By Lisa ZahnerINDIAN RIVER COUNTY — In an unexpected move during a preliminary hearing of the 2009-2010 budget, the Board of County Commissioners voted to cut one of the four attorney positions from the County Attorney’s staff. Commissioners Bob Solari, Joe Flescher and Wesley Davis voted in favor of cutting the position, while Gary Wheeler and Peter O’Bryan dissented.The issue had come up during budget workshops on July 23 over how County Attorney Will Collins would achieve the required cuts to his department. Collins had worked out a plan of rotating furloughs to meet the mandated budget cuts to his department. While the commission voted at that time to allow the furloughs, it changed course Wednesday and told him he had to let one attorney go by Oct. 1. Chairman Wesley Davis stated he was in favor of making the cut because the fourth attorney was added to the staff during the development boom to handle the increased workload of examining plats and since that workload has now diminished, the additional position should be eliminated.Wheeler said the decision equated to “micromanagement” of the County Attorney’s department and accused Flescher of being subject to someone lobbying him to change his position of being in favor of the furloughs in July and in favor of the cuts in September. “There’s been no lobbying,” Flescher said. “It’s a matter of being fair and consistent with the other departments, we’re not furloughing anyone else.”Collins said he is now faced with the tough job of deciding which of his colleagues to let go to save the county $119,000. The most recent hire was Assistant County Attorney George Glenn, but Collins would not say whether or not he would use a “last in, first out” criteria for the decision. Collins also stated after the meeting that the new job description for the County Attorney hired after he retires in March may have to be revised to account for the reduction in staff and expertise after the cut.Prior to the vote, Deputy County Attorney Bill DeBraal spoke in favor of allowing the members of the department to take furlough days to adhere to the budget constraints. De Braal said the legal staff’s workload has not been reduced with the downturned economy, but that it has just changed in scope and focus.”Instead of reviewing plats, we’re now handling foreclosure suits, sometimes they come in two or three at a time, we have 100 active foreclosure suits and more eminent domain cases,” he said. “We decided as a group that rather than to say ‘good-bye’ to someone and have them show up like the (unemployed) people at yesterday’s meeting, we decided to take one for the team and take the pay cuts.”Each member of the legal staff had agreed to take 26 unpaid days off per year or a 10 percent cut in pay to save the job of one attorney.When asked if the decision to go against the collective will of the department would be detrimental to morale and productivity of the legal staff, Collins replied, “It doesn’t help my morale. I don’t know how everybody else will feel about it.”The balance of the hearing was uneventful, with the commissioners passing the $302 million budget with hardly a comment from the public, except two members of the Indian River Taxpayers’ Association, who voiced their dismay at the fact that $273,000 in anniversary raises for firefighters was still in the Emergency Services District budget.County Administrator Joe Baird explained that the firefighters had given up their cost of living increases in their three-year contract, but that the county is bound to pay the anniversary raises, called “step” raises, by the contract with the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 2201.”They would have to take it to their members and vote to take those raises out,” Baird said. “The only way the county could take them out is if we could show financial necessity and we cannot do that because we are financially strong in that fund.”The raises are being taken out of the $14 million reserve in the Emergency Services District to keep the millage rate down.The general fund millage rate was set at 3.0892, or 9.38 percent below the rollback rate. The total property tax rate for residents of the county was set at 5.1436, or 10.49 percent below the rollback rate. This reduction in property taxes, combined with reduced state cost-sharing revenues to fund county functions, forced the county to cut its budget by $83 million and to eliminate 39 jobs.The final hearing of the 2009-2010 county budget will be held at 5:01 p.m. Sept. 16 in the commission chambers of Building A of the County Administration Complex.
