The elimination of six positions will “conservatively” save Lewis County $500,000 yearly as staff work to address a budget deficit.
“Organizationally, we’re needing to trim,” Lewis County Manager Ryan Barrett said during a budget update Wednesday. “And so we’ve begun that already.”
The reduction comes as the county staff work to address a budget deficit in the coming year. County staff will have a better understanding of the deficit once budgetary requests for individual departments are reviewed. At the budget update Tuesday morning, Barrett outlined the steps that have already been taken to reduce county staffing.
“We’ve been doing our best thus far to look as far around the corner as possible when it comes to preparing for this,” Barrett said.
According to Barrett, the impacted positions include:
• The chief of internal services
• The administrative assistant to the chief of internal services
• The housing and infrastructure specialist
• The public information specialist
• The human resources records manager
• The assistant to the county manager
While the positions were eliminated, the reorganization did not mean six employees were laid off.
“I just want to note not all of those positions were layoffs,” Lewis County Budget Administrator Becky Butler said Wednesday. “Some were resignations and not filling the position, and some were vacant positions.”
According to Barrett, three positions — the chief of internal services, the administrative assistant to the chief of internal services and the housing and infrastructure specialist — will impact the 2024 budget due to “payouts” and other associated costs.
During the meeting, Barrett said “conservatively,” the cuts will save the county “around a half million dollars” yearly.
“As we shrink the organization, and we really focus on core services, governmental services, we have to make sure that we’re doing that strategically as well,” Barrett said. “A lot of this effort needs to be shifted, reallocated, kind of reassigned.”
The county will hold a public meeting on the 2024 budget at 5:30 p.m. at the Lewis County Courthouse on Nov. 21. The commissioners will hold a public meeting where “any taxpayer may appear, be heard for or against, or ask questions concerning any part of the budget” on Dec. 4.
