County mandate: 'Make tough choices'

The Flathead County commissioners issued a pre-emptive directive last week, asking department heads to cut more fat from their budgets.

The county already had directed its management team to reduce spending and continue a hiring freeze, but this takes it a step further, County Administrative Officer Mike Pence said.

“It’s a second salvo to the budget message,” he said. “We’ve decided to take a more definitive approach.”

To that end, the commissioners handed out budget needs-analysis forms for each department to complete by March 19. In addition to a budget analysis, the form asks for specific ways to cut costs and provide taxpayer relief.

Saying they’re extremely concerned about the burden placed on Flathead residents from the economic downturn, the commissioners said they feel county government has to do everything in its power to cut costs.

A fiscal 2010 midyear review showed the county with a healthy cash reserve of more than $8.4 million, but the county cannot expect that to see it through the throes of the recession, Pence said.

“We feel it is our elected duty to press forward with our ‘no more business as usual’ theme,” the commissioners and Pence stated in their directive. “Our citizens are maxed out and they expect their public servants, both elected and appointed, to make the hard choices to actually reduce this heavy burden.

“In other words we choose not to levy taxes and fees to the maximum limit allowed by law simply because we can,” they said.

Specifically, department heads must identify and eliminate unnecessary bureaucratic work and redundancy. The key is to identify “what is really necessary and what maybe ‘we have always done it that way.’”

Pence explained that department heads are being asked to visualize the real versus actual impact to taxpayers. In other words, if the county cuts two full-time employees in a department, “what difference will the public actually see or notice?

“We can generally visualize and answer that type of question without a major analytic effort by simply applying common sense and the courage to make changes and tough choices,” the directive stated.

If department heads don’t give the commissioners enough feedback, “they may have to step in” to do the belt-tightening themselves, Pence said.

The county could gather input similar to what the Kalispell school district is doing by taking public comments at a school-board meeting, Pence said, but he’s not sure how effective that is in the end.

“While public input is fine, how do they [the public] make it work?” Pence said. “If we’re really serious about controlling costs and reducing the burden, it’s our job. We need to take responsibility.”

 Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com