How to resolve AdBlock issue? LAKEPORT, Calif. — The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday held the first day of hearings with county departments as part of the process to finalize the budget for the new fiscal year.
The hearings, which will continue on Wednesday, are the prelude to a summer of budget fine-tuning, with the final budget hearing set for Sept. 23.
The cities of Clearlake and Lakeport, by law, are required to finalize and adopt their new fiscal year budget by June 30.
The county, however, has latitude to wait until the fall to finalize its budget.
Under state law, the Board of Supervisors must approve a recommended budget by June 30 and then the final budget must be adopted by Oct. 2.
The hearings began on Tuesday morning in the board chambers, where numerous department heads and staff gathered to hear the budget overview from the County Administrative Office and wait to present their own budget to the board.
Deputy County Administrative Officer Casey Moreno presented the overview to the board.
Moreno’s presentation went over the recommended appropriations, totaling $418,634,111 for all funds, up from $397,175,387 in the 2024-25 fiscal year.
The county’s primary source of funding by far is the state, which in this year’s budget will provide $143,405,086, or 52%, of the county’s revenue.
The other revenue sources Moreno outlined in her report are taxes, $45,803,102 or 17% of overall revenue; the federal government, $41,340,384 or 15%; charges for service, $12,199,244 or 4%; other government, $8,674,051 or 3%; operating transfers, $8,231,852 or 3%; interest and rent, $7,885,474 or 3%; licenses and permits, $4,000,039 or 1%; miscellaneous, $1,895,799 or 1%; and fines and penalties, $1,315,358 or 1%.
On the appropriations side, services and supplies amounts to 36% of spending at $158,486,321, followed by salaries and benefits, $127,925,992 or 29%; construction in
progress, $68,505,517 or 16%; other charges, $51,968,824 or 12%; capital assets, $16,115,160 or 4%; and contingencies, $4,696,860 or 1%.
In the general fund, totaling a proposed $99,735,475 for 2025-25, revenues come primarily from taxes, $40,421,110 or 45.57%, with the state providing $22,079,705 or 24.89%, with numerous other smaller revenue sources — including the federal and other government sources, charges for services, interest, rent, concessions, fines, forfeitures, licenses, permits and penalties.
Over half of general fund spending, $58,430,017 or 52.69%, is for salaries and benefits, followed by services and supplies at $34,346,328 or 30.97%, and other expenses including construction in process, capital assets, contingencies and other charges.
Moreno said the budget calls for removing nine general fund positions — from the auditor-controller, information technology, district, attorney, sheriff, probation and planning departments — as part of union negotiations that recently wrapped up and led to a series of raises approved last week.
She said the county is doing better regarding its employment vacancy rate thanks to removing vacant positions and more aggressive hiring practices. That has reduced the vacancy rate to 13.6% for the general fund and 16% for non general fund positions.
When the county began its series of major salary increases in 2020 and 2021, totaling $21 million, the county’s vacancy rate was around 21 percent. At that time, the County Administrative Office said it was aiming for a vacancy rate of 10% or below.
During her presentation, Moreno had spoken about the goal of having a “structurally balanced’ budget, which means no use of one-time revenue for ongoing expenses.
She also called the recommended 2025-26 budget “perfectly balanced.”
However, during the initial board discussion on the budget overview, District 2 Supervisor Bruno Sabatier pointed out that while staff said the budget was balanced, that did not take into account the board’s votes at its June 17 meeting to approve four-year contracts with nine employee groups, resulting in approximately $5,278,704 in raises.
Sabatier was the lone dissenting vote on each of those nine votes.
He said that as a result of those raises, the budget won’t be balanced as of July 1, when those raises take effect, meaning the county already is $5 million in the hole as the new fiscal year starts.
Sabatier said the county has to figure out how to tighten budgets to be more realistic, noting they have been “fluffed.”
While the county took out nine positions, he said he’s still seeing as many as 15 positions being added, and the situation is not sustainable in the long run.
Sabatier raised concern about budget figures that he said showed $418 million in spending with only $341 million in revenues.
Assistant County Administrative Officer Stephen Carter said what balances the budget is an $86 million carryover from the prior year’s budget, which also helps front load the Social Services Department’s budget, which is necessary on an annual basis.
Sabatier also voiced concern about what he said was “a rather large carryover number.”
Updates to proposed department budgets
As the day progressed, the board worked its way through the majority of departments with mostly unanimous votes.
Departments where budget adjustments are being sought include the Registrar of Voters Office, seeking reclassification of one position and inclusion of a half-time position. Over the last few months Registrar Maria Valadez has been asking the board for additional budget support but so far has not received approval.
During his presentation, Public Services Director Lars Ewing made what he said were “extraordinary requests” for additional funds for a project at Hammond Park in Nice. That project was estimated at $2.3 million but an additional $300,000 is needed to reach the amount of the lowest bidding contractor.
The board approved the additional funds for Hammond Park, which Ewing requested come from the parks capital reserve fund, and $100,000 for the design of an enclosure to make the Middletown Pool available year-round.
The board will continue its hearings on Wednesday at 9 a.m.
Still to be considered are the budget presentations for the Public Works Department, Lake County Sheriff’s Office, the Assessor-Recorder’s Office, and the Board of Supervisors and County Administrative Office, which also covers the civil grand jury and the Public Defender’s Office.
The meeting can be watched live on Channel 8, online at https://countyoflake.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx and on the county’s Facebook page. Accompanying board documents, the agenda and archived board meeting videos also are available at that link.
To participate in real-time, join the Zoom meeting by clicking this link.
The meeting ID is 865 3354 4962, pass code 726865. The meeting also can be accessed via one tap mobile at +16694449171,,86533544962#,,,,*726865#. The meeting can also be accessed via phone at 669 900 6833.
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