Colorado's Clear Creek County switches to 4/8s hours amid last-resort layoffs to balance underwater budget
After switching to four 10 hour shifts a week for working hours in an effort to help retain employees just last year, the government of Clear Creek County in Colorado's mountains is now switching to a shorter workweek altogether -- four 8 hour shifts -- along with eliminating seven full-time positions. Three of those were just job openings they will no longer fill, the other four were full-time employees who are now without jobs.
Clear Creek County Commissioner George Marlin said it was a painful decision to let those four employees go.
"The four people that are on our team are four people who are on our team for a reason; because we value their contributions, and we think (they hold) necessary jobs."
It's a cost-cutting measure as well as an incentive to current employees to stick with the county as it navigates serious budget issues. While the county has known for almost a decade its revenue was going to decline due to a major source of income for the county (the Henderson Molybdenum Mine slowing operations and therefore consistently generating declining revenue) as well as cost increases for services, and a recent downturn in property tax income as well.
Couple that with employee retainment issues due to high cost of living due to low housing stock as well as stiff competition from communities on the Front Range, and Clear Creek County is simply desperate to maintain the folks they have and can afford right now, even if they can't really afford them.
"We did a wage study," Marlin explained. "That study needed $1.3 million to fully fund, and we were faced with a $4 million budget deficit."
So while experts were telling them they needed to give people more raises to match competitors' rates, which would cost them more than $1 million, they already needed to find a way to cut $4 million. Hence, the layoffs for the budget, and the hour change for the employees still working there.
"Cutting hours instead, give people some time back, by not funding capital," Marlin explained. "We know that is not sustainable in the long run."
Other line items the county has had to take a hard look at are the services they provide for the public, like the DMV or the Transfer Station, or the Roundabout free shuttle. County leaders have gone to the public with the hard questions and come back without answers.
"We ask people 'What are the services we are providing that you don't think we should be providing?' and nobody had a good answer for that," Marlin said. "County services are essential, right? Plowing people's roads, we are showing up when people have heart attacks, when people need a law enforcement presence ... we are getting people's cars registered, investigating child sex assault and taking care of the kids, protecting children."
While the measures the county has made to get the budget moving in the right direction, Martin bleakly addressed the reality of the situation.
"None of those opportunities are going to obviate the need for us to have a conversation with owners about whether they want to pay for these services or see them go away," Marlin said. "That is the reality we are facing, and a conversation we will probably be having soon."
