Clallam County vows no employee layoffs in 2009
By Jim Casey, Peninsula Daily News
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Clallam County Administrator Jim Jones said he expects to lay off no personnel in 2009 despite a chilly economic forecast.
And that makes Clallam unique among the state's 39 counties, Jones told county commissioners Monday during a budget briefing he'll repeat at public meetings today, Wednesday and Thursday.
What set the county apart from others was how Jones, his predecessor Dan Engelbertson, and the three commissioners chose not to spend increased tax revenues that began flowing into its coffers several years ago.
That money built up an $11.5 million reserve — maybe as much as $12 million — that the county can tap as income from sales taxes and new construction shrivels.
Thanks to the reserve, next year's "deficit" of $2.25 million isn't a deficit at all, said Commissioner Mike Doherty, D-Port Angeles.
Money in the bank
"It's one time money that you put in the bank," he said.
Added Jones, "I'm very comfortable that we're going to be able to do it."
That doesn't mean high-on-the-hog outlays, said Jones, who pared more than $300,000 "automatic" items out of the budget.
It does mean that elected and appointed department heads must make strong cases for the $635,000 in requests they'll pitch to commissioners in coming weeks.
The requests range from a new copier to more paid hours and benefits for the veterans assistant.
As for layoffs, three to four positions will go unfilled after current employees retire, Jones said, and 5½ full-time equivalents will remain frozen.
They'll be offset, though, by a similar increase in grant-funded positions, he said.
$76.5 million total
The present preliminary general fund budget predicts $30.05 million in revenues, $31.94 in expenses, leaving just over $9.6 million in reserves that Jones says can tide the county over for another year, perhaps two.
At least $5.5 million always must be kept on hand to meet current expenses, according to county policy.
Other funds — including public works and some law-and-justice programs — bring the total Clallam County outlay to just short of $76.5 million.
The restoration of Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act funds in the federal bailout bill will bring the road department between $750,000 and $800,000, Jones said.
That amount is four-fifths of last year's funding, and it will drop 25 percent further over the next four years, then vanish.
The money reimburses timber-dependent counties like Clallam for losses to forest industries from federal environmental regulations.
Dams mean happy days
Clallam County will rebound faster and perhaps further than the rest of the country, Jones said, with the removal of the Elwha River dams, the largest public works project in the county's history.
The dam removal will produce sale tax, gas tax and lodging tax revenues that "will get us slightly ahead of the nationwide recovery," he said.
Meanwhile, occasional events break the darkening economic clouds, Jones said.
For instance, the county will collect $80,000 in real estate excise tax from last week's sale of Portac Inc. mills in Forks and Beaver for $28.5 million to International Forest Products Ltd., or Interfor.
Budget hits the road
Presentations of Clallam County's 2009 budget and Transportation Improvement Program will premiere at 6 p.m. today in the commissioners' hearing room of the Clallam County Courthouse, 223 E. Fourth St.
After-hours access is through a door just west of the main courthouse entrance on Fourth Street.
After tonight, the "road show," as county administrators call it, will travel to Forks and Sequim.
The times and places:
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Reporter Jim Casey can be reached at 360-417-3538 or at jim.casey@peninsuladailynews.com.
Last modified: October 06. 2008 9:00PM