Beginning in March, anyone going to the administration building of the Island County campus in Coupeville won’t be able to get in the door of four offices before 9 a.m. or after 4 p.m.

There will be “a nice big sign that announces the office is closed due to the budget crisis,” Island County Commissioner John Dean said Wednesday. Human resources, the treasurer, the assessor and the auditor’s office will be affected by the shortened hours. The county offices — including the sheriff, prosecutor, planning, health, the commissioners — will remain on the 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. schedule.

The move will allow the bare-bones staff in the administrative building departments to have “desk time” to finish paperwork before dealing with the public. County staff has been reduced by 31 positions with all of those employees leaving by the end of February, allowing the county’s $67.7 million 2009 budget to balance after a projected $2 million shortfall.

Now the county is facing an additional $1 million shortfall because of a drop in revenue from investments, which will likely result in more layoffs later in the year.

The commissioners, elected officials and department heads held a roundtable meeting Wednesday to discuss the change in hours.

In addition, they talked about whether to have a hiring freeze as neighboring counties have done. The commissioners ultimately decided against it, noting that replacing some positions may be “absolutely necessary,” Dean said.

“I don’t think we want to make a big blanket statement,” Commissioner Helen Price Johnson said.

The commission plans to hire a new planning director to replace Jeff Tate, who’s leaving at the end of the month. Wednesday morning, the commissioners discussed spending $10,000 on a consultant to do professional background checks on the candidates.