AUBURN – Sheriff-elect Guy Desjardins hopes to avoid layoffs in the department he’ll inherit in 11 days.

On Wednesday, the next Androscoggin County sheriff outlined his own budget proposal with commissioners, calling for a reduction in part-time help and the reassigning of two jail guards to patrol officers.

“There’s no magic bullet here,” said Desjardins, who will begin work as sheriff on Jan. 1. “Dollars are going to be tight.”

And the numbers are still moving.

In a 90-minute meeting with commissioners, Desjardins summarized some of his spending changes.

“We looked at productivity,” he said. “We looked at positions.”

He planned to cut more than $80,000 in salaries and $4,000 in stipends from the jail. Meanwhile, he planned to add two patrol deputies to the force – officers who will patrol the county rather than guard inmates – and put a records clerk to work part time in the civil division.

Desjardins, who has been working for the past four weeks on the budget, said he met with department heads and rank-and-file personnel to come up with the new budget.

“I feel very comfortable with the proposals I have made,” he said.

However, after meeting with the three-member commission, Desjardins said he could do little more than hope his suggestions survive further number crunching by the county.

The work has been rushed.

Ever since commissioners submitted a budget calling for an 11 percent tax hike – despite layoffs and furlough days – the budget has been controversial.

In mid-November, the county Budget Committee voted to postpone work the spending package. The 11-member committee planned to revisit its work in January, following Desjardins’ inauguration.

But that was later scuttled after an attorney’s opinion suggested that the county needed to pass a budget by year’s end. Since the start of December, Desjardins has been trying to come up with a new plan, one that would prevent the loss of six people in the department.

“Budgets are compromises, and we’re trying to get over this hump,” he said.

He is also working in the wake of a political battle.

The original 2007 budget proposal was authored by outgoing Sheriff Ron Gagnon. Desjardins called his rewrite of that proposal a “partial restructuring” of the department.

The exact numbers will need some work, though.

Commissioners wondered if some benefits were factored into totals, such as the patrol department’s $971,822 proposal, which was higher than 2006’s almost $900,000 budget but less than the earlier proposal of just over $1 million.

“I haven’t been here all year, so I am playing major catch-up,” he said.

Desjardins left the department last January as chief deputy but won the top job in a head-to-head election with Gagnon.

When he takes office on Jan. 1, Desjardins plans to go to work finding the money to pay for the patrol officers.

He plans to attend selectmen’s meetings in every small town in the county in hope of bringing in new revenue, contracts like the one the county has already arranged for service in Poland.

That town paid almost $200,000 to the county, above and beyond its regular levy for dedicated police service.