Laying off the layoffs
At its regular meeting Tuesday in Bridgeport, the Mono County Board of Supervisors rescinded 8 of the 9 layoffs previously approved as part of the 2014-15 Budget on September 16. After months of negotiating with the Deputy Sheriff’s Association (DSA) and Mono County Public Employees (MCPE), the victim witness advocate position for the District Attorney’s Office was the only layoff slated for October 15. The Board approved updated Memorandum of Understandings (MOUs) with DSA, MCPE and the Paramedics Association at the meeting.
The Deputy Sheriff Association MOU amends the current contract signed in April of 2014. It includes a delay in step increases (salary increases based on performance and professional development), reduction in vehicle costs, and 40 hours of unpaid time off (furloughs) to be taken by July 1. These mechanisms are estimated to save $183,800, allowing the Sheriff’s Department to maintain the positions that were earlier terminated. However, these cost saving initiatives are only in place for the remainder of the 2014-15 fiscal year and the layoffs will have to be revisited in 2015-16 unless other sources of revenue can be found. “We have to find long term savings [or] we may be in this situation again,” Mono County CAO Jim Leddy told the Board before it approved the MOU.
Leddy called the MOU with MCPE a “bridge contract” that lasts until the end of 2018. All MCPE employees will have to take 48 furlough hours for the first two years, with cost of living adjustments (COLA) of 2% being applied in the third and fourth year. MCPE employees haven’t seen a COLA increase since 2010. Other measures such as employees paying more of their health care costs and voluntary furlough hours will create enough savings so that the County still comes out positive at the end of the contract.
“What we are able to negotiate is enough savings so that when the furloughs go away and the COLA is implemented [the cost is still a] net reduction for the County,” Leddy said after the meeting. “We’re achieving savings in the beginning to help offset the costs in the end.” Leddy said the total savings will be $237,000.
Also as part of the contract, 54 employees signed irrevocable waivers for voluntary unpaid time off in order to maintain the job positions that were previously laid off. And the County will still maintain its hard hiring freeze.
Mono County IT Specialist Greg Newbry is one of the employees who volunteered to take extra furlough hours. “I have to think that I could be the one losing my job,” Newbry said. “I wanted to give up any hours I could afford to help save a family.”
“All of us will always do what we’ve always done. We’ll work for no pay to make sure [we] do a good job,” he continued. “But the morale is not good. It’s been tough.”
Newbry was concerned that the MOU didn’t have any “openers” for the policies to change if the County’s revenues increase. “If [Mammoth] Mountain resolves it’s [property] tax issue, the geothermal plant its issues, and property taxes keep going up, the employees won’t see it,” he said.
The Union “stewards did the best job that they could,” Newbry concluded. “I just feel like negotiations could have been different.”
After adopting the Supervisor Chair Larry Johnston told Leddy “the outcome could have been achieved without the threat of layoffs but where we are now is where we are.”
The Board also adopted a three-year MOU with the Paramedics Association, which does not impact services or reduce the labor force, but does reduce the step increase and requires the employees to pay higher health care monthly premiums.
“Considering the resources that we had available, we appreciate the employees stepping up to help maintain County services at less costs,” Leddy told the Sheet after the meeting. “Thank you to everyone for being a team.”
