ORANGE COUNTY IN BANKRUPTCY : Latest Layoffs Hit Hard at Social Services Agency : Budget cuts: Many of the 120 are surprised to lose jobs despite weeks of warnings. Hundreds more will be gone by May 31.

Despite weeks of warning that pink slips for county workers were on the way, county Social Services Agency employees were stunned Thursday to find themselves the first casualties of the latest round of budget cuts.

“I’m just in shock,” said Al Villalobos, a welfare eligibility worker in Anaheim, shortly after learning he would be jobless in 14 days. “Even with all the talk of it happening, I didn’t know it would happen to me.”

Ninety-six of the 120 Social Services agency workers laid off Thursday were responsible for determining who is eligible to receive welfare payments and overseeing those cases. In all, 292 financial assistance workers will lose their jobs by the end of May.

Clerical workers, social workers and some supervisors are also losing their jobs, bringing the total number of employees laid off by May 31 to about 400, county officials said. The agency also will close branch offices in Garden Grove, Anaheim and Costa Mesa by May 25 as a result of the financial crisis.

“There go all my dreams,” said an employee who has worked at the Santa Ana Regional Center for the past two years. “How am I going to pay my bills? Who’s going to pay my mortgage? This has stripped many of us of the right to live in Orange County.

“But what gets me is that we’re being punished for what (former Treasurer-Tax Collector Robert L. Citron) did and what those supervisors did,” she added. “And they still have their jobs, their houses and their money.”

The woman, like most of the county employees interviewed Thursday, asked that her name not be used because she is applying for jobs at other county agencies. She said employees have been warned by county officials, including their supervisors, that they will be blacklisted if they speak to the media.

Cheri Wilson, a county spokeswoman, denied Thursday that employees have been threatened into silence.

Although many employees were surprised by their layoff notices, others had predicted they would lose their jobs because they had less seniority than most of their colleagues. But employees who had worked several years for the county also were laid off Thursday.

Seated at the plastic lunch tables beside the silver food truck where many workers typically gather, one laid-off worker sarcastically asked another: “Well, are you a newly freed person? I’ve got my freedom too,” she said, sighing. “But I also feel sorry for the people who are going to stay behind.”

Many eligibility workers who remain will see their caseloads increase by at least 100%, Wilson said. Workers who process applications for the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program will see their caseloads increase 157%, social services officials have said.

“You’re talking about long lines, no quality control and more fraud,” said Adam Acosta, a business representative for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union, whose membership includes the eligibility workers.

“What all that will lead to are sanctions by the state and federal governments for not complying with their regulations,” Acosta said.

Exempt from the caseload increases are employees for the General Relief program, which supports single males not eligible for most other welfare programs. The program is funded entirely with county money, and officials decided last month not to jeopardize it.

Welfare clients, who may see service to them dramatically altered, were philosophical Thursday about how the layoffs would affect them. The closure of three welfare offices will force between 7,000 and 8,000 clients to seek aid at other offices, Acosta said.

“I don’t think people will care how long they have to wait,” said Monica Rodriguez, an 18-year-old Santa Ana resident who rocked her 2-month-old son’s carriage outside the welfare office on Grand Avenue.

“I’m coming here to do what I have to do, and I think people will wait just as long as it takes,” Rodriguez said. “When you have kids, you have to feed them.”

She paused and added: “I feel sorry for these people who are being laid off. I know they’re wondering how they’re going to make it, and I know how that feels.”