Calif. official steps down to save employee jobs.

WILLOWS, Calif.--In a time when some citizens say executives should cut their high salaries to improve the economy, a Glenn County official went a step further--she stepped down.

The move by Child Support Services Director Carroll Ragland was to save jobs in her department.

Ragland told the Board of Supervisors that the department currently has a $91,000 shortfall, and the best way to reduce it was to eliminate the full-time director position.

She said that without this move, she would be forced to eliminate two of the department's four caseworkers.

Child Support Services in Glenn County handles 2,200 cases divided among the four. To eliminate any of those people would place too great a burden on the remaining staff, Ragland said.

Part of the department's financial problems are due to the state. Ragland said the state is trying to force small counties such as Glenn to regionalize and is under-funding those counties. The department is totally funded by the federal and state governments.

Ragland also said in documents provided to the supervisors that the state plans to eventually convert child support services from a legal process handled by courts to an administrative process handled by state hearing officers.