Sonoma County supervisors sign off on $1.45 billion budget

Sonoma County supervisors on Tuesday approved their most robust spending plan since the recession, dedicating new money to a host of progressive initiatives, from affordable housing and homelessness programs to parks and technology. Meanwhile, they delayed multiple proposals to ramp up funding for other board priorities, including roads.

The $1.45 billion budget for 2015-16, buoyed by significant increases in taxes and fees from rebounding property values, increased tourism and business activity, has propelled new hiring and expanded spending in most of the county’s 25 departments.

The brighter financial outlook - a strong indication of Sonoma County’s recovering economy - increases staffing roughly 1 percent to 4,106 total county employees and boosts next year’s budget for 20 county departments. Health Services and Human Services are growing with revenues largely associated with President Barack Obama’s federal health care law. Other departments to see increases include county law enforcement, Regional Parks, and Transportation and Public Works.

New money will fund health care programs for low-income people, as well as community policing strategies, new county parks and pavement preservation. Supervisors also approved budget increases to help recruit employees for the Sheriff’s Office, as well as a 2 percent across-the-board pay increase for current workers. The cost-of-living increase is expected to cost roughly $8.6 million for increases in salaries and benefits.

During the second day of marathon budget hearings that were sparsely attended by the public, supervisors applauded this year’s budget approach, voting 5-0 on a two-year spending plan for the first time. They hailed the two-year process as a more fiscally responsible move that will allow them to better project future obligations.

“This advanced planning is going to save us time and reward us in the long term,” Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Susan Gorin said.

Supervisors expressed the need to show fiscal restraint while funding a long list of safety-net and emergency services programs they’ve had to shelve in past budget cycles. They delayed setting aside additional funding over the next two years for capital upgrades and other infrastructure needs, including roads. Though the matter drew few people out during the county’s two days of budget deliberations, it became clear during the campaign for Measure A - a failed quarter-cent sales tax increase - that roads are a top issue for voters and taxpayers.

In a recent survey of Press Democrat readers that garnered more than 1,300 responses, roads were ranked as being of the “utmost importance” in 513 responses. The issue received an average score of about 8 on a 10-point scale, with the remaining issues - including affordable housing, free preschool, homeless services and pension obligations, among others - averaging around 4 or lower.

Officials and county supervisors said they strongly support adding money to the budget to pay for road fixes, as well as affordable housing incentives. They said they will identify potential money for the two top board priorities in the coming months.

Over the next two years, the budget calls for more than $22 million for road repairs and pavement preservation, roughly $36 million in spending on homelessness and affordable housing initiatives, $26 million for the Agriculture and Open Space Preservation District to purchase land for county parks, $6.5 million in financing for Highway 12 improvements and $2.6 million to begin implementing recommendations from the Community and Local Law Enforcement Task Force.

Overall, county spending is down 2 percent from the current year - a decrease associated with the outsourcing of county landfill operations to Arizona-based Republic Services and the shift of Sonoma County’s library system last year to an independent agency with budget authority. Without those changes, however, the county’s budget actually grew 3 percent from last year. The $423 million general fund also has grown by roughly 1 percent.

Supervisors made use of that surplus. Each pushed late Tuesday for new money for projects in their supervisorial districts.

Supervisor Shirlee Zane became the strongest voice during budget hearings to advocate for more discretionary spending on housing and roads, and while her proposal to use money set aside in a reserve account from overdue property taxes gained little support from her board colleagues, she successfully lobbied for $400,000 to pay for medical equipment at a new Rohnert Park health clinic set to open this summer.

Supervisors David Rabbitt and Efren Carrillo pushed for more money for free legal aid services for low-income elderly people countywide, and Supervisor James Gore won approval for $25,000 to expand the health clinic in Alexander Valley. Officials also dedicated discretionary dollars for pedestrian safety improvements around the Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit train stops, a summer arts program and development of a new community center in the Springs area near Sonoma.

A proposal to spend roughly $3.5 million over the next two years paying down part of the county’s rising pension costs - up 500 percent since 2000 - passed 5-0, as did boosting the budget for fire services in the unincorporated area and new technology systems for voting, permitting and financial services.

The most contentious budget proposal of the day came when Carrillo vehemently opposed a plan to increase staffing for supervisors by $112,000 total per year.

“This to me is the greatest example of double- speak,” Carrillo said. “We talk about being transparent and maintaining our budgets, and prioritizing housing and homelessness and scholarships. … If we are really talking about our priorities, why aren’t we spending money in those areas?”

Rabbitt joined Carrillo in opposing the new spending, but the two were defeated by Zane, Gorin and Gore, who all voted in favor of boosting their budgets for personal staffing.

“We do have a divided board on this item,” Gorin said. “We just have different demands from our districts.”

Carrillo pushed back, pointing out that they are paid full time for their work as supervisors, and thus should be expected to attend events and meetings in their districts.

“I know in other places, staff chauffeur people around and attend events for them,” he added. “But frankly, working nights and weekends comes with this job.”

Rabbitt floated a future proposal that would create individual budgets for each supervisor, which could track spending in everything from travel to supplies or staff.

Next year’s budget includes no money for some initiatives supervisors have endorsed recently, including a wage bump to $15 per hour for roughly 1,0000 county contractors; additional dollars to fund universal preschool; and money to implement the full set of recommendations from the Community and Local Law Enforcement Task Force, convened by the Board of Supervisors in the wake of the 2013 fatal shooting of 13-year-old Andy Lopez by a sheriff’s deputy.

Total cost for the group’s 21 recommendations is estimated at $11.2 million over the next two years.

Supervisors on Tuesday signed off on setting aside $2.6 million for the next year, primarily to fund a new independent office charged with providing civilian oversight of law enforcement.

You can reach Staff Writer Angela Hart at 526-8503 or angela.hart@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @ahartreports.