In late February, Josephine County emailed an offer to full-time employees who had worked at the local government for at least three years. The proposal, which had a weeklong deadline, was to resign and walk away with around four months of severance pay. Only the first 32 workers who responded would get the deal.
Keith Gibson, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3694, said only 18 workers took that buyout. Although, he said, that has already had an impact.
“Seventy-five percent of the HR department, including the director, took the voluntary resignation,” said Gibson. He said personnel issues like onboarding have been affected.
It reminded Gibson of the recent mass federal layoffs at the suggestion of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
“This seems very, very conveniently timed,” said Gibson. “It certainly reminds me of the types of programs and problems that have been happening at a federal level.”
Josephine County’s budget problems began long before the Trump administration. A memo by Commissioner Andreas Blech last month explained that the county can no longer rely on federal money, like the Secure Rural Schools program, meant to offset losses in logging revenue.
“Those federal programs were never meant to be a permanent solution, and the county has struggled to secure other tax revenues,” according to the memo.
For years, the government has struggled financially as the timber industry declined in Southern Oregon. Logging businesses, many of which operated on federal land, provided the county with revenue for critical services. However, less revenue, combined with residents’ aversion to new taxes, led to the layoffs of most of the sheriff’s department in 2012.
According to the voluntary resignation order passed by the board of commissioners, the recent buyout offers are meant to “prioritize public safety funding.”
Blech, who told the board last month that personnel costs account for 80% of the county’s budget, noted in his memo that the decision to trim the county’s workforce is “based solely on budgetary constraints." But the environment in Washington, Blech said, does play a part.
“The new presidential administration has shown great interest in reducing the federal budget. I believe that we will be facing reduced budgets countywide in the very near future,” according to the memo.
In 2023, Josephine County voters approved a property tax increase to fund a law enforcement service district but rejected a tax to the county's Veterans Service Office last November.
