County Drops Plan for Worker Furlough

Despite fears that Ventura County’s budget could be $4 million in the hole by the time state lawmakers pass an annual budget, county supervisors on Tuesday dropped plans for a no-pay employee furlough.

With Supervisor Frank Schillo away from the dais for the vote, supervisors decided unanimously that the proposal does not merit further study. Too many emergency service employees would be exempt from the furlough to realize the $1.4-million savings the plan initially promised, they said.

“The anxiety and the management time on this issue has gotten out of hand,” Supervisor Kathy Long said before moving to scrap the idea. “I think that if it can’t be across the board, it is not fair.”

The proposal sought to keep the county’s doors locked--and employees home without pay--for four to six days between now and next June.

But since its inception during the county’s budget hearings in June, the idea has been lambasted by labor unions as unfair.

Public safety, hospital and other 24-hour emergency employees would have been exempt from the furlough, making significant cost savings unlikely, officials said.

Supervisor Judy Mikels agreed that the proposal was a bust, but noted that the decision won’t help the county solve budget woes that have worsened since the panel passed a $531-million General Fund budget in July.

Much of the county budget was based on a projection that the state would share its swelling sales tax proceeds with local government. But Gov. Pete Wilson has decided to use the state’s bounty to pay off a $1.3-billion debt to the state employee retirement system rather than aid local government.

Chief Administrative Officer Lin Koester said that could mean as much as a $4-million hit to the county budget.

Lawmakers in Sacramento have yet to adopt a final budget, and Koester said California counties are actively lobbying their representatives for support.

Supervisors plan to revisit the revenue projections built into the county’s 1997-98 General Fund budget on Sept. 23.