Budget Update

I have been invited to three Budget meetings in the last couple of weeks to be kept abreast of what is happening with the County of Sacramento in these dire times. And yesterday, in our DPPA Board meeting, Steve Keil, the Assistant to the County Executive for Labor Policy and Negotiations, came and gave the Board the information that he had at that time. I thought I ought to put out what we have been told.

The layoffs have been reduced from 156.6 to 19.5 positions. Probation, which had 76 layoff positions last week, is still a question mark. At this point, nobody could really could tell us what is happening to this department. In the Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) the layoffs of County employees are down to 12.5 from 61.6 last week with three positions near layoff status. DHHS let go their contract staff to allow the reductions in permanent staff layoffs. Department of Revenue Recovery, a new department with layoffs, will lose 4 positions. As you can see it’s not a done deal; but it is nice to be kept in touch with what Steve Keil and the other managers have been thinking.

The good news is that there are no positions in Representation Unit 028 (these are the people who DPPA represents) on the current layoff list.

The last Budget meeting I went to asked all the Recognized Employee Organization (REO) to consider four options that would reduce County costs. They were Cost of Living Concession, Step Increase Concession, Work Furloughs and Reduced Work Hours. I’ll be sending an email to those of you who gave us your home email to ask for what you think. If you have not given us your home email, just click on Contacts and send us an email from your email, and you will be added.

The managers, who have to make the decisions about employee layoffs, all have the thought of County Executive Terry Schutten foremost in their minds; "Our focus has been on saving jobs. We need employees to deliver our services to our customers. So many people depend on us."

I will post items as they become available.