Gallegos "loses" Nandor Vadas

In this article about budget cuts and layoffs, Gallegos claims that he let Nandor Vadas go because he LOST the Domestic Violence Grant. Earlier he claimed he fired Gloria Albin-Sheets because he lost the Domestic Violence Grant. And Gloria was named on the Grant as THE Vertical Prosecutor for DV, as was Nandor Vadas in her wake. But the DA's Office is still receiving the Grant, and several names have been put on the application claiming they were the Vertical Prosecutor, in order to appear to be complying with the requirements of the Grant.

It's fair to say that there has been no Vertical Prosecution in the DA's Office since Nandor left.

But the Grant has not been lost.
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Feeling the pinch
14 county workers lose jobs as supes pass 2004-05 budget
by HANK SIMS

Fourteen county employees will lose their jobs, a wide variety of services to the public will be scaled back and the salaries of many public servants will be cut in the upcoming fiscal year under the budget passed unanimously by the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.

In addition, the county will spend nearly its entire savings nearly $2.4 million and will leave more than 200 vacant positions unfilled in order to keep the county afloat during the statewide budget crisis.

"These are essential positions that are going away, and services are going to be less for all of us," said Supervisor Jimmy Smith.

The cuts affect nearly every county department, but certain high-profile services such as those provided by the Sheriff's Office, the county library and the Public Works Department are particularly hard hit.

The Sheriff's Office will lay off eight people, including one sergeant, an evidence technician and four secretaries. In addition, the office will have to leave seven deputy and two investigator positions unfilled, and will close its main office in Eureka to walk-in business on Fridays.

The county library will reduce its open hours at each of its branches by between 10 and 20 percent and will close down entirely for one week every three months. The Public Works Department will hold off on much of its standard upkeep work on county roads, focusing its effort only on the county's "critical routes."

The District Attorney's Office laid off a senior prosecutor, Nandor Vadas, last month because a domestic violence grant ran out, DA Paul Gallegos said. Vadas got a job with the federal magistrate's office, Gallegos said.

Other departments have devised different strategies for coping with the loss of funding. Employees of several including the Assessor's Office, the County Administrative Office and the Board of Supervisors itself have accepted voluntary, across-the-board pay cuts of 5 to 10 percent. District Attorney Paul Gallegos and Assistant DA Tim Stoen each took a 10 percent cut.

In a report to the board, County Administrative Officer Loretta Nickolaus laid out the causes of the budget crisis. The cost of providing health insurance to county employees is expected to increase by 10 percent in the upcoming year, and an increased share of payments into the Public Employee Retirement System (PERS) will cost around $2.3 million.

In addition, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed state budget involves taking some $2.5 million in property taxes from the county as part of a maneuver to balance the state's budget. Nickolaus told the board that Schwarzenegger was in the process of revising the proposal, which may result in the tax money being returned to the county.

After several weeks of special sessions to allow for input from heads of county departments and members of the public, the board was able to finalize the budget relatively quickly on Tuesday. Supervisors asked for only one change from Nickolaus' final recommendations to find $10,000 to support the Youth Service Bureau's teen shelter programs for at-risk youth. The $10,000 would keep the programs alive while the bureau pursues a $100,000 federal grant.

Supervisor Bonnie Neely, who has been working with the bureau and the county's Department of Health and Human Services to find other sources of funding for the programs, spoke in favor of the expenditure.

"I think it would be a mistake to lose $100,000 coming into the county because we didn't put forward the $10,000," she said.

Because of a legal technicality the board could not authorize the $10,000 grant at Tuesday's meeting, but a "straw vote" showed unanimous support for the proposal.

Supervisor Jill Geist thanked managers of the county's various departments for leading the way. Earlier in the year, each department was asked to provide a statement showing how it would cut 20 percent from its budget. Those statements formed the basis of the total countywide budget adopted on Tuesday.

"The departments have worked phenomenally to bring back budgets that they can work under and still provide basic services to the community," she said.

For many, the fact that only 14 employees had to be laid off out of a current workforce total of more than 1,650 was a tribute to the county's fiscal responsibility. The county instituted a hiring freeze more than two years ago, with the result that when the crisis hit, empty positions could be cut instead of actual employees.

After the meeting, Public Works Director Allen Campbell said that this approach led to a more painless downsizing than otherwise would have been the case.

"We quit hiring people two years ago, unless it was absolutely necessary," he said. "Through attrition, we're just kind of going down with the budget."