Twenty-two Mariposa County employees have accepted a voluntary severance package and are no longer employed by the county.
County officials believe the buyouts will equate to roughly a $2.2 million savings in annual payroll.
Each employee, with salary and benefits, averages between $100,000 and $105,000, said County Administrative Officer Joe Lynch.
The voluntary severance was intended to help bridge a budget gap and allow the county to redirect positions to higher priorities.
A particular concern has been the rapid growth of Health & Human Services (HHSA) over the last 25 years, fueled in large part by the availability of state and federal grants.
Ten employees who took the buyout were with (HHSA) serving as program administrator, staff services analyst, driver, admin analyst, clinician, legal secretary and office tech.
Planning lost an administrative analyst and a planner. IT lost one employee.
Public works lost two maintenance workers and someone in solid waste. Probation lost an assistant probation officer.
The sheriff’s office lost a deputy and a jail captain.
A public works employee in charge of roadside brushing and fuel reduction told the Fire Advisory Council last week he had accepted the buyout. He said he didn’t know who, or if anyone, will be covering his job duties.
Lynch, the county manager, explained that positions that are crucial to the county — like a facilities manager and brushing — will be filled internally.
“In some cases, we will eliminate positions that are duplicate or where workloads have shifted,” Lynch said.
In 2020, Mariposa County offered a similar voluntary severance program. Twenty-three employees took the voluntary severance at that time, costing the county $600,000, but it was expected to save $1.2 million a year.
Susan Seed, president of the Mariposa Chapter of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), told the Mariposa County Board of Supervisors in June there may be an unintended cost.
“The previous time we did this actually created a hardship due to the loss of experienced staff, which did create the need to create additional positions to compensate for the loss,” said Seed in June.
Seed said it took 1.3 workers to replace the employees who left.
“I think we got into the position we are in by previously doing this,” she said.
County workers had until Aug. 6 to accept the buyout offer of two months pay or $1,000 for every year of employment, whichever was greater.
A full-time employee who took the severance deal can’t be rehired by the county for five years, or six-months in the case of a part-time or seasonal employee.
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