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Laura Blackmon said that the County is making some changes in the way it is staffing. It is very difficult to do an across the board change. Some departments would like to use some temporary and have some flexibility. Commissioner Gordon said that if temporary positions are used to create permanent positions, then the temporary positions should also be scrutinized because they are usually not positions that the County Commissioners have approved. On the other hand, it is not right to keep a person on year after year with no benefits. Laura Blackmon agreed and said that some of these positions have been going on for years and have become an integral part of how the department functions. She said that she has not been comfortable with temporary positions since her arrival. The list of temporary positions is on Appendix C-2. Commissioner Gordon asked if there were temporary positions that the Manager was recommending to eliminate. Chair Jacobs asked for the Manager's recommendation. Laura Blackmon said that she is looking at needing an end point and a beginning point. She would recommend getting rid of all of the temporary positions on Appendix C-2. Commissioner Gordon said that she did not want anyone to be alarmed, but that she was just trying to find out information. Laura Blackmon made reference to Purchasing and Central Services and the conversion from a contracted position to Value Engineering. The other one is the Sustainability Coordinator, who would handle the energy initiatives. These are two positions that are not temporary as such right now. Chair Jacobs made reference to Appendix A-2 (blue). Under Temporary Personnel, there is $445,000 and then four lines down there is Reserve, Other Temporary for $111,000. He asked what is different and why it is not aggregated. Laura Blackmon said that last week there was discussion about reducing the temporary for departments but putting money in the Human Resources department so that the departments would have to go through a process requesting temporary staffing. This would reduce the flexibility of the department to fill permanent-type positions so that the County Commissioners are not approving them. This is the $110,750. Donna Coffey made reference to Appendix E-5 and said that this categorizes by department what is in each line item. Chair Jacobs made reference to page 2 and asked why he would not want to cut travel and personal mileage of$273,000. Laura Blackmon said that County vehicles are not provided and employees use their own vehicles to do County business. Mileage is submitted and the County pays for the mileage and use of the car at the IRS rate, which is lower than the cost. Chair Jacobs said that the County is way overdue in talking about cutting gas consumption, mileage driven, etc. It seems like there is no plan and these are increases that he will probably not vote for. He will suggest making an arbitrary cut. Commissioner Gordon said that if people have to use their own cars and they have to do something for their job, then that is reimbursement that should be paid. Commissioner Carey said that there needs to be a plan. He said that if an employee is asked to use their own car without being reimbursed, then it is basically asking the employee to subsidize the County. Chair Jacobs said that he is not suggesting that employees not be reimbursed, only that less be budgeted and that the County be more rigorous in what it assigns people to do. For example, more people should ride together when going to meetings at the same place. Discussion ensued about the budget for travel. Commissioner Gordon asked about travel expenses for Social Workers. Social Services Director Nancy Coston said that most of the travel expenses are for field staff. She said that the employees generally do not want to drive their cars to do this because there is a lot of liability.