Supervisors scale back Public Health, EMS budgets

By: 
Erin Sommers Graphic-Advocate Editor

With an understanding that departments will need to keep a closer eye on budgets next year, the Board of Supervisors trimmed about $50,000 from the proposed budget, mostly from the Emergency Medical Services budget, with some additional cuts coming from the Public Health Department budget.
Supervisors questioned Public Health Administrator Barb Riley about a $30,000 line item for paying employees for unused paid time off at the end of the year and their Feb. 14 meeting. Last year’s Public Health budget had the same amount budgeted, but showed no expenditure of the funds. Riley said she knows employees did sell back their unused days off, a policy that was adopted several years ago, when the department still offered home health aide services. At that time, Riley said, finding coverage for employees taking vacation was difficult, and allowing employees to not take all of their vacation days was one way of managing those schedules. Paying the employees for the unused days allowed the employees to continue to be compensated for the vacation benefits they were due, she said. 
Read more in the Feb. 22 edition. 

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