County Warns Of Staff Cuts, Downsizing

BROOKSVILLE - Lean and mean.

That's the direction Hernando County government must go if it hopes to survive challenging economic times, County Administrator David Hamilton said Tuesday.

To that end, Hamilton released what he calls his "12 Drivers" - economic bullet points that spell out how he intends to streamline county government and save money.

Hamilton has emphasized several times since coming on board two months ago that he wants "fewer managers and better management."

That philosophy can be seen in one of his "drivers" in the form of centralizing county departments and trimming staff.

Hamilton, in a June 2 memo to the county budget office, lays out two separate tracks to accomplish his goal of downsizing government.

One of those tracks calls for department managers to establish a target dollar reduction based in part on growth during the past five years.

Another track is asking for a series of budget analysis reports to be undertaken immediately and to be presented to the county administration by June 23.

Those reports include: a uniform pay grid for all county employees, early retirement packages for supervisors and department heads, a review of current cost allocations and how they can be streamlined, a review of all overtime costs and supervisor travel expenses across-the-board and a review of the county's entire fleet of vehicles.

Hamilton is also recommending the county base its actual budget expenditures as if it will receive 98 percent of property tax revenue instead of the current method of budgeting 95 percent.

That 98 percent is in line with what the county currently collects, said Laurie Davies, finance director for the tax collector's office.

Finally, Hamilton suggests the county look at other counties' budget operations for ideas.

Hamilton and budget director George Zoettlein have said that the county will be facing huge revenue reductions, thanks to the passage in February of Amendment 1 and state-mandated tax cuts.

At Tuesday's county commission meeting, Hamilton presented to the board an overview of the data collected from six community budget workshops held in May.

Citizens completed surveys asking them to rank which county services they value as priorities. The top priority turned out to be law enforcement.

About 235 citizens attended the six meetings and 181 feedback surveys were submitted.

Hamilton also said the survey comments indicate there is a need for increased customer service.