Stephanie Knowles knows the odds are against her. Knowles expects to be laid off from her Sacramento County job in July, but she’s not angry with the county for cutting her position.

Knowles, who works for the Department of Human Assistance (DHA), says her job as a communications and media officer is not as critical as other positions in the department.

Sacramento County is struggling with a $187 million deficit. The Board of Supervisors will be discussing its budget crisis in workshops on May 13 and May 14. Media outlets have recently reported that the county plans to slash 907 positions, which means that 640 people would be laid off because the remaining positions are vacant.

Knowles, 30, says the department’s most necessary employees work with clients to assist them with benefits such as food stamps, Medi-Cal and other programs for low-income people.

She says she will miss several things about her job.

“Working for the county is a great place to be,” she says. “It’s like working in a family. And being a public servant — that feels good. I’ll miss that, definitely.”

But now, she says, she’s “at peace” with the department’s plan to lay her off.

“I feel they made the right decision,” she says, noting that the department needs to keep the employees who work with clients.

Knowles’s responsibilities include communicating with media outlets and with staff at the department. She also chairs a fundraiser for non-profit organizations, prepares an annual report, responds to public records requests and plans events. She has worked at the county as a staffer for two years, and as an intern for one year.

Knowles currently holds down a second job, working a few hours per week for a cosmetics company. She plans to continue her part-time job and look for a new full-time career position. “I’m just going to do whatever I can to get back into another career,” she says.

Knowles graduated with a degree in communications from California State University, Sacramento, in 2007.

Lucinda Serynek, a county communications and media officer, is Knowles’s supervisor. She says that DHA is considering cuts to 104 positions, 50 of which are filled. Unfortunately, one of those positions “is my communications and media officer, Stephanie,” Serynek says.

Knowles’s layoff has not yet been finalized by the Board of Supervisors, but it’s highly likely, Serynek says. There’s a chance Knowles’s job may be saved, but it’s “very, very slim,” Serynek says.

Knowles says Serynek has been her mentor.

Asked if she would fight to keep her job, Knowles responded that she believes in and values what she does in her position for the county, but that “I don’t think I have an option to fight for my job.”
 

Pictured above: Lucinda Serynek (left) and Stephanie Knowles (right).