Mesa County Clerk: I'll close offices one day a week if forced to cut budget

Last edited Wed Mar 15, 2017, 03:28 PM - Edit history (1)

Tensions over Mesa County’s deteriorating budget situation came to a head Monday, when the clerk and recorder told commissioners she plans to close her offices one day a week if she’s forced to cut another 5 percent from the department’s budget.

In a public meeting that lasted more than an hour, Sheila Reiner told commissioners how her department voluntarily made an 8 percent overall budget reduction, which included some layoffs and the closure of the Fruita and Clifton motor vehicle offices. Commissioners announced last month they would ask all department leaders to cut 5 percent from their budgets this year to help balance the budget they adopted in December, which had a $2.7 million deficit.

“Our team proactively came forward with a solution as best as we could as far as we felt like we could cut, and then we’re getting another 5 percent put on top of that,” Reiner said.

Reiner said the commissioners’ request to cut another 5 percent across all county departments this year “is disincentivizing the good work that my team has done to find efficiencies to do more with less, to work harder, to push harder, to do with less budget. Because we came together, made a goal, my team got on board with it and they got behind their leader, and now they’re going to get cut deeper. So that feels extremely bad.”

Read more: http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/articles/reiner-ill-close-offices-one-day-a-week-if-forced/