In late August, I accepted a position on the Kitsap County Budget Review Com-mittee. I am one of five citizen members. The remainder of the committee is comprised of one union representative and all three County Commissioners.

As a member of the committee, it is my responsibility to review and evaluate presentations from each department funded by the county.

Some presentations I will see in person. Many I will watch via online downloads or BKAT broadcasts because these presentations occur during the hours of my full-time private sector job.

Last Friday, I arrived home from work, booted up my computer and prepared to watch a series of the programs to catch up on my evaluations. Shortly thereafter I received a phone call from a friend of ours that just so happens to work for one of the county programs that I was preparing to review. Laughing and thinking of a way I could tease him about this I answered the phone.

Very sadly it was not a call I ever wanted to receive. His wife, one of my very best friends, had been involved in an accident earlier that day. An accident that she has survived, but a portion of her leg had to be amputated almost immediately upon her arrival at Harborview.  They have two children. Our friends lives have changed forever in that single instant.

During the review process of a public budget, focus tends to be primarily on the numbers. In the past   several years the process has been about how to make up for shortfall after shortfall. Decisions become centered on efficiencies, cutbacks, personal staff sacrifice and doing more with less.

Friday’s events sharply reminded me about the very real and very human side to the living data that compiles those budgetary numbers. Human stories of individuals and families where the challenges of their public service can very well affect how they can respond the challenges of their home situations as well.

I use this example to remind the commissioners and all elected officials to always keep in perspective the very human connection to the efficiencies they are requesting, the cuts they are making, the reductions in staff that need to occur the workload that keeps piling onto those that remain. These are people. The people of our community.

We all need to reflect and respect the impact budget decisions have on very real lives and their family members.

Colleen Smidt’s column “Everything Bremerton” appears weekly.