County Must Change Ways

Re: The supervisors and county employees don’t get it (“County Workers Condemn Pay-Cut Plan,” March 31).

While it is commendable that county employees are working hard in the face of budget shortages, they act as if this is a temporary problem. The real point is that the county must address permanent changes that must be made in order to continue to provide necessary services in the face of fundamental economic downsizing in California.

The county must implement major structural changes in the way it thinks about itself and the way it does business. For example, could the heavy document processing of the courts, the recorder and the tax assessor be better done by private companies? Could fire, paramedics and police personnel be cross-trained? Should the county provide only essential services of police, fire and public safety? What departments should be closed completely?

California is undergoing a major economic earthquake. Like after an earthquake, life will get back to normal but the economic landscape will be permanently changed. The county must now adapt to live within that new landscape.

JOHN G. MORGAN

Camarillo