Cost concessions by vendors and service providers doing business with Sonoma County will save the county more than $1.8 million this fiscal year.
The total is nearly double the sum that county officials had hoped for when they rolled out the voluntary program in May as a way to help close a $61.6 million general fund deficit.
"I know its painful," Supervisor Shirlee Zane said Tuesday to an Board of Supervisors audience that included at least 20 people who do business with the county.
Under the program, 217 vendors providing supplies and services to 22 county departments elected to cut their prices by 10 percent in exchange for a one-year extension of their contracts.
"For us, a 10 percent reduction was so much better than a 100 percent reduction," Linda Powers, membership director of the Girl Scouts of Northern California, said. The group provides counseling services at the Sierra Youth Center and other county detention facilities.
"Hopefully as time goes by, things will get better for all of us," said Jim Flores, a lab manager with Hayward-based Forensic Analytical Laboratories, which does environmental testing for the county.
The savings will shave off a fraction of the county's $64 million in contract obligations for the year.
More than $1 million in savings will be in contracts for transportation and public works, health services, human services and other departments.
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