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Wednesday, June 10, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Sun Archives
- How we did: A look back at the session (6-7-2009)
- Assembly's override puts tax package into law (5-29-2009)
- Legislature approves state worker furlough bill (5-22-2009)
Sun Coverage
Lawmakers last month instituted a one-day-a-month furlough for state workers as a gentler money-saving alternative to the straight salary cut proposed by Gov. Jim Gibbons.
But as the state Personnel Department develops emergency regulations to institute the furloughs by July 1, several drawbacks of that plan are coming to light.
Some departments will have a harder time than others doing without employees.
For example, prisons must have a certain number of guards at all times. And mental hospitals need to maintain staffing ratios to remain accredited.
Even in departments where employees can more easily be furloughed, such as Department of Motor Vehicles offices, the result will be longer lines and reduced services.
“It’s a nightmare,” said Andrew Clinger, the state director of administration.
It’s also uncertain whether the furloughs will save the $333 million legislators projected when they approved the plan, he said.
“I’m concerned about us meeting the targeted reduction,” Clinger said. Some departments might not be able to spare the workers, and the furloughs could lead to higher overtime costs in areas such as corrections and public safety, he said.
Anticipating some of these issues, lawmakers set aside about $4 million to make up for the cost of employees exempted from the furloughs. But “I’m not sure that’s going to be enough,” Clinger said.
The Board of Examiners, made up of Gibbons, Secretary of State Ross Miller and Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto, must approve all exemptions to the furloughs.
The governor had proposed a 6 percent pay cut in state workers’ salaries to help balance the budget.
The Legislature countered with the furloughs — the equivalent of reducing state employee salaries by 4.6 percent and saving $333 million over two years.
Mike Willden, director of the Health and Human Services Department, said it will be difficult to cover shifts at 24-hour facilities such as correctional facilities for youth, psychiatric hospitals and care facilities for the mentally disabled.
Wait times for services such as welfare and food stamps could grow, though Willden noted the Legislature added some positions to help process the flood of applications for government assistance that have come with the recession.
Willden said he didn’t plan to ask for any furlough exemptions. “Not unless someone brings me a compelling reason,” he said.
If some employees are exempted but others aren’t, employees could raise questions about the fairness of the policy, he said.
Suzanne Pardee, spokeswoman for the Corrections Department, said the agency is still developing its recommendations, but corrections officers, nurses and other “critical staff” are likely to be exempted.
“It looks like administrative personnel will be furloughed one day a month,” she said.
Tom Jacobs, spokesman for the DMV, said most employees will be furloughed, with the possible exception of information technology workers. He acknowledged that the result will be longer lines at department offices.
“Basically what it’s doing is reducing the workforce,” he said. “Individually, it’s not a big number. But that’s an employee who’s not going to do DMV business for 8 hours.”
Furlough rules set by the Personnel Department will also apply to classified workers in the higher education system. The Board of Regents will determine the effect on salaries of professionals such as professors.
Similarly, local school boards will decide how to handle cuts in teacher pay.
If the regents and school boards don’t cut the pay of professors and teachers, they will have to make equivalent cuts elsewhere.
The governor had a plan, the committee of the legislature had an ideal.
One would have worked, one is a nightmare.
Just so long as they don't make the furlough "one day a week."
Of course this was totally foreseeable. It was wrong in the first place to try to balance the budget on the backs of public employees. Did they CAUSE the problem? No!
Neiman is here to remind us it would have been better to let Gov'ner Gym go ahead with HIS "plan".... diabolical as it was.
Please. I got a 10% pay cut and no extra days off. The state should have had the guts to do what private businesses are doing; just do pay cuts. I would love to have extra days off, but work still has to get done. Also, yearly pay raises are somewhat silly. Why should I be paid more for breathing another year? If you do the same work, the pay shouldn't increase. I would get COLA's if they were tied to inflation, but they are instead fixed (even though inflation is down YOY, especially in housing costs)
The real solution would have people go to salary. No more counting the hours. You work till your stuff is done.
gamg, you just said the magic words: "public employees". They answer to us and should have no right to a union. If we, the citizens, decide that we don't need or can't afford certain levels of services then we should be free to adjust pay scales and programs accordingly.
I think using furloughs is wrong, not because I think it is unfair, but because I think it should have been done with across the board pay cuts. If a worker doesn't like the pay, he or she can always try to find work in the private sector with the rest of us.
Wasn't Director Clinger one of the people in the Governor's office that the Gibbons gave a substantial raise?
do you see another california budget B.S
And they don't want a state lottery. We need to vote all of them out of office.
boftx...
That's funny. Public employees do NOT serve at your whim, sir.
As for deeper pay cuts, or ANY pay cuts for that matter, many government employees have CONTRACTS with the state, county, city, or school district in which they are employed.
When the contracts run their course, you may renegotiate, as is the normal course. But no, you cannot just arbitrarily state "we don't have enough money right now, so we won't honor our end of the contract. But YOU must honor YOURS."
If you feel you need to breach the contract, that would be a matter to take up legally. Good luck on that one.
As for your silly "no unions for public employees" notion, I was under the impression that public employees had the same rights as private employees. The right to organize and the ability to demand the same basic protections inherent to all workplaces.
As a state employee, I am looking forward to the one-day per month furlough. Why? Because in order for my particular function - I must meet certain deadlines mandated by law. Eight hours off pretty much means 8 to 10 hours of overtime somewhere else. Thank-you Mr. Gibbons! My furlough means I'll be adding almost four hours of comp/overtime every month - an actual increase in pay!!! Oh no, just realized I'll be working a couple of nine-hour days. I'll be totally exhausted - how will I cope? I will however - as my thanks to the governor for saving my position. Instead of having his auditors go to the "grass roots" regarding budget cutbacks - he sent them to department heads. The state is totally top-heavy with upper and unclassified management positions. Those people have little or no idea what goes on in the "basement." They can't turn on a lightbulb without hiring a $250 an hour consultant.
The whole furlough is going to be a big mess and the governor is correct in predicting another special session of the legislature. If memory serves me correct, Mr. Gibbons was a professional airline pilot. Just imagine if his co-pilot was out on a furlough day. Imagine only one flight attendant for a full planeload of passengers? In truth, the pilot can fly the plane solo and a single flight attendant works - also imagine the good cheer of the passengers (citizens) dealing with reduced services. Yeah, right"