Supervisors Approve 4-Day Workweek : Government: Most offices would be open 11 hours daily, closing one weekday. Aim is to cut spending by at least $650,000.

After an acrimonious debate, the Ventura County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a four-day workweek for most county employees.

Under the plan, which was touted as a way to save up to 40 jobs and reduce spending by at least $650,000, most county offices will be open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. four days a week, starting May 23.

The supervisors voted 3 to 2 to approve the plan, with John K. Flynn and Maria E. VanderKolk on the losing end after urging the board to consider other cost-saving measures.

Flynn assailed the shortened week as “anti-family,” saying it would cause an undue hardship on working parents who must struggle to find child care. But Supervisors Vicky Howard, Susan K. Lacey and Maggie Kildee argued that the move was the best option for saving jobs.

“Every issue that is brought before the board is going to be a problem to someone,” Kildee said. “It seems to me it is a way that we can achieve the goal of saving money without requiring our employees perhaps to lose their jobs, perhaps to take a pay cut. Instead we have asked them to change their hours.”

Although some departments in Los Angeles County have moved to a compressed workweek, Ventura County would be the only Southern California county with most workers on a four-day, 10-hour plan, county Personnel Director Ron Komers said.

Government employees in Riverside and Orange counties now work nine-hour days and receive every other Friday off, Komers said.

Ventura County officials have yet to decide which day offices will close, but they probably will shut down on Fridays.

Officials began studying the possibility of moving to the four-day workweek several months ago after they learned the county could lose an estimated $36 million next year in state funding.

The move to adopt the compressed schedule will not affect the county’s court system or operations of the Sheriff’s Department and the Fire Department.

However, citizens seeking building permits, paying taxes and applying for marriage licenses will have to contend with the shorter week.

While county union representatives have praised the plan as the best way to avoid layoffs, one taxpayer advocate said the four-day workweek will only inconvenience residents.

“The public is entitled to conduct business five days a week,” said H. Jere Robings, president of the Ventura County Alliance of Taxpayers. “People who need a building inspection oftentimes are very anxious to get it done so they can move ahead.”

But Barry Hammitt, executive director of the Service Employees International Union, Local 998, said: “I think this is one of the tools that we need. . . . Furloughs and salary reductions are not the way to accomplish our goals.”

Officials estimate that the four-day workweek will save the county at least $400,000 by eliminating a large portion of its ride-sharing program, which pays employees to car-pool. The county could meet most smog-control codes by moving to the shortened week.

Government leaders also estimate that they could save an additional $250,000 by shutting down the buildings an extra day. So far, Thousand Oaks, Oxnard and Simi Valley have taken similar action to cut costs.

“We can kill two birds with one stone,” Komers said. “The program allows us to meet our ridership goals and at the same time cut other expenses.”

Komers also said he believes the switch will increase worker productivity.

“It seems to me this is a win-win situation,” he said.

Officials did not know how many of the county’s 6,400 full-time employees would be affected.

Several employees who addressed the board on Tuesday criticized the plan, saying it would be hard for them to find child care.

“I don’t know who is going to watch my children during those extra hours,” secretary Linda Vesper told the board. “I don’t know how I’m going to get them to school at 8 a.m. when I have to be at work at 7 a.m.”

The testimony prompted Flynn to urge his colleagues to hold off on the decision for another week until he and VanderKolk can present the board with a list of other cost-saving measures.

On Monday, Flynn and VanderKolk released a list of options--which included cutting employees’ salaries by 5%--to offset the state funding cut.

“Ten hours is a long time to spend at work, especially for people who need to get home to children,” Flynn said. “This was not a well-thought-out decision.”

NEXT STEP

Ventura County officials have yet to decide which day offices will be closed, but they probably will shut down on Fridays starting in May, with departments staffed from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. The move to adopt the compressed schedule will not affect the county’s court system or operations of the Sheriff’s Department and the Fire Department. However, citizens seeking building permits, paying taxes and applying for marriage licenses will have to contend with the shorter week.