Stanislaus County supervisors are set to review a budget proposal Tuesday night that includes eliminating 71 full-time positions, with the deepest cuts landing inside the county’s social services agency as it grapples with a multimillion-dollar deficit. The Community Services Agency alone stands to lose 67 positions, while Parks and Recreation will shed four jobs tied to the shutdown of operations at Woodward Reservoir next month.
According to KCRA, the Community Services Agency cuts include 39 social workers, five social worker supervisors, nine administrative clerks, five family services supervisors, two social worker assistants, two managers, one family service specialist, one technology specialist, one technician, one accountant, and one staff services analyst. The agency operates with an annual budget exceeding $187 million and nearly 1,000 employees, administering safety-net programs including Child Welfare Services, Adult Protective Services, CalFresh, CalWORKs, Medi-Cal, In-Home Supportive Services, and housing assistance, according to the Turlock Journal.
A Deficit Rooted in Years of Unreconciled Books
The Community Services Agency faces a projected $17.9 million deficit for the coming fiscal year, and the paper’s reporting on a county staff report traced part of that shortfall to a 2025 review that uncovered lost institutional knowledge and accounting reconciliations that had gone unperformed across multiple fiscal years. A fiscal review requested by county executive leadership found available fund balance records had not been properly reconciled over past years due to leadership turnover, the report found.
The proposal targeted 67 agency positions, marking a shift from the county’s earlier approach. A prior midyear adjustment proposed eliminating 143 positions — 111 of them in the Community Services Agency — but roughly 95 percent of those posts were unfunded vacancies, per the county documentation cited by Westside Connect. That round represented Phase I of a county strategy to align position allocations with realistic funding; the current proposal calls for potential cuts to 67 full-time positions.
Reservoir Wind-Down Adds to Parks Losses
The Parks and Recreation cuts are tied to the end of county operations at the 2,900-acre Woodward Reservoir, with county operations ceasing after October 15 and recreational access suspended October 16 after the South San Joaquin Irrigation District voted on October 14, 2025, to terminate its management agreement with the county. The irrigation district, which owns the reservoir, cited concerns over drinking water safety, facility upkeep, and operating finances, according to the same reporting…