Yellow Pages
The Skagit County Planning & Development Services will reduce its hours of operations beginning Monday.
The department will be open to the public from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday. Phone service will be available from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Staff will still work full days but will not meet with the public outside the new hours of operation.
The move is a direct response to a year of budget cuts that reduced the department from a staff of 36 to 24. By January, the department will be further reduced to 22 after one layoff and one unfilled vacancy.
The staff cutbacks were prompted by a substantial decline in construction and revenues the county receives from permit fees, as well as the decline in general fund revenue.
Director Gary Christensen said there was no immediate financial benefit to the reduced hours, but staff can work more efficiently with extra time in the morning and late afternoon when not attending to the public.
“There’s no savings in terms of departmental expenses,” he said. “What it does allow us to do is be more efficient in our time providing services to clients.”
Previously, the department remained open all day, and staff took shifts addressing the public during lunch hours. Now the entire department will take an hour lunch at the same time and close the department.
Christensen said staff will spend the extra two hours working on projects and development reviews.
It’s a practice that could become more common as the county works to fill a $3.2 million deficit for the 2010 budget. Department heads were asked to come up with 5 percent in savings to their general fund budgets, which could include personnel cuts.
Commissioner Ken Dahlstedt said the county would consider any idea to become more efficient with fewer staff, including reducing hours departments are available to the public.
“I think there are some departments already doing that,” Dahlstedt said. “We’re just trying to balance work, budget and public service.”
