RivCo DA, Sheriff Seek Funds to Cover Millions in Anticipated Shortfalls

By PAUL J. YOUNG, City News Service:

More than $50 million will be needed to cover anticipated budget gaps in the district attorney’s and sheriff’s budgets in the current fiscal year, the Board of Supervisors learned this week.

During a four-hour “budget impact workshop” on Monday, the board reviewed the financial positions of most county agencies so far in fiscal year 2014-15 -- with much of the time spent focusing on public safety departments.

“Like last year, we’re still staring at a ‘bridge too far,”’ Sheriff Stan Sniff told the board. “We’ll do what we can on our side. But you’ll end up having to put in some funds at the end of this fiscal year.”

According to the sheriff, the projected shortfall by June is $42 million. Most of the red ink stems from salary and other benefits increases guaranteed to deputies under a three-year collective bargaining agreement.

However, costs are also mounting as the sheriff ramps up hiring to fill 406 correctional positions to staff the East County Detention Center in Indio, slated to open at the end of 2016, as well as put an additional 500 deputies on the streets.

At the board’s behest, the sheriff is boosting the number of patrol deputies to bring the officer-to-residents ratio in unincorporated communities back to 1.2 per 1,000. The current ratio is 1 per 1,000.

Supervisor Kevin Jeffries complained that Mead Valley has been overrun by backyard marijuana growers, some with ties to drug cartels. The supervisor told Sniff his office is in communication with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, urging federal action against growers.

Sniff acknowledged the problem, saying it was illustrative of the downside of the county’s cutbacks during the recession, when the deputy-to- residents ratio in unincorporated communities was allowed to slip to .75-to- 1,000. He expressed confidence that the department would become more “proactive” rather than “reactive” in crime-fighting as more sworn personnel are added to the ranks over the next five years.

District Attorney Paul Zellerbach projected a $10.1 million deficit in the D.A.’s office by June and underscored the possibility of layoffs and staff reorganization unless the board comes through with additional general fund support.

“We’ve been doing more with less for years,” Zellerbach said. “But Riverside County residents are getting a better bang for their prosecutorial buck than they have in the past.”

Zellerbach noted that the agency’s budget is down 8.3 percent compared to fiscal year 2008-09, when the board began across-the-board cuts to contain deficit spending.

Meanwhile, since that time, even though the overall number of staff has dropped 17 percent, personnel costs have risen 24 percent, according to the district attorney. Most of the cost pressures emanate from pay and benefits increases negotiated with the Riverside County Deputy District Attorneys Association, figures showed.

Of the D.A.’s current $99 million budget, $92.6 million is utilized to cover personnel costs, according to agency data.

Like Sniff, Zellerbach complained about the impact of Assembly Bill 109, the Public Safety Realignment Act of 2011, under which the Legislature and governor shifted the burden of incarcerating and supervising a range of criminal offenders from the state to counties.

“AB 109 is a total disaster,” the district attorney said. “It’s had a traumatic effect on my office.”

Zellerbach said plea agreements are routinely undermined by the fact that convicts are being released well before serving jail sentences because the jails are maxxed out, and there’s no room to keep them.

According to the D.A., who will be leaving office in January, there are few options but to curtail activity in some programs, either by eliminating attorney positions or support staff positions, or reassigning personnel to tasks that are grant-funded -- unless the board allocates more money to bring the agency’s budget into balance by June.

Zellerbach also highlighted the annual loss of Proposition 172 public safety sales tax revenue as another negative on the office’s bottom line. He argued the agency should be receiving a 17.16 percent share of whatever the county gets from the state in Prop. 172 appropriations, but the current fiscal year earmark was 14.74 percent. He asked the Executive Office to revisit the issue in the hope of reaching an equitable resolution.

County Chief Financial Officer Ed Corser told the board that the fire department will likely need an additional $3.2 million in 2014-15 to fund 18 full-time positions, while the probation department is seeking another $1.2 million for additional staff to work in anti-recidivism programs.

Public Defender Steve Harmon asked for $604,000 to add staff in Banning, while Department of Animal Services Director Rob Field sought $200,000 to fund three additional positions.

Corser said the Department of Code Enforcement was in need of about $1 million “so they don’t lose anymore people.”

According to Corser, the county’s reserves are expected to top $200 million for the first time in years, thanks in part to an unanticipated bump-up in countywide property tax assessments this year, from a predicted 4.5 percent to an actual 7.75 percent -- adding $14.5 million to county coffers.

The board will complete its budget workshop during Tuesday’s regular meeting and will likely ratify changes to its current $4.76 billion spending plan on Sept. 23.