Leavenworth County will eliminate and reassign a total of 18 employees and positions to keep the 2009 mil levy increase at a minimum.

Effective Jan. 2, 2009, some county positions will be eliminated while others will be reassigned to different departments. All employees affected have already received personal notification from county officials.

The Leavenworth County Commission released a memorandum to all of its employees on Wednesday afternoon that stated “The economic climate across the country has created a tremendous burden on Leavenworth County’s resources.”

The county’s revenues have decreased more than $1.5 million between mortgage registrations and interest earnings alone, while costs of operation continue to increase, according to the memorandum.

The county, which has deliberated its 2009 budget since early June, faces a preliminary 3.5-mil increase from 2007. County Administrator Heather Morgan said the county will save about $900,000 from its reduction in force actions.

Morgan said the county is “not at liberty to discuss personnel issues” and could not confirm or deny a specific list of employees who might be affected. 

“The commissioners did a top-to-bottom review of the entire operations of county government and looked at what positions could be eliminated, where services were duplicated or where existing employees could cover those duties,” Morgan said. “The goal was to ensure the taxes for Leavenworth County citizens were as low as possible while still providing quality services.”

The county also has had a hiring freeze in place for all nonpublic safety positions since June 26. Under the hiring freeze, public safety-related positions must be reported to the commission prior to their advertisement and hiring.

County Clerk Linda Scheer has worked for the county since 1980 and served as county clerk since 1990. Scheer said she remembers county hiring freezes, salary freezes and holds on equipment purchases. However, she could not recall a county government restructuring like the present one.

“I don’t remember anything this drastic in this form,” Scheer said.

To the current commission’s knowledge, the county government has not experienced a total reorganization since 1980, Morgan said.

“The board, this year, felt that it was time to look at where efficiencies could be gained and to pass those efficiencies on to the taxpayers of Leavenworth County, not only in this year’s budget but to affect those savings in the years to come,” Morgan said.

Commissioner J.C. Tellefson said the commission had no intention of doing any county reorganization when the budget discussions started earlier this summer.

“There were a lot of people unfortunately surprised, and that’s a good thing,” Tellefson said. “It’s a good thing because there weren’t any leaks. We could have said in July that we’re going to do a reorganization, and we would have had 406 families in angst.”

Tellefson said commissioners have taken several other actions to eliminate inefficiencies within the county’s departments, which include incorporating the county surveyor under the public works department and switching to four, 10-hour work days in public works during the summer months.

“We’re not anticipating any carryover here,” Tellefson said. “We’re bare bones, this is what we need, and we’re going to come back to you again next year and we’re going to need more.” 

Tellefson emphasized that no county employees have been fired.

“We are reassigning some people and letting some people go, but it’s because of economics, not because they’re not doing the job,” he said.

Commissioners also have a responsibility for strong economic development in infrastructure projects like County Road 1 for future generations, Tellefson said.

“I think that the people are getting good representation for their tax dollars,” he said. “I’m trying as hard as I can, as are the other two commissioners, to take care of the employees, all 406 employees.”

For employees directly affected through the elimination of positions, Tellefson said he would write them letters of recommendation or make phone calls to help retain their employment within  Leavenworth County.

“I’m all over it because I want every one of those people that are currently working for us still working in the community because they are very good people,” Tellefson said. “Am I Pollyanna in thinking that all of them will get another job in the county? No. But we tried to keep it quiet so that there was no one anxious about losing their job until the realities came about.”