JACKSON - Amador County's Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted to lay off seven regular employees, a measure supervisors said was forced by the declining economy and the failure of leaders in Sacramento to resolve the state's budget woes.

Amador County Administrative Officer Terri Daly said she tried to keep the layoffs to a minimum. She said originally she projected she would need to have a mid-fiscal-year layoff of 20 to 30 employees. She said the seven workers are two-tenths of 1 percent of the county's work force.

The Amador layoffs are coming from the county's Building, Behavioral Health, Public Health, Information Technology, General Services and Agriculture departments. The laid-off workers will be given three weeks' pay and placed on a recall list in case the budget situation improves.

Neighboring Calaveras County leaders voted in November to lay off eight Building Department employees after declining construction activity sapped the fees that make up much of that department's budget. On Tuesday however, Assistant Calaveras County Administrative Officer Shirley Ryan said her county will likely make it to the end of the current fiscal year in June without further layoffs.

Ryan and Daly both said, however, they are still waiting for state leaders to make decisions that could mean additional pain for local government employees here.

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