Board Imposes Hiring Freeze on Vacant County Jobs

Excepting law enforcement and health care services, the Ventura County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday imposed a hiring freeze on hundreds of vacant county jobs in its struggle to erase a $41.7-million deficit.

The board voted 3 to 2 to approve the hiring freeze, which will remain in effect at least until the county budget is adopted in July or August. Board Chairwoman Maggie Kildee, who called the action “mean-spirited,” and Supervisor Susan Lacey opposed the freeze.

The hiring freeze means hundreds of vacant positions will remain unfilled in the Fire Department, hospital, libraries, airports and other county agencies. The board’s action came as such a surprise to personnel officials that they could not say exactly how many jobs might be affected.

But Supervisor Frank Schillo said with the large deficit looming this year the county cannot continue to do business as usual.

“We have to send a message to the public that we’re not going to put up with adding new employees or programs,” said Schillo, who proposed the freeze. “We have to bite the bullet. It’s a difficult job, but somebody has to do it.”

Supervisor Judy Mikels warned that additional budget-cutting measures may be forthcoming.

“You have to start somewhere,” she said. “There may be more cuts. But this puts everybody on notice that the (budget-cutting) process has started and we’re going to follow through.”

But Kildee said the freeze is unfair to some county departments, such as the assessor’s office, which lost 53 positions over the past four years and is unable to keep up with its heavy workload.

Kildee said the assessor’s office is especially important because it is responsible for assessing property taxes, a major source of revenue for the county. The board’s action will prevent the office, which received a record 8,500 property tax appeals this year, from filling four vacancies.

“This seems mean-spirited, rather than being helpful,” Kildee said.

Treasurer-Tax Collector Harold S. Pittman, whose office has three vacancies, and Auditor-Controller Thomas O. Mahon, who has seven unfilled positions, also voiced their opposition to the freeze.

Pittman said he saw no reason for the freeze as long as his department is operating within its budget. And if there is going to be a freeze, he said, then no agency or department should be exempted.

“I feel like I’m being discriminated against,” Pittman said. “I have never overspent my budget.”

Because of the board’s action, Pittman said he will be forced to hire temporary help to keep pace with his workload.

“The work’s not going to go away,” he said. “So what I’m faced with is hiring extra help. That’s not a savings to the county.”

The hiring freeze does not affect 84 job vacancies in health care services, which includes the Ventura County Medical Center and the medical examiner’s office. Also unaffected is law enforcement and the county’s criminal justice system, which combined have the largest number of vacant positions--280.

The board’s action Tuesday came during a long day of budget discussions on how best to erase the county’s deficit.

Despite his own protests over the hiring freeze in his office, Mahon warned the board to put an immediate halt on spending. The auditor-controller said 95 new county jobs have been added to the payroll since the board adopted last year’s $880-million budget.

“If something is not done to change this picture, we will be facing bankruptcy, but for different reasons than Orange County,” Mahon told the board.

After two hours of debate, the board decided to postpone action on a list of budget-cutting recommendations proposed by the chief administrator’s office. The hiring freeze was not part of the staff’s recommendations.

Instead, the plan calls for closing this year’s budget gap by cutting $15 million in expenses and using $25 million from reserve funds. Similar action would have to be taken over the next two years.

Schillo, however, said he wanted more detailed information on a projected $30 million increase in expenditures over last year before voting on the recommendations. Some of that increase was attributable to salary and benefit adjustments for sheriff’s personnel and to increased General Fund contributions to the county employees’ pension program, which lost millions of dollars in revenue this year because of poor investment returns.

The board will continue its budget discussion at its next meeting on Feb. 28.