Workers Happy to Resume Jobs; Public Pleased

Although he was glad to be back to work Saturday, Tim Jones had no qualms about slamming the Washington politicians who forced him off the job three weeks ago.

“It feels good to work instead of sitting there doing nothing like the Congress people,” said Jones, an equipment operator at the Channel Islands National Park headquarters in Ventura.

Jones was one of dozens of federal employees in Ventura County to return to their jobs Saturday, thanks to legislation Congress passed Friday ending the furlough of 280,000 workers. Hundreds more countywide are expected to face baskets of unopened mail and scores of unanswered phone messages when they go back to the office Monday.

But the bill Congress approved Friday pays employee salaries only until Jan. 26. And many federal workers fear they could be forced off the job again if government officials fail to hammer out a balanced budget agreement.

“[Congress and the president] still have a lot to work out,” said Sue Goodglick, a park ranger staffing the reception desk at the Channel Islands National Park visitors center. “There is no reason to celebrate yet.”

At the other end of the county, rangers in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area spent Saturday unlocking gates and restrooms so that the public could use the park’s seven sites. Although only 12 of 75 employees returned to work over the weekend, park officials said the public was eager to hit trails and campsites.

“It feels great that we can do our work,” said Bryan Sutton, the park’s chief of resources and visitor protection. “We are here to serve the public, and we can’t serve the public when we have closed sites.”

Rishi Tyagi, district supervisor for the Minerals Management Service, said the end of the furlough meant that 100 regional employees would be back at their desks Monday. Most important, Tyagi said, workers could once again begin inspecting offshore oil platforms after being sent home Dec. 15.

But because the bill that ended the furlough does not approve money for all government operations, Tyagi said his employees might have to find creative ways to get to the platforms.

“We usually use helicopters to fly over, but we can always conduct inspections by going by [oil company] boats,” Tyagi said.

In Ventura, visitors to the reopened Channel Islands National Park headquarters dipped their hands in the tide pool and studied the wildlife exhibits. Although some said they did not know the center had closed for three weeks, others who knew said they were relieved to find it open again.

“We would have been really upset today if it had been closed,” said Juli Bensal, a 44-year-old Port Hueneme resident who was examining relief maps of the Channel Islands with a friend. “We don’t want to see [the rangers] laid off, but we want to see the Washington bigwigs thrown out.”