Furloughs canceled

Trinity County supervisors voted Tuesday to rescind employee furloughs they approved in October and county offices that were due to be closed this Friday in the courthouse and elsewhere will now be open for business as usual.

The Board of Supervisors approved a furlough schedule in October to help offset the county's loss of nearly $400,000 in general fund property tax revenue this year that was borrowed by the state of California.

Since a statewide securitization plan has been finalized that will restore those funds to cities, counties and special districts on their regular distribution schedule in January and May, Trinity County's Administrative Officer Dero Forslund recommended the board rescind the furloughs and office closures.

Departments affected by furloughs scheduled for the first Friday of each month through next June included Administration/Personnel/Board of Supervisors, Auditor/Controller, Agriculture Commissioner/ Sealer, Assessor/Elections/County Clerk, Building/Planning, Cooperative Extension (4-H), General Services, Information Technology, Treasurer/Tax Collector and Veterans' Services.

Forslund said follow-up action by the board will be required to adjust the various departments' budgets, but there was immediate need to take action to rescind the office closures with the next one scheduled for this Friday.

He noted that some departments have already taken as many as four furlough days while others have taken none "so we are clearly out of balance. I will be talking with them to figure out some equity there. I'm not sure how we'll do that yet so this is just the first in a multi-step process."

Asked if furloughs will be back on the table in next year's county budget, Forslund said that is anyone's guess right now with the state budget deficit continuing to mount.

"Everyone should be aware it is a tool we'll be looking at depending on what happens with the state. We were able to dodge a lot of bullets this year because of small county exemptions (from state cuts). Furloughs aren't our first choice, but may be something we have to use again," he said.