Mary Beth Strong was named the California State Sheriffs' Association's 2010 Finance Manager of the Year. The association serves the state's 58 counties.
The award was presented to Strong at the association's annual conference in Tiburon on Sept. 16.
Strong called her first-time win “quite an honor.”
Sheriff Rod Mitchell and County Administrative Officer Kelly Cox nominated Strong for the award.
Mitchell said that Strong is truly deserving of the recognition from the association.
“Mary Beth has proven to be an invaluable member of my command staff,” Mitchell said. “Her insight, experience and dedication to this department and the county of Lake, have proven to be immeasurably helpful.”
Cox said Strong does an excellent job of managing the sheriff's office's accounting and financial matters. “I am very happy that Mary Beth received this recognition, which she has certainly earned based on her many years of outstanding and dedicated service to the sheriff's department.”
Born and raised in Sacramento, Strong said she moved to Lake County in 1970 when her parents retired here.
Her work with the county didn't start with the sheriff's office, but in the Social Services Department, where she began in 1980 as an office assistant, working her way up to the post of fiscal manager.
In 1995, Mitchell hired her as his department's accounting supervisor, the same job as she holds today, just with a title change.
In her job – the official title of which is “sheriff-coroner administrative manager” – Strong oversees a staff including one accountant and three accounting technicians.
“I have an excellent staff,” she said.
Strong said she does a “variety of things,” in her job, overseeing grant applications, writing requests for proposals, purchasing, payroll and building maintenance.
“I love what it is I do,” she said.
When Strong started with the sheriff’s office in 1995, there was a budget of just over $6 million. The most recent budget totaled just over $26 million, counting all of the department's special funds. The department reported that 64 positions also have been added along the way.
Along with a larger budget, the sheriff's office also has larger funding challenges, she said.
“One of the biggest issues we have is with our grant funding,” Strong said. “Because the state doesn't have a budget, we don't know if our grant funding is continuing or not.”
That's been a concern faced by other departments in the county, according to previous interviews with Cox.
If the state were to suddenly stop sending the grant funds, the department could be scrambling. However, “I don't foresee that happening,” Strong said. “I think the state will eventually come through.”
During the county's budget hearings on Sept. 8, Mitchell credited Strong and his chief of staff, Capt. Rob Howe, for working together over the last few years to reduce overtime costs significantly.
Strong said that the department has always monitored overtime, but a few years ago the Board of Supervisors asked if they knew where exactly the overtime was being spent. “That's when the sheriff and I decided we would start tracking.”
The sheriff's office began doing overtime reports that now track that information down to the hour, which allows them to decide where to cut it, she said. Strong said she and Howe, who have monitored overtime together, have a good working relationship.
Jail overtime costs went from $585,000 in the 2007-08 fiscal year to $317,170 in fiscal year 2009-10, the county reported. In the sheriff's office, deputies had $738,407 in overtime in 2007-08, which was reduced to $428,137 in 2009-10.
The amount reduced was “very significant,” said Strong. “I'm very impressed that we got to that point.”
Mitchell said Strong's dedication to public service goes beyond her work with the sheriff's office, noting she has provided assistance to other county and city departments with finance matters.
Strong didn't know, when she attended the California State Sheriffs' Association's conference on Sept. 16, that she was up for an award. But she wondered what was going on when Howe arrived for the ceremony.
“I didn't know what was up,” she said.
Strong said she was very nervous in receiving the award, and could hardly speak. “'Thank you' was about all I could get out,” she said, adding that she was shaking and very surprised.
In her time away from budgets and numbers, Strong spends a lot of time with her son, his wife and children.
Her son is into aviation, “so we spend a lot of time at the airport.”
Strong said she likes to keep busy with projects. “I'm constantly remodeling my house,” she said.
Mitchell said county residents can be assured that their tax dollars “are spent with the utmost responsibility and accountability” because of Strong's dedicated service.”
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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