2 Supervisors Want Friday Office Closings Discontinued

In an attempt to end the debate over a controversial work plan, two county supervisors announced Monday that they support giving employees flexible work hours so long as county offices remain open five days a week.

Supervisors Harriett M. Wieder and Roger R. Stanton stated in a joint news release that the 22-month-old work plan, which closes county offices on alternate Fridays, is a failure and should be discontinued. They said the plan did not reach its proposed cost savings goal of at least $1.1 million.

“What I object to is the locking of doors every other Friday,” Stanton said. “Closing the doors is not what the people want.”

Instead, Stanton and Wieder suggest that county department heads give employees the option of working 80 hours for nine days over two weeks, provided that they have enough staff on hand to stay open every working weekday.

The Board of Supervisors is expected to decide today whether to continue the work plan. In addition to Wieder and Stanton, Supervisor William G. Steiner has indicated that he favors keeping offices open every weekday but also believes employees should have flexible hours if they want them. Supervisor Thomas F. Riley supports the current plan and Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez has been studying the merits of both sides.

Under the current plan, nearly three dozen county facilities, offering services such as welfare assistance, health care, building permits and tax collection, are shut down every other Friday.

For the past three weeks, Stanton has assailed two county staff reports on the plan because he said they were misleading and did not accurately calculate the cost savings of the plan. He said his own analysis of the program showed that it did not save the county any money and may have actually cost the county as much as $500,000.