San Benito County Supervisors gather for special budget meeting as financial woes loom
SAN BENITO COUNTY, Calif. (KION) - The state of San Benito County's finances raised more questions than answers. The county is now trying to find ways to address a 1.5 million dollar shortfall.
The county looks to eliminate over 100 positions across the board that have already been on a hiring freeze.
That's roughly 20 percent of county positions, according to San Benito County District 2 Supervisor Kollin Kosmicki,
"[A] lot of the positions would be, frankly, would be eliminated because they just realized that they were never going to be filled. We are in a report today that we've had vacancies that have been open for a matter of years," Kosmicki said.
However, this will not impact public safety, such as the nine vacant jail positions.
Sheriff Eric Taylor said those positions will be filled, as 9 out of 11 people who passed the written and physical test have passed their background.
"We've heard loud and clear from the public that public safety sworn positions are priorities," Kosmicki said.
Four different departments came forward to voice their concerns about the hiring freezes.
Integrated Waste Manager Celina Stottler says it could impact the Fourth Street Bridge encampments clean-up.
"Integrated waste management is falling behind currently on our accounting, our grant administration, and we have an abundance of reporting requirements this summer."
For now, the county decided to allow for one position for each department that spoke up, including waste management, a position to fill.
Supervisor Kosmicki says they will have a better idea of how the budget will look next month, hoping it does not lead to eliminating vacant positions.
"Any jurisdiction needs to know whether there would be layoff or not, it's wise to, for the most part, to have the hiring freeze for now until we have that clear pictures," Kosmicki said.
Other solutions Supervisor Kosmiki mentioned were to have quarterly budget updates throughout the year.
