A first shaping-up of a new budget for the Amador Water Agency is now complete and is being negotiated with employee representatives.

Agency commissioners this month massaged strategies including rate hikes, layoffs, salary reductions and travel-compensation cuts into a proposal firm enough to take to employee bargaining units for negotiations.

In the severe recession, directors initially attempted through budget cuts to achieve a goal of zero rate hikes to customers. It was found that would require a total of 17 position layoffs, and directors ultimately avoided proposing that. To hold rate increases to 4 percent would require 14 layoffs, and that also was a rejected plan.

Instead, selected was a proposal that would hold layoffs to four positions - by allowing rates to climb by 8 percent for all systems except Martell wastewater.

"Most of our systems haven't seen an increase for three years, so it's less than 8 percent on an annual basis," said Jim Abercrombie, general manager.

Martell wastewater rates are proposed to rise by 15 percent.

A slippery element in the discussions has been a proposal to reduce directors' salaries.

Director Gary Thomas proposed to cut directors' salaries by 8.1 percent, a move that would have directors matching rate payers in contributing to a balanced budget. President Terence Moore noted that such a cut could be expressed in reducing per-meeting compensation from $119.80 to $110.

"I'm not going to miss the $9.80," Moore said.

Savings made that way would amount to around $4,000 per year per director.

Vice President Bill Condrashoff said that savings would be around one one-hundredth of the total budget.

Besides Moore, the four remaining directors are new this year. They are Condrashoff, Don Cooper, Gary Thomas and Debbie Dunn.

"We've got some really motivated people," Condrashoff said. "I estimate I'm making around $5 an hour for my time."

Dunn said, "When we have four new directors, if ever there was a year this agency needed the highest effort from and support for its directors, this is it."

Thomas said a $4,000 cut for a director per year would translate into saving a typical staff member a month's wage.

Director salary cuts are not in the current proposal, but could be inserted before budget work is finished, Abercrombie said.

Negotiations with bargaining units are expected to finish in time for directors, at a July 9 closed session, to review the bargaining-unit discussions, said Karen Gish, human resources coordinator.