The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors on Oct. 7 directed county departments to return with written plans showing how each will meet a required 6% reduction in salaries and benefits, and voted to block most new hiring until those plans are approved. The board also approved three specific recruitments the same day: an assessor position for Ukiah-area appraisal work, a senior public health nurse for the Health Care Program for Children in Foster Care (HCPCS), and a part-time library assistant and related administrative staffing changes.

The item grew out of presentations by department heads and a countywide fiscal overview from the CEO that said the county is operating in a deficit and projects a roughly $16,000,000 shortfall for fiscal year 2026–27. “You have some hard decisions here,” the CEO said during the discussion. The board’s motion to require department-by-department plans and to halt most hiring until those plans are accepted passed unanimously.

Why it matters: supervisors said they needed written, verifiable strategies to prevent incremental hires from worsening an already small-county fiscal gap. At the meeting, departments described both mandated services and work already undertaken to reduce costs; several asked the board to allow select re-hires to preserve core services. District Attorney office representatives asked the board to restore four previously budgeted positions the office had been allowed to recruit, saying certain posts are critical to public safety and to asset-forfeiture program administration. Assistant District Attorney Scott McMenemy told the board, “We’re simply asking that the board put back on the table 4 positions that you’d considered or already had taken away. These positions were budgeted already starting back in February. They were funded but not filled, so they’re in fact not really costing the county any money at this time.”

Supporting details: Human Resources Director Sherry Johnson told the board there are 68 positions currently in recruitment countywide and that some departments had worked with HR early in the budget cycle while others had not. Health Services Director Janine Miller said her department had already cut 18 positions to meet the directive and still asked to fill one senior public health nurse post for mandated foster-care medical work; she said the department’s cuts had already produced net reductions larger than 6% in the thousand-series payroll. Assessor, Clerk-Recorder Katrina Bartleme explained two requested hires (a real property appraiser for Ukiah and a clerk/recorder technician) were already budgeted and that failing to refill the recorder role could jeopardize a local recording fee that requires timely processing.

Board action and immediate outcomes: The board voted unanimously to (a) require that every department return at the Nov. 4 meeting with a documented plan showing how it will meet the 6% reduction target and (b) bar future agenda items that request new hires until the board has approved those plans. Following that direction, the board approved the limited recruitments for the assessor (appraiser and recorder support), the Health Services senior public health nurse for HCPCS, and library staffing adjustments (including an administrative services manager and a half-time library assistant). The district attorney’s request to reinstate four positions was continued and must return with budget detail showing how those hires will fit within the 6% requirement.

What supervisors emphasized: Several supervisors said they supported public safety staffing needs but insisted the county cannot approve hires without credible, department-level offsets. “If you spend a dollar, you have to find where you can remove a dollar somewhere else in your budget,” Supervisor Williams told the DA’s office. Supervisors asked departments to show specific deletions or savings (for example, deleting an already-budgeted but unfilled position) that would produce the required percentage reduction rather than relying on anticipated attrition.

Next steps: Departments must submit written reduction plans for the board’s Nov. 4 review. The district attorney will return with a fiscal memo detailing how the requested positions would fit within the 6% plan. The board’s requested documentation is intended to create a single, accountable record the supervisors can use to monitor whether savings materialize.

Ending: Board members and department heads said they will continue negotiations between meetings. Supervisors repeatedly framed the directive as an attempt to preserve critical services while forcing countywide fiscal discipline in advance of a difficult budget season.