If County Judge Gerald Robinson was trying to drum up support for his effort to cut the number of county employees and to make the whole of county operations more efficient, then he fell flat. But he has a point that should be considered.
Robinson has noted that not enough money is coming in and that less is on the way as the county drops in population. His point is that such a scenario is not sustainable, any more than it would be in your own home.
As he considered the county’s predicament and what to do about it, he went to visit other counties to see how they operated. Robinson said he discovered that counties with larger populations are operating with fewer employees than Jefferson County does. That’s a bit of an eye-opener. Other counties are also just more efficient in a number of ways.
“We are employee top-heavy, and I do realize the special needs in some of the other offices,” Robinson told department heads last week. “My main thing is sustainability. Dropping to a Class 5 is going to affect us. When we look at employee reduction, I’m asking each department to look at automation and cross-training in their office.”
Some of the department heads were irked, to say the least. Some said that their work is reimbursed by the state, or they said that they really, really needed their number of employees.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Those special circumstances do exist, and Robinson acknowledged as much.
But we also point out that some of the justices of the peace said, in response to the county judge’s idea of cutting workers, that they knew of many instances when everyone felt as if it were fiscally safe to hire someone if the county’s General Fund were spared. That was, in some ways, illogical thinking, since money going out is money going out, no matter how one slices it.
Robinson said he had already taken action in his own department by cutting three positions. And he recommended to the others that they should follow suit, even if they didn’t want to hear it.
“I’m not coming in telling you to cut this, this and this. I’m just saying we as a group, as elected officials, have to figure out ways to be more efficient,” Robinson said. “The biggest thing that I see is that we are still top-heavy in employees. We got to figure out ways we can be more efficient in our office. We have to get down.”
This is an issue that’s not going away anytime soon. Robinson has done homework and reached conclusions about addressing the problem. If he has failed, it is to get buy-in from these other department heads. This is too important, however, to let hurt feelings stand in the way of doing what’s right for the county. Perhaps some study sessions are in order. Likely, the department heads will learn something and Robinson will, too. Together, they can lead us out of this. If other counties can become more efficient, so can ours.