Sheriff, District Attorney Seek More Funds in 2018-19 Budget

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA — Riverside County Sheriff Stan Sniff and District Attorney Mike Hestrin both approached the Board of Supervisors Monday with funding requests over what their departments have been allocated for the upcoming fiscal year, though both acknowledged they can make do with what they're in line to receive.

"Maintaining fiscal discipline is key," county Chief Financial Officer Don Kent told the board during a budget hearing to establish an appropriations blueprint for 2018-19. "We need to embrace cost containment. It's absolutely essential to achieving sustainability."

The 700-page budget proposal, which the board is slated to formally adopt on June 26, reflects healthy revenue increases and most agencies' successes in containing expenses as 2017-18 comes to a close. However, county CEO George Johnson noted that financial headwinds are a possibility, requiring "fiscal vigilance."

"Revenue is not growing fast enough to meet our growing population's need for services, and pension costs are rising," Johnson said in an introduction to the budget report. "In response, we must contain costs wherever possible."

Sheriff Stan Sniff told the board that in his decade at the helm, next year's budget appeared to be the "best I've seen," and he will be ending the current fiscal year in the black, with at least $10 million in cash.

Projections are the sheriff will contend with an $8 million deficit in 2018-19, but Sniff expressed confidence that he and his staff were "within punching distance of eliminating that."

"The structural deficit this year was eliminated through attrition," he said. "It's a smaller department than when I took over (in 2007). But you can count on us to continue to be fiscally disciplined."

The sheriff had originally planned for $716.3 million in appropriations, but the final sum will be closer to $700 million. The budgeted amount for 2017-18 was $687.9 million.

Sniff's biggest concern was ramping up staffing to fill 65 positions at the John J. Benoit Detention Center in Indio, the first phase of which will go online next month. Staff at the existing Indio Jail, slated for demolition, will initially handle all operations at the new facility.

Sniff requested -- and the board seemed inclined to approve -- that the $10 million in cash set aside in the current fiscal year be re-invested in sheriff's operations for 2018-19.

Hestrin told the board that he and his staff were working to pare down a roughly $6 million gap going into the next fiscal year, but he remained in need of a minimum $1.2 million to cover several functions in the D.A.'s office.

Voter-approved Proposition 47, which allows some felony drug offenders to petition the courts for a reduction in their convictions to misdemeanors, as well as Proposition 64, which legalized marijuana use, were elevating workloads, Hestrin said. He further emphasized that body-worn camera videotape recordings were devouring staff time, and the extra million bucks in 2018-19 would help alleviate that burden.

"We're having to pull experienced trial attorneys to review (law enforcement) officers' body-worn camera footage," Hestrin said. "There are increasing hours of tape to go through (for evidence). It's like a tidal wave coming at us."

Hestrin is seeking a $123.3 million budget, compared to $118 million in the current fiscal year.

The Office of the Public Defender had been projecting a deficit in excess of $1 million, but final figures released Monday indicated it was down to $700,000.

The Department of Probation will begin 2018-19 in the black. However, Chief Probation Officer Mark Mark Hake is seeking $7 million to support operations next year, according to Kent.

The budget report highlighted an "all-time low" 3.8 percent countywide unemployment rate as an example of the area's economic strength, boding well for revenue growth.

"Somewhere on the horizon, there will be an economic slowdown," Kent said. "Hopefully it's a long way off."

The Executive Office is proposing an overall $5.6 billion budget, roughly 2 percent higher than the current fiscal year's appropriations. Just over two-thirds of the spending is covered by so-called "pass-through" funds supplied by the state and federal governments for a range of county-managed programs.

The budget projects that discretionary revenue -- a combination of property taxes, motor vehicle revenue-in-lieu-of-property-taxes and fees -- will top out at $781 million, representing a 4 percent jump from the current fiscal year. Officials emphasized that despite the boost, roughly $20 million in contingency funds will be needed to cover some expenditures controlled by the board.

Executive Office staff said that salaries and benefits, which comprise 40 percent of the entire general fund budget, are creeping up, forcing agencies to make adjustments to keep a lid on costs.

The county has about 22,000 employees. Johnson implemented a "targeted hiring freeze" in January to ensure that positions weren't added unless supported by existing revenue.

Big ticket items that continue to drain county resources include the Benoit Detention Center, the federal consent decree requiring expanded medical care for inmates in the county's five correctional facilities, expansion of the Riverside University Medical Center in Moreno Valley, and pension obligations, which will add $100 million or more to the county's outgo in the next decade.

The Executive Office said the county's reserve pool should settle at $190 million at the end of the current fiscal year, but that level will erode as officials reach into the pot to offset a structural imbalance.

— By PAUL J. YOUNG, City News Service / Image via Shutterstock