Santa Barbara County Department of Social Services to Cut Dozens of Jobs

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) — The Santa Barbara County Department of Social Services is facing imminent layoffs.
  
This comes as the county is looking to address a multi-million dollar budget deficit in that department.
 
Social services includes everything from health coverage and food and cash aid to job services as well asl adult and child services.
 
A department employee tells your News Channel that the county is eliminating 55 vacant positions and are preparing to lay off roughly 70 filled positions.
 
He says the cuts will directly impact services for vulnerable kids, families and seniors across the county at a time when demand for assistance is rising.
 
We spoke with Santa Barbara County Spokeswoman Kelsey Buttitta about the cause behind the multi million dollar deficit.
 
“What we are seeing is the costs of performing these services and administering these services is more today than it was several years ago, but we're not seeing it increase in the money that comes in to pay for that. they're not cutting services. It's just going to be right sizing the budget so that the services that they provide fit into the budget that they've been given,” said Buttitta.

The Department of Social Services will be submitting a proposal to balance their budget on Thursday.
 
They will be presenting that plan to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, October 7th.