County offices to take long break

If you have official business to do with the county, don’t put it off. As part of the effort to balance the county budget, many offices will be closed or on reduced hours between Dec. 23 and Jan. 2, 2011.
Although certain services such as law enforcement, water delivery, transportation and some health services will continue without interruption, many county offices will be closed to the public until Jan. 3.

The unpaid Mandatory Time Off (MTO) program, which was approved by the affected employees, will save the county approximately $4 million. The cost-cutting maneuver was one of many adopted by the Board of Supervisors to close a $61 million budget gap.

All county employees will take eight unpaid days off of work during the current fiscal year, which ends on June 30, 2011. The unpaid time off reflects an effective pay cut of 3.13 percent to all employees.

This year-end period was selected for MTO because it typically has a lower demand for services than other times of the year. For additional information about the MTO closures see sonoma-county.org/mto.