Joni Gray, Santa Barbara County 4th District supervisor and board chair, closed her district office in Orcutt on Feb. 25, and relocated to a “more efficient” space in the Betteravia Government Center in Santa Maria. Her other district office in the Lompoc Veterans Memorial Building will remain open.
Gray told the Sun she decided to move out of Orcutt about a month ago, when she learned she could break loose of the building’s lease, which would have lasted another three years. She said the move will save the county approximately $17,000 in rent, plus an additional $3,000 in utility bills, over the next three years.
“We want people to know that we’re trying our best to cut back when we can,” Gray said. “[The Orcutt office] wasn’t a luxury—it was affordable—but keeping it now just doesn’t make good fiscal sense.”
The office was funded by administrative fees collected from development, as well as county property taxes. Since the economic downturn hit in 2008, development across the county has dried up, and the county is now receiving nearly half of what it used to in property taxes, thanks to a severe deterioration of property values.
Furthermore, Gray said, the office was far busier when she and staffers originally made the move, but foot traffic had started to dwindle in the last two years. Since then, Gray said she had to reduce one of her four full-time staff positions to part-time.
“If I had my choice, Orcutt would still have an office,” Gray said. “But my original vision for that office was more than it turned out to be.”
The county is currently facing an approximate $60 million budgetary shortfall for the 2011-12 fiscal year, and county departments are looking for ways to trim about 15 percent off their budgets.
Gray held an office in the Betteravia Government Center prior to 2008, but made the move to unincorporated Orcutt to foster better communication with the residents of her district, which stretches from Guadalupe to Lompoc, along the northwestern corner of Santa Barbara County.
As of Feb. 28, Gray’s office at the Betteravia Center is up and running, she said.
Gray’s contact information will remain the same at the new location, and she doesn’t expect the move to impact services to district residents. To contact Gray at the Santa Maria office, call 346-8407; in Lompoc, call 737-7700.
“As it is today, we are all set up here, and it’s a done deal,” Gray said. “We don’t let any grass grow under our feet.”
This article appears in Mar 3-10, 2011.