Supervisors to Up Appropriations for Underfunded Agencies

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By City News Service

The County Board of Supervisors is expected next week to approve additional fiscal year funding for Riverside County public safety and other agencies that began 2015-16 in the hole.

The county Executive Office made a series of budget-related recommendations on the board’s policy agenda for Tuesday, advocating more than $33 million in discretionary allocations to shore up departments’ budgets.

“The ... one-time discretionary funding recommended here must be seen only as a temporary reprieve from further tough decisions,” county CEO Jay Orr wrote in a summary of the budget plan. “It offers an opportunity over the next year to reassess priorities and plan the restructuring necessary to position the county on a sustainable footing moving forward.”

The action proposed by the Executive Office comes only three weeks after the board tentatively approved a $5.27 billion spending plan for 2015-16. During that June 15 hearing, the supervisors decided not to immediately act on further funding requests from Sheriff Stan Sniff, District Attorney Mike Hestrin, Fire Chief John Hawkins and other department heads until the county’s revenue picture became clearer following the start of the new fiscal year, which was July 1.

County Executive Office staff did not recommend depositing the roughly $14 million sought by the sheriff to help rein in his estimated $65 million structural budget deficit. Orr said a better approach would be to relieve the sheriff of recruiting, hiring and training additional personnel to fill sworn positions in the field and to staff the East County Detention Center in Indio, slated for completion in late 2017.

The CEO said the sheriff can achieve savings over the next 12 months by capping all new hiring and only filling vacancies “to accommodate attrition” -- that is, retirements and resignations.

Meantime, Executive Office staff supported an $8 million infusion to cover an ongoing shortfall in the D.A.’s office, mainly to ensure no reduction in the existing workforce. Financial planners also backed a $5.4 million allocation for the fire department, about $800,000 for the Office of the Public Defender, $3.6 million for the Department of Animal Services, $10 million for the Riverside University Health System and varying appropriations for other agencies.

Some of the budgetary fixes would require drawing down the general fund, but other revenue sources would also be tapped, including state reimbursements for mandated programs and reserve accounts, according to Executive Office documents.

Cost pressures are building in many departments as a result of collective bargaining agreements that contain negotiated salary increases and other benefits. With the regional economy strengthening, demand for services has also increased, taxing county resources and driving up the need for more personnel.

The 2015-16 budget blueprint is 11 percent larger than last year’s, when $4.76 billion in appropriations were approved.

Revenue sources include local property and sales taxes, special assessments and fees, as well as state and federal distributions for mandated programs.

Budgetary figures show the county began the fiscal year with a total $355 million in reserves -- though most of that money is set aside for specifically designated contingencies.