Supervisor: County Faces Tough Budget Cuts

Residents gathered at the on Thursday to learn more about Alameda County at the “Breaking Down the Disconnect” town hall meeting.

Alameda County Supervisor Nadia Lockyer hosted the event to explain what the duties of the county are. Lockyer serves District 2, which includes Newark, Hayward, Union City and parts of Fremont and Sunol.

County Administrator Susan Muranishi, Alameda County Fire Department Chief Sheldon Gilbert and County Assessor Ron Thomsen were also at the event.

While giving an overview of the region, Lockyer said the county is facing tough budget cuts.

“We need to use every dollar more efficiently and effectively,” she said. “So my focus, you will hear, is on better coordination between agencies.”

Muranishi said Alameda County’s current budget is $2.4 billion. It will be about 3 percent more next year, raising the spending plan to around $2.5 billion.

That will leave the county with a funding gap of $138 million.

“As has been the case, and even more so in a bad economy, our expenses are going up a pretty nominal amount, but our revenues are still declining,” Muranishi said.

The county saw slight growth in its property taxes this year for the first time in the past three years, Muranishi added.

"But when you think about the size of our budget, the amount of increase in property taxes is only $6 million. Not enough certainly to make up for some of those other losses," Muranishi said.

The county has a budget group working with county departments on ways to help close the budget deficit.

“I would just want to emphasize that this county has been fiscally prudent. We have good credit ratings because the Board of Supervisors has really adhered to some financial management policies,” Muranishi said.

Muranishi added the board has built up a reserve that only amounted to $3 million 15 years ago.

"They continue to build that up. It’s nowhere near where it should be, but they’ve taken some prudent measures, had to make some hard budget cuts in order to keep the budget balanced," Muranishi said.

The biggest challenges for District 2 were also outlined by Locker. She stressed the county has the highest youth obesity rate in the county, the highest diabetes and congestive heart failure emergency room visits, highest assault-related emergency room visits, issues with youth and domestic violence and increased countywide foreclosures.

Gilbert presented an overview of what Alameda County Fire does He noted that May 1 marks the one year anniversary of the consolidation between Alameda County Fire and the Newark Fire Department.

Gilbert added that switching fire service saved Newark $600,000 with an aggregated savings of $2.5 million over five years.

Alameda County Fire is also working on a pilot program with plans to open health clinics at select fire stations, which have not yet been determined. It also has not been determined whether there will be a clinic in Newark.

The clinics would have a nurse practitioner or EMT to treat minor illnesses and to help alleviate crowded emergency rooms and medical calls.

County Assessor Ron Thomsen gave the final presentation of the evening, explaining what the Assessor’s Office does and the importance of property taxes.

Nadia Lockyer holds a coffee hour in Newark every third Friday of the month at the from 9 to 10:30 a.m. The next coffee hour will be on May 20.

Thursday's visit to Lockyer is part of a four-stop town hall series. Lockyer plans to host a town hall meeting in Union City on May 25 at the Kennedy Community Center.