Departments to make their cases for budget augmentations today
EL CENTRO — Several Imperial County departments on Tuesday will ask the Board of Supervisors not to accept the administrative recommendations not to fund positions.
Very few of the 103 augmentations submitted to county administration have been recommended for approval.
The county is recommending against funding step increases for seven positions in the County Assessor’s Office through the general fund, which would have a cost of $10,146.
There are three steps for assessors in the county: Step 1 for those just starting out, Step 2 for those who are able and tasked to do other types of assessments, and Step 3 for those who can handle more complex assessments.
County Assessor Robert Menvielle was told that if he wanted to promote the seven employees to a higher grade, he could not use funds in the budgeted general fund or money saved by not filling positions.
He said he finds this strange since one way the county is balancing its general fund budget is through positions that have been frozen.
Menvielle was told the money would have to be found somewhere in the assessor’s budget to pay for the promotions. He said he has identified a way to pay the workers being promoted to a higher grade with more responsibilities. He will present his plan to the supervisors today.
Menvielle believes that if people in his department are stuck in the same pay grade without the ability to move up there is a possibility some of them might leave.
He said he understands the need to control costs, but losing experienced staff would be more costly over the long run. The Assessor’s Office collects property taxes, and the county receives a portion of those funds, so it is important for his office and the county to have people with experience, he said.
“It’s a good investment for the county to retain people,” he said. “It helps us to maintain and incentivize staff. As employees move up, they can do more complex work.”
He understands the county’s argument in not using one-time funds, like not filling vacancies, to pay for salary increases or promotions because these same funds will not be available in future years, but the increases in salaries will not go away.
However, in his office, the taxes that are charged and collected are not one-time funds, either, he said.
“We are producing revenues,” he said. “We are increasing that revenue stream.”
In prior years, he said promotions were never questioned, but that changed in the spring when departments were told the promotion expenses had to be in their budgets.
The assessor’s office today will be the first department make a presentation to the Board of Supervisors to tell them how it plans to pay its workers for the promotions.