Local governments felt the economic squeeze in 2009, developing budgets that cut services many people took for granted. In the meantime, people who were themselves economic victims were calling on services that no longer existed.

The Kitsap County budget staff sounded the alarm as early as 2007, but it was this year when the public felt the effect. The new county office building, which opened to much fanfare in 2006, was set idle one day a week in April as Friday closures forced new habits. Some Kitsap residents have enough trouble getting to the county seat in the first place, and were given 20 percent fewer hours to do so due to the Friday closure.

Real estate agents found they could not close transactions on Friday, making a dicey business even worse. And those who wait until the very last minute before paying property taxes were surprised to find the office closed (although they could always avoid interest charges by putting the check in the mail).

Budget cuts forced new behavior for the government, as well. The county was planning to move services online, but this was accelerated by the office closures. The public can save time and gas by interacting with the county through its Web site, even if it lacks a certain personal touch.

The county has suffered layoffs, resulting in a leaner government.

County policymakers who are planning for the future believe that some of these jobs will never come back.

Government will learn to operate on a leaner basis, and the stereotypical public bureaucracy will disappear.

Throughout, it is clear that a lot of tax money has been wasted in the past. Increased efficiency is a wonderful thing, but some may wonder why adapting this new attitude took so long or why we couldn’t make the same mid-course corrections as a private company.

One answer comes from Kitsap County Administrator Nancy Buonanno Grennan, who said “sometimes it takes a crisis to force a new way of doing business.”

During the budget process all departments were instructed to make cuts as represented by FTEs (full time employees) as units of measurements.

This was meant to be equally applied across the board, but their importance was not always equally presented. Cuts at the treasurer, clerk and auditor’s office did not draw as much public attention as the potential loss of public safety employees in offices of the sheriff, jail or prosecutor.

As the budget edged toward completion, the jail had to bite the bullet and lose six guards. Sheriff’s deputy vacancies remain unfilled, and the loss of personnel in the prosecutor’s office meant that minor crimes will go unpunished and felonies will be knocked down to misdemeanors. All involved say they are willing to make sacrifices, but this works only as long as there is not a major crime wave or inmate uprising.

Potential crises aside, South Kitsap Commissioner Charlotte Garrido thinks both the government and the public are acquiring some valuable new habits.

“We have learned to economize,” she said. “The same thing is happening across the country, in both public and private agencies. People have accepted this.”

As the economy improves some things may come back, such as increasing hours and replenishing supplies, but new behavior is likely.

“We have found new ways to be frugal,” Garrido said. “We are looking at more positive ways of saving energy and increasing efficiency that we had not explored previously.”