County officials plan for cost saving measures

Recent conservations at the Whitman County Courthouse between county commissioners have been in regards to revenue flow into the county during this time and throughout the year.

“We continue to not have a crystal ball for what the remainder of the year financial will look like, it is my belief and probably others that we will have significant budget and revenue shortfalls,” said County Commissioner Michael Largent. “Perhaps, we need to start doing some things now to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to cost savings.”

At the March 30 commissioner workshop it was discussed delaying a large county courthouse and jail renovation and upgrade project due to slow revenue flows during this time of social distancing and business closures.

Largent suggested a few others ways, at the April 6 workshop, that the county could save on additional costs. Some suggestions he gave were to have a hire freeze, travel moratorium when travel permits again, reclassification freeze, etc.

“We should start developing ideas now to begin the process of cost savings,” Largent said.

Whitman County Treasurer Chris Nelson said the closest example we currently have of what's going on would be the financial struggles of 2008-2009. She said she will be keeping an eye on property tax revenue to see if there will be a significant drop this year, but she won't know this information until the middle to end of April.

“I think we need to recognize that we have been through these similar struggles before and have worked together collectively,” said Whitman County Sheriff Brett Myers.

Myers agreed with Largent's suggestion of a hiring freeze and said he would strongly recommend this practice where it permits.

“Also department heads and other elected officials need to look at any spending that isn't directly related to the mission of their office and go from there with possible cost-saving methods,” Myers said.

Largent mentioned that up to this point, in response to COVID-19, many decisions regarding specific departments and offices have been left up to the department heads and elected officials. He said this might need to be done in regards to budgets as well.

Whitman County Administrative Director Gary Petrovich will go to each department and see what specific items departments can and can't go without during this time in regards to finances.

“I know some counties are looking at their non-essential personnel and applying some temporary layoffs to those employees,” Petrovich said.

County Commissioner Art Swannack said the county will need to be looking at hours of employees and see what overtime is being completed and where those hours can be reduced. He added that there are some state departments that will be seeing budget cuts up to five percent.

“We should be prepared to possibly see some cuts from the state,” Swannack said. “We have positions that are either partially or fully funded by state grants.”

The county will continue the discussion on cost-saving methods when it comes to county operations, projects and departments.