Retiring Champions

continued

"It's worse now--much, much worse," says Bergman. "People want to do good work, but we're out of bucks. We were a world-leading county in human services, and now the vulnerable are going to be hurt."

Gunn isn't giving up. "We want to restore them [the proposed cuts]. We're going to find it somewhere and give it back."

Bergman sees a way out. "I would personally support a human services millage, and I think this is going to happen, whether or not I'm on the board."

It could happen soon. "This board wants to do it," says Smith, "and I expect we'll have to have that conversation soon if we want it on [the ballot] in 2012. We'll try for next May."