Federal Workers in County Return to Jobs : Labor: Officials say uncertainty about the federal budget is making the 11,800 U.S. employees in the area nervous.

After an unprecedented closing on a holiday weekend, the Channel Islands National Park visitor center reopened its doors at Ventura Harbor Tuesday as federal employees nervously reported to work at government offices around the county.

A stopgap funding measure signed by President Bush Tuesday morning allowed the 11,800 federal workers in Ventura County to return to their jobs after the federal Columbus Day holiday.

“For the last week, we have been going through pure hell,” said Bonnie Brown, regional director of the National Assn. of Government Employees in Port Hueneme. The union represents 8,000 federal workers in Ventura County, most of them reporting to the two Navy bases near Oxnard.

“They are relieved that they are working, but they are very nervous about what is going to come down in the future,” Brown said.

The Channel Islands National Park visitor center was flooded with telephone calls from sightseers who had been turned away over the long weekend or who hoped to visit the park Tuesday. By mid-morning, wary visitors began to trickle into the center, but at a slower than usual pace, Park Ranger David Ethell said.

“We’ve closed visitor centers for hurricanes and floods, but never before for a lack of money,” said Tim Setnicka, a longtime National Park official and chief of operations at Channel Islands.

On Saturday, the National Park posted a handwritten sign: “Due to the lack of a federal budget, Channel Islands National Park visitor center is closed until further notice.”

Setnicka said he is not convinced that Congress and the President will reach a budget agreement before stopgap funding runs out Oct. 19. “I’m keeping that sign in my closet,” he said.

Larry Boland, district manager of the Social Security Administration offices in Ventura and Oxnard, said the uncertainty of the budget is wearing on his staff. “We are all frustrated, not knowing day-to-day if we report to work or not,” he said.

Until the last-minute reprieve, Boland was planning to report to work Tuesday just long enough to dismiss his staff. “All of them would have been furloughed,” he said. “It is an uncomfortable feeling.”

Arlene Black, acting human resources director at the Point Mugu Navy base, said she has not received any orders from Washington regarding the 4,300 employees at the Pacific Missile Test Center.

“If they had said to dismiss non-essential employees, I’m assuming it would be everybody except our firefighters and air-traffic controllers,” she said.

Russ Pyle, spokesman for the Naval Ship Weapons Systems Engineering Station at Port Hueneme, said he had received no word from naval officials in Washington either. “If they shut down the government, we would be part of that too,” he said.

Brown said the National Assn. of Government Employees represents workers ranging from engineers to clerks. She took issue with the way that the federal government classifies some workers as essential and other as non-essential.

“We have people working 16 hours a day at Point Mugu to support Operation Desert Shield,” Brown said. “We have clerks working at radar stations all along the coast and some of them could be furloughed if they are considered non-essential,” she said.

“The way I look at it, members of Congress are the only non-essential workers,” she said.

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