken into consideration, he said, was the vacancies due to the current hiring chill. Development Services had 12 position vacancies leading up to the layoffs.
“At this time, we are not looking to cut any additional positions nor reduce budgeted line items from the Development Services budget,” Spedding said.
Human Resources Director Alan Vigneron said he and Spedding discussed the downturn in new building permits for this year. The numbers were a drastic drop to an estimated 3,100 permits in fiscal year 2008-09 from about 6,800 in FY 2007-08.
Ayers said she is working with all departments to get the most accurate picture of their services. This is so the Board of Supervisors can begin to focus county services as further cuts need to be made in an educated manner.
