At a time when budget cuts are imminent, it may seem natural for county department heads to look out for number one and guard their budgets ferociously. Without knowing the character of the managers, one certainly wouldn’t have been surprised to see them turn against one another in an effort to protect their own departments.

Instead, they decided to work together to find room in all their budgets, hoping to help the county cut $1.3 million from next year’s planned expenditures, and do it with as little impact on services to the public as possible. For that effort, the department heads should be commended.

Their recommendations are based on the ideas brought to the board by an ad hoc committee of citizens and two board members. While the basic skeleton of that plan remains, the department heads drew on their more intimate knowledge of the budgets to tweak it.

So far, the budget-balancing effort has been a model for others to follow. The county was wise to include a committee of interested residents in the process, and that group did a good job of learning about the necessary budgets quickly and making sound recommendations. The department heads seem to have made reasonable adjustments to that plan. The board members have the final say, but thanks to good planning and hard work by citizens and employees, they will have plenty of solid information to draw upon.

Slashing a budget is never work that will be relished, and despite their best efforts, the county managers admit they can’t eliminate the impact of the cuts, but at a time when most local governments are in the same boat, they are working to make the best of a bad situation.