LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a recommended county budget for fiscal year 2015-16, with more work on finalizing the budget still to come.

County Administrative Officer Matt Perry presented the budget document to the board, which he said supervisors were required by state law to approve by June 30.

Perry said the total recommended appropriations for all funds is $199,228,807, up from last year's $184,767,583.

The general fund appropriation for the new fiscal year is $55,900,191, compared to $54,765,776 in the 2014-15 budget year, he said.

In preparing the recommended budget Perry said staff continued to follow “guiding principles” of developing a responsible, sustainable budget that enables the county to maintain short-term and long-term fiscal solvency, minimizes or avoids negative impacts on service levels provided to the public, improves services when possible, preserves county general fund reserves and avoids negatively impacting county employees and the economy by not imposing large numbers of layoffs, work furloughs or other forms of compensation reductions in order to balance the budget.

Perry said the county's sales tax revenues have stabilized over the last four years, and are at 93 percent  of pre-recession levels.

“We know there's some new commercial development in the county,” he said, but it's premature to expect a significant increase.

As for property tax, another key revenue component of the county budget, Perry said it has gone down every year for the past five years.

“I'm optimistic this year that we'll at least be flat, and won't go down,” he said.

The county assessor will close the property roll by July 1, so by the time of the budget hearings in September Perry said he will have final numbers.

The recommended budget has 1,002 positions in it, an increase of 37 over the final adopted budget of 2014-15. Perry said most of those are in non-general fund departments such as Social Services, which will have 22 new positions. The only increase in the general fund comes in the sheriff's office, where there are four grant-funded position for patrol and jail divisions.

Other personnel highlights includes replacing a supervising assessor position with a chief deputy assessor-recorder; funding a Community Development Department technician position through solid waste franchise fees; the elimination of five vacant positions in Behavioral Health and the creation of a staff psychologist position; increasing the museum curator from three-quarter time to full-time and funding the assistant museum curator job from one-time money through Sept. 30, 2016, to ensure it's covered through the tourism season.

Sheriff Brian Martin also is creating a deputy sheriff trainee position to expand an existing county program, according to Perry.

The program, currently open only to correctional officers, would be open to all county employees of at least two years, who could attend the POST Academy to become a deputy sheriff within one year, with a commitment to serve at least three years in Lake County as a deputy sheriff.

The recommended salary for that trainee position is equal to a correctional officer II position and 13-percent less than a deputy sheriff 1 position, according to Martin.

Martin told the board during the budget discussion that the program would have a total of four positions in it at any given time.

Lake County Water Resources also is requesting classifications for quagga mussel monitor and coordinator positions, which will be funded by a $98,000 grant awarded to the county by the California Division of Boating and Waterways to prevent a quagga mussel infestation of Clear Lake.

As a result of public safety realignment and money allocated to the county by the state, the Probation Department will receive more than $900,000, with more than $1 million to go to jail operations $448,000 to the Health Department and $147,000 to the Behavioral Health Department based on recommendations from the Local Community Corrections Partnership Executive Committee, Perry said.

Overall, Perry said the county is attempting to keep the budget status quo until there are final revenue figures later in the summer.

He noted that staff was recommending $10,000 in transient occupancy tax – or bed tax – revenue to help fund the museum and $40,000 in TOT for the Lake County Library due to the library's “vital role” in delivering visitor information services.

Capital asset projects include more than $2.6 million to construct a Safe Routes to School project in Clearlake Oaks, $3.4 million for jail improvements, $2.4 million for the South Main Street water system project, more than $3.7 million for capital improvements to existing water systems throughout the county, more than $900,000 to renovate Gard Street School in Kelseyville for the Department of Child Support Services, more than $1.3 million for renovation and expansion of the Southshore Health building to accommodate Behavioral Health's needs, more than $9.8 million for road and bridge projects, $221,000 for improvements to Lampson Field Airport and $801,000 for a communication tower and improvements on Mt. Konocti.

The board unanimously voted for separate motions to approve the recommended budget, a resolution establishing position allocations, and a request to authorize purchase of capital assets and the filling of positions prior to final adoption of the budget.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.