Supervisors Approve Tentative Spending Plan for 2015-16

By City News Services

The Riverside County Board of Supervisors tentatively approved a $5.27 billion spending plan for the coming fiscal year, but held off authorizing additional multimillion-dollar disbursals for public safety and other agencies facing shortfalls until after further budget hearings are completed.

Following a daylong meeting Monday at the County Administrative Center in Riverside, the board gave a preliminary nod to the proposed spending plan put forward by the Executive Office. The 2015-16 budget blueprint is 11 percent larger than last year’s, when $4.76 billion in appropriations were approved.

The new fiscal year begins July 1, and the county is legally required to have a budgetary plan in place by that time. However, the board will not finalize its 2015-16 budget until after two additional hearings -- one on July 7 and another in mid-September.

County staff say the delayed finalization provides time for the county to assess its financial position following implementation of the state budget and a review of the county’s year-end ledger.

Chief Executive Officer Jay Orr noted in his introduction to the 165- page budget report that a number of agencies had collectively requested $136 million above the baseline general fund discretionary fund allocations previously established. Sheriff Stan Sniff asked for the largest over-baseline boost -- $65 million, Orr said.

“I must recommend caution and restraint in using potential one-time revenues to fund ongoing operations, as doing so will compound currently projected deficits and tie up all revenue growth realistically foreseeable over the next three years,” he said. “This would leave the county little flexibility to address urgent unforeseen needs, and vulnerable in the event of an economic downturn.”

The CEO said the sheriff is battling ballooning funding commitments that stem from higher labor costs and expenditures tied to the East County Detention Center in Indio, slated for completion at the end of 2017.

To save money, the board has already backed off a push for the sheriff to increase the deputy-to-residents patrol ratio from 1.04 per thousand to 1.2 per thousand in unincorporated communities.

Orr said the Executive Office would be working with the sheriff’s department on a “phased-in” opening of the 1,273-bed ECDC to control costs. The new jail will require more than 500 additional personnel, including correctional deputies, cooks, clerks and custodians.

Two-thirds of discretionary general fund revenue is consumed by public safety agencies, according to the Executive Office.

Other than the sheriff, the District Attorney’s Office, Fire Department, Department of Animal Services and Office of the Public Defender all approached the next fiscal year with anticipated shortfalls.

Additional funding support was also sought by the the Department of Public Social Services, whose managers requested nearly $21 million in county revenue to buttress child welfare, foster care and adult protective services programs. The Department of Mental Health asked for an extra $10.8 million allocation for juvenile and adult treatment services.

Board Chairman Marion Ashley was prepared to direct $8 million in discretionary appropriations to solve D.A. Mike Hestrin’s budgetary gap, but that patch and other proposed commitments were not immediately backed by Supervisors John Benoit and John Tavaglione, who wanted to at least wait until the second hearing on July 7 to vote on the proposed budgetary fixes.

“We’re throwing around a lot of numbers here. I don’t think we should be doing that,” Benoit said after county Chief Financial Officer Ed Corser ticked off a list of possible ad hoc funding commitments that could be made before the end of the fiscal year.

The board agreed to defer action on individual agencies’ requests, while authorizing the general spending plan, which will be paid for with a mix of property and sales taxes, special assessments and fees, along with state and federal infusions for mandated programs.

According to the budget report, the county will begin the fiscal year with a total $355 million in reserves -- though most of that money is set aside for specifically designated contingencies.