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COMMITTEE REAFFIRMS PLAN TO CUT HOURS
Monday, October 8th, 2007 -- 1:57 pm
Posted by Riley Hebert-News Director
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
That seems to be the sentiment pushing the Clark County Finance Committee's move to cut all fulltime employees hours in the upcoming budget.
Faced with fund balances dwindling to dangerously low levels, a state-imposed limit on their levy and declining non-tax revenues, the Finance Committee reaffirmed Friday their intent to cut fulltime employees from 40 hours a week to 38 ¾ a week. That's 15-minutes per day.
At the meeting Friday, board chairman Wayne Hendrickson noted he expected some disgruntled employees.
"So the next question, then, 'you're going to lower my hours an hour and a quarter a week, so you're going to cut back on the jobs I'm going to do to?'," Hendrickson said. "Because if I were working for you, I'd tell you to go to hell."
Greenwood supervisor Rodger Ashbeck conceded it wasn't ideal, but the alternatives—including layoffs or borrowing for operations—were even worse.
"These budgets are extremely tight, and if they have any hiccups they're going to come in saying we missed budget, the money has to come from the general fund," Ashbeck predicted. "I guarantee you some of these people with these budgets will miss it and we're going to take the fund balances down more with no replacements."
The cut could save the county between $500,000 and $600,000. That money would be used to replenish department fund balances.
The committee directed the personnel coordinator to discuss the proposal with the unions.
It remained unclear if the courthouse would close fifteen minutes earlier each workday, or an hour and quarter earlier each Friday.
The budget still needs to be approved by the full county board at a meeting on November 13.
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