"Becky's been here 32 years," said County Administrative Officer Terri Daly, referring to Amador County Assistant Auditor Becky Podesta, "and this is the worst she's ever seen."

Daly was addressing the Amador County Administrative Committee at their meeting Monday morning, outlining budget cuts.

The two major influences on this year's budget, Daly explained, are the general state of the economy and personnel costs. The state has been in a budget stalemate over solutions to its own financial woes. There is stagnation in the housing and construction industry. "Things are tough all over," she said.

Faced with the task of slashing $4 million from the county budget for 2008-09, Daly has made liberal use of her blue pen for cutting capital improvement expenses, nixing the relocation of a victim/witness facility at the courthouse and dumping items from the "wish list" compiled by the county's departments.

The county will not be purchasing property for a new jail facility this year, saving $500,000 from the capital improvement budget, nor will the county spend $200,000 on the victim/witness project.

An example from the wish list of something that won't cost the county anything this year is carpet repair or replacement in the district attorney's office. Temporary repairs have been made with duct tape and nailed-down mats. "It's not pretty," Daly admitted, "but it's OK for now."

The mandatory furlough program that was recently contemplated has not borne fruit, having encountered resistance from some quarters. Instead, the county will likely be instituting what Daly calls a "hard hiring freeze."

In a memorandum to all county department heads and employee bargaining units, Daly wrote, "Next week I will present to the Board of Supervisors a recommended final budget. I have balanced the County-wide budget with the following actions:

1. I have stripped departmental budgets to the bare bone.

2. All purchases over $500 will be evaluated by the Purchasing Agent, the CAO and the Administrative Committee, whether budgeted or not.

3. A hard hiring freeze as of today (dated Sept. 12, 2008). No new hires will be made, no changes from part-time to full-time, and no promotions will be considered.

The voluntary furlough program is still available and I will discuss with department heads various options available to them. We will continue to look for temporary transfer situations on a voluntary basis."

At yesterday's meeting, Daly expanded upon the $500 purchase order mandate, assuring public works representatives that "we don't want to hold up operations." Routine items, such as small orders of asphalt or gravel, will not be as thoroughly scrutinized as equipment or machinery purchases.

On voluntary furloughs, Daly suggested that some method be devised to provide recognition to departments that cooperated in that manner. Committee chairman Richard Forster added that he had sent a memo 10 days ago to his fellow supervisors, advising that they cooperate with the unpaid furlough days program.

To clarify the hard hiring freeze, Daly explained that there are 19 or 20 positions that aren't going to be refilled. "With them gone," she said, "we have a balanced budget." However, in cases where an employee departs, someone in the department could be raised into that position. Daly's proviso was, "Anything we do with personnel will have to have no financial impact."

Forster said that the supervisors' travel budget was going to be cut from $18,000 down to $5,000 and that he would be asking the board today to develop a new policy for their discretionary funds.

Daly's ultimate message to the committee was, "This is a very tight budget. If the state budget cuts something that we didn't anticipate, it's going to mean layoffs." Daly made it clear that any of numerous eventualities, from natural disaster to unexpected expenses, could lead to layoffs. The final budget is expected to be approved tomorrow by the board of supervisors.

In other administrative committee business, public works was tentatively approved for a small financial injection, responses to the recent grand jury report were discussed with Sheriff Martin Ryan and changes to the Amador County Employee Medical Insurance Program led to a referral back to the advisory committee.