Santa Barbara County facing stark budget realities

Santa Maria Times

February 24, 2010

By Sam Womack

Firefighters may not be able to run into a burning home because of staff cuts.

There could be fewer arrests, fewer deputies on the streets, and the Sheriff’s Department may not be able to respond to some calls at all.

And the District Attorney’s Office would have to deal with an impossible 576 cases per attorney, if the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors follows through with across-the-board cuts to each of its departments.

Those were department heads’ responses Tuesday when the board made its first foray into the real-life implications of its decisions over the past few years and the economic downturn since 2008, which have resulted in a nearly $40 million shortfall for the coming fiscal year.

“This is a very difficult time for the board members,” said board chairwoman Janet Wolf of the 2nd District to a packed house in Santa Maria. “We’ve dealt with difficult situations in the past and we take our roles seriously and will come to a reasonable outcome.”

Most of the budget gap is caused by skyrocketing county employee retirement costs in addition to dwindling property tax revenue, which makes up the majority of the board’s discretionary funding and supports most public safety programs.

At the board meeting Tuesday, department heads explained what it would cost the county in staff, services and programs if they were forced to balance their budgets with across-the-board cuts.

A few hours into the public hearing, 1st District Supervisor Salud Carbajal lamented, “We saw with the other two departments, this is not a pretty picture. This is very depressing. You almost feel hopeless up here.”

During presentations by the sheriff, fire and probation departments, at least one supervisor announced each time that the proposed cuts were unacceptable.

“I’m not looking at (probation) or sheriff or fire to find these massive dollars we need. I’ll probably be looking elsewhere,” said 5th District Supervisor Joe Centeno.

In the scenario described, the Sheriff’s Department would have to cut $12 million from its budget, which would force the closure the Santa Maria branch jail, the elimination of 40 deputy positions and 30 custody deputy positions, and the loss 250 to 300 beds in the Santa Barbara jail.

“We’re out of gimmicks at this point. We’re out of tricks,” Sheriff Bill Brown said.

The most distressing cut to some board members was the elimination of the sheriff’s four-member gang team, which would save approximately $660,000.

Pointed questions were asked about both the sheriff and the fire departments’ public information officers and aviation divisions, which total more than $2 million, according to the county’s cost-center performance plan.

Fire Chief Mike Dyer also struck fear into the boards’ minds when he said firefighter positions and a fire fuel crew would be reduced to cover the department’s $6.8 million deficit.

“Like the gang team, I am not going to be able to support reducing the ... firefighter positions or any of the fire crews. We consider public safety a number one priority, and I have noticed that fire gets very little to no general fund, and frankly that’s got to end,” Carbajal said.

“When you consider the fires I’ve had in my district and our county, that’s an area I’m not willing to cut,” he added.

The Probation Department appeared to get the most board sympathy, as its staff has been chopped in the past 10 years with nary a complaint.

Nearly 60 probation officers have to cover an estimated 7,000 cases, and to help meet its $6.6 million budget gap a total of 56 Probation Department positions would have to be cut.

In addition, Chief Probation Officer Patricia Stewart put the Los Prietos Boys Camp and Academy on the potential chopping block.

“It struck to the heart to even suggest that we might lose a legacy program like this,” Stewart said, and board members commiserated.

The District Attorney’s Office got no promises of salvation from the board, but acting Chief Assistant District Attorney Gordon Auchincloss painted a devastating picture.

“I heard from some of you that protecting public safety has to be the number one imperative, but that cannot be accomplished without a DA’s office,” he said.

Several union representatives attended the meeting Tuesday to urge the Board of Supervisors to reconsider a longer debt repayment period on the county’s pension deficit in order to decrease the necessary cuts.

And a few members of the public chastised the board for denying development projects in the county that would have generated more property tax revenue.

Fourth District Supervisor Joni Gray agreed, saying, “our county has not been business-friendly in the past, and as a result many projects such as oil development and production, as well as hotels and resorts, have been discouraged and have consequently gone away.”

“Any of these projects would have cut our current gap in half,” she said.

Gray spoke little during the presentations but said afterward that instead of cutting public safety departments, divisions that are not busy, such as Long Range Planning and Energy, should be eliminated.

The board will continue the department presentations at its March 2 meeting in Santa Barbara. A proposed 2010-11 budget based on these discussions will be presented to the board for approval in June.