By Marcia Moore
SUNBURY — Ten positions were cut from the 2010 Northumberland County budget Tuesday, and more job cuts are probably on the way.
Jobs that cost the county $377,730 a year were eliminated during a salary board meeting in a packed room at the county administration building.
A little later, the commissioners passed a motion requiring all county department heads to submit budget reductions by Dec. 28 or risk having them propose cuts to the salary board on Jan. 5.
“We’ve sent a message that if they don’t abide by the rules and do what’s in the best interest of the taxpayers, be aware that we’ll cut the budget for you,” said Commissioner Vinny Clausi, a Democrat.
Treasurer Ron Chamberlain, a Republican, objected to his office losing a second deputy position within a year of losing an account clerk position.
“I can’t lose another position,” he argued.
He asked the commissioners to allow him to move his current deputy into the vacant position.
Commissioner Frank Sawicki, a Democrat, and Clausi said they weren’t telling elected officials how to run their offices, only proposing specific job titles be eliminated.
“You are running the office by taking the funding away,” Chamberlain replied.
Controller Charles “Chuck” Erdman, a Republican, wanted to know how much money the board was trying to cut from the 2010 budget.
“We don’t know at this time,” Clausi said.
Erdman suggested the commissioners determine what needs to be done to balance next year’s spending plan and allow elected officials to adhere to the budget they develop.
In a 3-2 vote along party lines, the move to cut the position from the treasurer’s office failed. Chamberlain, Erdman and Commissioner Kurt Masser, a Republican, opposed it, and Sawicki and Clausi approved it.
Prothonotary Kathleen Strausser and her attorney, Roger Wiest II, also put up a fight about losing a second deputy and data clerk, to no avail.
Approving the cuts were Sawicki, Clausi and Masser, with Strausser and Erdman opposed.
“This is tough,” Masser said, adding that the cuts were necessary to shrink county government. “This is about dollars and cents.”
Clausi said the board is “very united” on balancing the budget and warned, “There will be a lot of problems if we don’t abide by the budget.”
He also predicted more positions would be eliminated by the time the 2010 budget is adopted.
Some row officers appear to have been put on notice.
On the written agenda of the salary board, the second deputy position in the register and recorder’s office, two court administrative secretaries, a juvenile probation supervisor and two officers were listed, but no action was taken.
The commissioners were noncommittal when asked if they were gunning for those positions to be eliminated.
“It was put on as an announcement,” Sawicki said, adding, “Decreasing the cost of county government is not an easy thing to do.”
For months, the commissioners have been publicly wringing their hands over how to deal with a projected $1 million deficit in the 2009 budget.
They’ve debated axing positions and giving all county employees unpaid time off, but ended up cutting only a five positions in the last two months in the offices of tax assessment, purchasing and planning, a courthouse maintenance employee and receptionist.
The sale of Mountain View Manor nursing home for $16.5 million at the end of the year will help close the budget shortfall, but the commissioners said they still have more cuts to make to reduce the county’s financial footprint.
Meanwhile, they’ve sent a formal request to all the bargaining units asking them to reopen ratified contracts and accept an increase in health care co-payments to defray skyrocketing costs.
Clausi said for the past 10 years, taxpayers have been footing increase in health insurance, which costs about $6 million annually.
This year the cost is jumping 17.5 percent, or $1.2 million, and there’s no place else to turn but raising co-pays, he said.
“I’m begging the unions to cooperate with us,” Clausi said in public session.
n E-mail comments to mmoore@dailyitem.com.
