In a bid to avert massive layoffs to balance next year's budget, Riverside County officials voted Tuesday to offer incentives to more than 3,500 county employees to retire early.

The Riverside County Board of Supervisors debated extensively the merit of a proposal to entice workers to retire early by offering two years of extra service credit toward their pensions, a popular practice in government that has been dubbed a golden handshake.

Supervisors approved the plan in a split vote. The clerk recorded the vote as 4-1 in favor of the early retirement offer, with Supervisor Jeff Stone voting against it.

However, both Stone and Supervisor Bob Buster spoke out against the plan.

And Buster said later that he had intended to vote against it and believed he had.

"I don't know what happened. I could have punched the wrong button," Buster said.

Buster said the screen at his place on the dais did not display the vote.

And when no one announced the result, he figured the measure had been approved 3-2.

In a related matter, supervisors voted 4-0, with Supervisor John Tavaglione having just left to catch a plane for Sacramento, to maintain a reserve equal to at least 6 percent of its budget, or about $36 million.

"Our general fund reserves have fallen by about $200 million over the last two years," County Executive Officer Bill Luna said. "We're now establishing a floor we can't go below to protect against insolvency."

The board has taken $71 million out of reserve to balance this year's budget.

And in early February, the board will consider taking more out to backfill a loss of law enforcement revenue being driven by weak retail sales and the sales taxes collected from them.

But putting a stop to the steady drain on reserves will require deep cuts, county administrators say, and that could mean as many as 1,500 layoffs.

Through the early retirement offer, the county hopes to minimize the need for layoffs.

Human Resources Director Ron Komers predicted that more than 500 seasoned employees would accept the offer, saving the county $46.4 million a year in salaries and benefits.

At the same time, he said, the incentives would cost the county a total of $22 million, which will be spread over 20 years.

Komers said the annual cost would be nearly $1.7 million.

It is that additional cost that was the focus of Stone's and Buster's opposition.

"I don't want to appear unsympathetic," Stone said, referring to the pain of being laid off. "But I was elected to sit on this board to represent 2.1 million people."

And, in saying the county "bureaucracy" is "bloated," he said using layoffs, rather than early retirement, to thin the county payroll would provide more savings to taxpayers.

In addition to the cost, Buster said, early retirement incentives aren't fair to employees who remain behind.

"Is it fair to now grant those employees (who retire early) another two years of service credit, for a 10 percent increase in their pensions?" he asked.

A couple of employees suggested early retirement is more fair to workers than layoffs. And one said a positive outcome is that it opens upper-level positions others can promote into.

"That's what I'm concerned about," Buster said. "What that does is, it reduces the savings from the early retirement plan."

He said that is because when people are promoted, the county must boost their pay.

Komers maintained that early retirement offers still provide significant savings. He said the county's costs for unemployment insurance rise with layoffs, although he could not say how that compares to the higher pension costs associated with early retirement.

Tavaglione, who made the motion to approve the plan, said early retirement is not only about preserving employee morale, but also about protecting the local economy.

When veteran employees retire early, their finances are healthy and they continue to pump money into the economy, Tavaglione said.

But he said layoffs tend to push out younger workers whose families depend on them, and who boost the ranks of the unemployed.

Tavaglione added that he doesn't believe the slight improvement in the county's unemployment rate to 14.3 percent in December will hold up.

"I guarantee that was just a blip from the holiday hiring," he said.

Call staff writer Dave Downey at 951-676-4315, ext. 2623.