COUNTYWIDE : Shift of Duties Saves County $42,000

The Ventura County Board of Supervisors will hear at its meeting today how one department reorganized its administrative structure, eliminated a management position and saved the county $42,000.

The Animal Regulation Department, which runs county animal shelters, conducted an internal study and determined that “we didn’t need as many managers as we had authorized if we could just shift workload among other people,” manager Kathy Jenks said.

The study showed that the department could eliminate the financial management position, consolidate control of its $2.3-million budget and other financial matters under two other managers, and save the county the cost of that person’s salary, Jenks said.

The person who held the position transferred to another county department and was not replaced.

The reorganization could also be a lesson in budget management, Jenks said. “If we can find it, some of these large agencies with these multimillion-dollar budgets ought to be able to find it without being asked,” Jenks said.

Although $42,000 is only a tiny percentage of the department’s total budget, Jenks said the savings to the county is actually more than 5% of the total net cost of running the Department of Animal Regulation.

“Things are tough these days, and although $42,000 is not a lot of money, it might help out in some department where funding is more critical than it is to us right now,” Jenks said.