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Supervisors approve budget that adds more money for cops, firefighters and libraries
| Wednesday, Jul 23 2008 2:15 PM
Last Updated: Thursday, Jul 24 2008 7:32 AM
Kern County supervisors tore apart the county’s proposed budget Wednesday, rebuilt it and passed it — adding extra money for cops, firefighters and libraries.
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WINNERS
• Engineering and Survey Services
GIS system — $596,000
• Planning Department
Three new planners — $300,000
Redevelopment agency study — $200,000
• Animal Control
Contract for Ridgecrest animal shelter — $8,500
septic system for Kern River Valley shelter — $10,000
• Library
Hours and staff costs — $948,421
• Parks and Recreation
Park rangers and security — $313,000
extra help workers — $200,000
• Special Services
Rexland Acres sewer line — $200,000
• Aging and Adult Services
Social service worker — $62,000
• District Attorney
two deputy district attorneys — $125,000
• Department of Human Services
Child welfare caseloads — $900,000
• Sheriff's Department
maintain deputy staffing levels — $4.5 million
extra help staffing — $400,000
• Fire Department
washer/dryer — $120,000
replacement equipment — $2.9 million
• Farm and Home Advisor
backfill for budget savings incentives — $60,000
LOSERS
• Ag Measurement Standards
Office Expansion Construction - $1,155,200
Warehouse Expansion Construction - $348,435
• Personnel Department
Expand Office - $103,200
• Mary K. Shell Building
Install Emergency Generator - $702,600
• Parks
Replace Ballfield Lighting - Rosamond Park $196,600
Replace Restroom & Picnic Shelter - Derby Acres $337,000
Replace Restroom & Picnic Shelter - Valley Acres $305,000
Replace Water Tank - Tehachapi Mountain Park $311,500
• Sheriff's Department
Replace Barracks - Lerdo Minimum $1,800,000
• Board of Trade
New Restroom - $385,700
The final tally came in $3.6 million over the proposed $1.5 billion budget that supervisors were given a little more than two weeks ago.
That’s because supervisors were unwilling to cut services to parks, libraries, the Department of Human Services and the Sheriff’s and Fire departments.
After a marathon round of hearings on Tuesday and a full day of talk on Wednesday supervisors refunded $11.9 million that had been cut from 17 line-items in 12 county departments.
But there was a cost to replace that money.
FUND FLURRY
A small knot of bureaucrats huddled around County Administrative Officer Ron Errea Wednesday afternoon, crunching numbers on the fly.
The Kern County Board of Supervisors waited, in recess, while Errea’s staff made sure they’d calculated all the numbers right.
Supervisor Mike Maggard, a former certified public accountant, stepped away from the dais and his trusty calculator “Ruth Ann” to join the scrum.
Millions of dollars in revenue clashed with millions of dollars in added costs. Slowly the county budget gurus wrestled the numbers into their final totals.
WINNERS
The Kern County Sheriff’s Department and the county Fire Department came out on top of the two-day battle for millions of dollars in extra funding.
But they didn’t cash in without taking some hard knocks first.
Sheriff Donny Youngblood got $4.5 million in funding for deputy overtime that he told supervisors he could not live without.
He also got $400,000 for temporary “extra help” workers to fill gaps in his staffing. But Youngblood had asked for $750,000 in extra help.
And, to help fund the positions, he had to put off the reconstruction of a failing barracks building at Lerdo Jail.
Fire Chief Dennis Thompson got $2.9 million in replacement fire equipment and a $120,000 washer and dryer for firefighting uniforms.
But supervisors vetoed 14 new fire positions he’d asked them for.
And Supervisor Michael Rubio grilled him in public — asking what cost-cutting measures he’d made to save money in his department.
Other winners in the budget were Parks and Recreation Director Bob Lerude, Library Director Diane Duquette and Department of Human Services Director Pat Cheadle.
Supervisors refused to cut “extra help” workers that keep parks clean in high-traffic recreation seasons, halted a plan to cut library hours and put an extra $900,000 into Cheadle’s child welfare services budget.
LOSERS
The price for all that extra spending was high.
Supervisors grabbed $3.5 million from their “contingency” fund — an annual rainy day account used to fund unanticipated needs.
And they slotted in an additional $3.2 million in savings that Auditor Controller Ann Barnett discovered while digging through the budget.
The money had been accidentally counted as an expense twice.
Supervisors then added in $1 million in interest earned in their tobacco endowment fund.
But they still fell short.
In the end, they went digging for cash in their list of proposed capital projects.
To reach a balanced budget supervisors axed office and warehouse expansions in the Agriculture and Measurement Standards, put off the Lerdo barracks improvement and put a hold on park lighting and restroom replacements.
They pulled $4.9 million out of those and other capital projects and flowed the money to their other spending priorities.
DARK CLOUDS
Supervisors, as they drafted their budget, were very aware that changes in the state budget could come back to bite them.
“Now we can wait for the shoe in Sacramento to fall,” said Supervisor Don Maben.
If state legislators go after county funds in an attempt to balance California’s budget, supervisors could be forced back into public hearings to revise the budget they approved Wednesday.
Supervisors chose to maintain $6.8 million in the county’s contingency budget and $48 million in a fiscal stability reserve to hold off any state cash grab and prepare for what is expected to be another bad budget year next year.
That, board chairman Michael Rubio said, made the past two days a good county budget process.