LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Board of Supervisors held the county's annual budget hearing on Wednesday, ending with the formal acceptance of the final recommended budget for the 2015-16 year.

In a speedy four hours – past hearings have gone a full day – the board gave its unanimous approval to a final budget with appropriations totaling approximately $203,884,537, according to the final resolution adopting the new fiscal year budget that the board passed unanimously.

That final appropriations total is up from last year's total of $184,767,583 because of a number of capital expenditures and wildfire recovery funds the state has awarded to the county, according to County Administrative Officer Matt Perry.

In addition to the final budget resolution, the board approved a resolution that sets the 2015-16 position allocations in conformance with the adopted budget and continued a general hiring freeze, which Perry has the authority to waive at his discretion.

The board heard brief budget summaries from department heads and County Administrative Office staff, and unanimously approved the funds for each department as presented.

Perry said that in preparing the budget he and his staff have continued to follow principles identified by his predecessor, Kelly Cox, in keeping a sound budget.

Those principles include being structurally balanced, preserving general reserves, avoiding reductions in service levels and avoiding layoffs, furloughs or benefit reductions, he said.

Perry said the budget process began in April, when departments submitted their requests. Those were reviewed in May, with an initial budget document presented to the board in June and work continuing on it through the summer.

Due to the county's response to the wildland fires, staffing and other shortages, Perry said all of the information his office normally has in hand for preparing the budget wasn't available. He anticipates returning to the board later this month to propose some budget amendments, well ahead of the normal mid-year budget review in January.

While the board wrapped its approval up on Wednesday, Perry noted that the budget work is far from over.

“The budget is almost a year-round process,” he told the board during his opening statement on the budget document.

In analyzing the county's revenues, Perry said there has been some recovery since the recession for transient occupancy tax, or bed tax, but he said it's premature to estimate an increase.

Sales tax also appears fairly flat, and is at 93-percent of its prerecession levels, he said.

Overall, salary and benefits make up 60 percent of the general fund appropriations, Perry said.

Perry said the board had made staff a priority in this year's budget, recognizing the sacrifices they have made over the last several years, including receiving no cost of living increases.

He also lauded county staff for coming together to staff the Emergency Operations Center during the Rocky and Jerusalem fires.

Department highlights

Among the many highlights of individual department budgets, Social Services Director Carol Huchingson reported that her agency no longer has any general fund contributions in any of its funds thanks to the state and federal funding it receives for its programs.

She said that one of her department's loftiest goals for this year is opening a satellite office in Lucerne, at the site of the former county visitor center.

The plan had been for that office to be open on Sept. 1, but they have run into unforeseen problems with the structure that is delaying the opening, she said.

Sheriff Brian Martin's budget includes three school resource officer positions, one of which has been added this year thanks to the restoration of grant funding, Perry said.

Martin, in presenting his first budget as sheriff to the board, explained that his agency currently has a 20-percent job vacancy rate. “It's challenging sometimes to deliver services.”

Even so, he said he is grateful to his staff, and thanked other departments and community members for their cooperation. “I feel very privileged and blessed to be in this position.”

Martin said he and his staff are looking for ways to address staffing challenges, including reclassifying five entry level deputy positions to deputy sheriff trainees as a way of bringing in current county employees who already have demonstrated a commitment to the community. Once they go through the academy, they will be asked to commit to staying with his department for three years.

Central Dispatch has the highest percentage of vacant positions in the sheriff's office, Martin said. There are supposed to be three supervisors and nine dispatchers in addition to the manager; currently, there are four dispatchers, two supervisors and a manager. To fill the gap, they are assigning correctional officers and deputy sheriffs to answer calls and dispatch on a temporary basis.

Pension reform has made it more challenging to use retired annuitants as bailiffs or as Marine Patrol staff, Martin said. In addition, there also are vacancies at the jail, where realignment has resulted in more career criminals being housed.

Martin's budget this year includes purchase of new mobile audio video units that also incorporate body cameras for his deputies.

“Our deputies here are doing a professional job,” he said, but added that society is now at the point where law enforcement has to capture that job on camera and be able to prove things are being done right.

Ultimately, “My biggest concern is delivery of services,” he said.

District Attorney Don Anderson similarly reported difficulty in filling important vacancies.

He said two of his six investigator spots are vacant, and they were unable to find qualified candidates in recent testings.

“This is a serious problem we're having,” he said.

While his department is extending some of its positions to train new staff, that's a more expensive option that he said they would prefer not to pursue.

Chief Probation Officer Rob Howe has had two deputy probation officer positions unfilled for two years, with one of them now to be funded through a new agreement with the Lake County Superior Court for a veterans treatment court.

He's also continuing work with the Upper Lake schools, for which his office is providing a school resources officer, and partnering with the sheriff's office and Behavioral Health on a day reporting center. “We're progressing every day,” he said.

Supervisor Jim Steele said the school resources officer in Upper Lake has made a huge difference.

The board on Wednesday also heard about how County Counsel Anita Grant has helped reduce the county's workers compensation costs – to the tune of 10 months' of salary savings – by instituting special programs in departments that were experiencing certain type of injury claims.

Over at the Lake County Library, Director Christopher Veach has continued to face challenges such as a very low materials budget.

An expansion of the Lakeport Library also had been proposed, but Veach said it has seemed like a better option at this time to instead reorganize the existing space, replace carpet and move the circulation desk.

In Animal Care and Control, staffing issues also have been an ongoing problem, according to Director Bill Davidson.

Due to leaves, illness and vacation, they've averaged 2.5 officers being on duty on a regular basis. He said a fifth officer position has been added to help keep up the around-the-clock emergency service they offer.

They have been able to keep the community cat program and vet clinic going through a contract with a temporary veterinarian, who performs 55 spay-neuter surgeries over the course of two days a week, Davidson said.

In the Community Development Department, the Code Enforcement Division is once again being staffed up, and Director Rick Coel said there is a lot of work ahead.

“We have a backlog of four years' worth of cases when we didn't have Code Enforcement staff,” he said.

Coel said it's also a challenge to keep the department fully staffed, with several positions vacant.

In the Public Works Department, Director Scott De Leon plans to hire a deputy Water Resource manager with $130,000 in geothermal resource funds. That amount would cover both a salary of about $108,000 and benefits.

That deputy director position would be responsible for the day-to-day management of Water Resources staff and would take on additional programs including stormwater oversight and groundwater sustainability – the latter critical because a state law is requiring the formation of groundwater sustainability agencies, he said.

De Leon is looking to hire a limnologist or another scientist for the job, and was planning to begin recruitment as soon as his budget was approved.

“It's my belief our response and our program efforts will actually improve with that position,” he said, noting that there is a lot of emphasis on the lake right now at the state level. “This is the time to hit this.”

In Public Services, Director Caroline Chavez is working on a proposal to implement universal waste collection in Middletown – not including Hidden Valley Lake – as well as Kelseyville and possibly Upper Lake. Her agency also is concentrating on reducing illegal dumping.

She and her staff are looking at the future expansion of the landfill, and have completed the first feasibility study.

She said regulations and regulatory fees are having a big impact on her department. State law requires the county to pay sales tax on garbage – $1.39 per ton, or $90,000 a year to cover the 60,000 tons going into the county's landfill.

Chavez said the Legislature recently attempted to raise that garbage sales tax by another $2 a ton, which would have cost her department another $120,000 a year. There are concerns that the Legislature may yet attempt to raise that fee again.

While those costs usually are passed on to customers, if rates are raised too high, there will be more illegal dumping, she said.

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