Yolo County supervisors weigh cutting social workers, welfare office in Winters
With more than $35 million in red ink looming over Yolo County’s budget, supervisors on Tuesday confronted a grim reality: balancing the books could mean cutting jobs, closing offices and shrinking services residents rely on every day.
The county is considering eliminating more than 100 jobs and at least $2 million in county contracts in response to a longstanding budget deficit. A significant portion of the proposed cuts would come from the county’s Health and Human Services Agency.
County leaders directed department heads in January to identify spending reductions. Each agency then developed a list of proposed cuts, which supervisors reviewed during a board meeting last week. County staff returned Tuesday with answers to supervisors’ questions and additional details about the proposals.
Much of the discussion centered on proposed HHSA cuts, including closing the agency’s welfare office in Winters and eliminating 22 positions in the county’s Child Welfare Services Department.
Several employees whose jobs could be eliminated attended the meeting and told supervisors the cuts would limit access to vital community services. Their comments contrasted with presentations from agency leaders, who said they did not expect the reductions to dramatically worsen county services.
From the dais, supervisors acknowledged the human toll behind the budget decisions.
“I’ve got a lot of empathy and some tears happening right now,” Supervisor and board Chair Sheila Allen said. “It’s really hard.”
The county’s Child Welfare Services Department is facing a $4.6 million deficit. The department proposed laying off 10 employees and eliminating 12 vacant positions. The vacant positions include eight social workers, three social services assistants and one administrative analyst. The proposed layoffs include five Child Welfare Services assistants, four office support specialists and one child welfare worker.
When planning reductions, the department prioritized retaining social workers because they can support child welfare operations in the broadest range of situations, said Marisa Green, director of the social services branch.
“When it comes to keeping kids safe, when we need to go out in the middle of the night, when we need to investigate and when we need to remove, I have to have a social worker,” she said.
The cuts will not affect child safety, Green said. There are fewer than half as many Yolo County children in foster care as there were in 2020. The department also has seen a 60% decline in the number of children it serves since then. As a result, caseloads remain manageable and the staffing reductions are not expected to increase overtime spending, she said.
Members of Stationary Engineers Local 39 filled the supervisors’ chambers holding signs reading, “cutting workers cuts our community.” Several spoke against closing the Winters HHSA office, saying it would burden residents who cannot travel to other county offices.
Speakers opposing the cuts also pointed to recent federal policy changes that could make benefits harder to obtain. Beginning next year, nearly half of the county’s more than 50,000 Medi-Cal enrollees will have to meet new work requirements to qualify for benefits, administrative services analyst Kristal Donate-Alvarez said during public comment.
The change “will be unprecedented,” she said, adding that the county will need benefit specialists to help residents navigate the process. She said that work ends up benefitting the county financially.
“Analysts want to contribute and support the agency with revenue generation,” she said. “I urge you to see analysts as part of this solution.”
Allen remarked “I’m feeling a lot of 2008 PTSD,” as the discussion reminded her of the 2008 Great Recession when she worked in public health and lost her program during budget cuts.
“So I feel for the people that are out there,” she said. That experience with layoffs showed Allen “what it feels like to see your position and you know your name is right next to it,” she said. “It’s awful.”
