Sonoma County poised to tap reserves for $1.63 billion budget, cut more than 120 jobs

Sonoma County’s first yearlong budget plan after the October wildfires proposes cutting about 126 mostly vacant jobs from the government workforce and, for the first time since at least the recession, using millions of dollars in reserves to balance the books.

The recommended $1.63 billion spending proposal for the coming fiscal year marks an increase of about 1.5 percent from the previous adopted budget. The plan includes a nearly?1 percent decrease for the recommended $454.6 million general fund, the county’s largest source of discretionary spending for its administrative departments, public safety agencies and other programs.

Budgeted staffing levels are poised to shrink 3 percent to about 4,024 positions, largely as a result of proposed job reductions in the health department, which is trying to rein in spending after years of inaccurate revenue forecasting, according to county officials.

The devastating wildfires, which destroyed nearly 5,300 local homes, have already led to million of dollars in unexpected spending this year and last. County officials have applied for state and federal reimbursement for a large share of those costs, while also dramatically accelerating an initiative to transform the way they set their department budgets.

Still, Board of Supervisors Chairman James Gore was hopeful the county can maintain its current investments in infrastructure and other essential services while finding more money to improve preparedness for future disasters.

“We’re not backing off our commitment to roads in any way, shape or form,” Gore said. “On the other side is that, this year in particular, it really needs to be focused on emergency services and fire. So, to me, that’s going to be the one thing that we kind of work with.”

Departments are still attempting to close a fire-fueled shortfall for the current fiscal year that was last estimated at $2.2 million, a gap which should be eliminated by reducing spending before the year concludes at the end of next month, said Assistant County Administrator Christina Rivera. Belt-tightening among various departments has already narrowed a projected $14.2 million shortfall for the next fiscal year, Rivera said, but the county is still projected to need ?$2.7 million from its ?$53 million reserves to fund the recommended budget.

County Administrator Sheryl Bratton last year initiated a plan to gradually phase out the longstanding practice of using departments’ savings at the end of each fiscal year to fund the following year’s budget. The initiative was supposed to be carried out over a four-year period, but the fires led administrative staff to make it happen at once.

“We made a choice to not estimate any year-end savings, because we have absorbed so much of the expense of the fires within our departments’ budgets,” Rivera said.

Supervisors’ 2018-2019 budget hearings are slated to begin June 12 and extend for several days, preparing them to adopt a budget by the end of the week, though hearings could continue into the following week if necessary.

Going into the hearings, Gore said he hopes to have identified the money needed to fund improvements to the county’s emergency services, including upgraded technology for alerts and additional staffing if necessary. The funding would mark the board’s most significant spending commitment to address a shortfall that left many county residents without an official warning of when the fires ignited.

Supervisors are expected to discuss the future of the county’s emergency services June 11, the day before budget hearings start.

The health department’s ongoing budget challenges are likely to be a dominant topic during the hearings. More than 100 jobs would be eliminated under the recommended budget. About 30 of the positions are filled - the rest are vacant - and the department’s behavioral health division would slash ?$7.7 million in contracts it has with nonprofit service providers, triggering an equivalent loss in federal funding.

“We need to do everything we can to smooth that out,” Gore said. “It’s not like just saying ‘Oh, we’re not going to pave that road this year.’ That’s human infrastructure.”

Also looming over the budget hearings are ongoing contract discussions between county leaders and the unions who represent government workers. The unions had proposed extending most provisions of their current contracts by one year rather than enter full-blown negotiations so soon after the fires, but talks fell apart over a 2 percent pay raise labor leaders wanted as part of the deal.

So far, the county has reached a tentative deal with one union, but it still needs to reach agreement with most of the other groups, including the largest, Service Employees International Union Local 1021. The county has proposed a one-time lump sum equivalent of 2 percent of workers’ annual pay, as well as a floating eight-hour holiday, among other offerings.

“We are optimistic that we will reach an agreement with them,” said Christina Cramer, the county’s human resources director. County officials are proposing one-year contracts, rather than the typical multiyear agreements, with the unions because the county’s financial situation is “still fluid,” Cramer said.

Union leadership remains skeptical, partly because the one-time payment wouldn’t be factored into workers’ salary in the same way as a raise to cover cost-of-living increases. Joel Evans-Fudem, president of the Sonoma County chapter of SEIU Local 1021, also pointed to a series of good financial news the county has received, including Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to waive Northern California governments’ share of the bill for debris cleanup after the fires. He suggested the county should be able to afford a better deal.

“The lump sum honestly feels like a payoff, like if we’ll just take the bonus check, we’ll get out of their hair for a year,” Evans-Fudem said. “When I talk to my coworkers, they’re worried about the rising price of gas. They’re not seeing a one-time bonus payment is going to make up for that. They’re struggling already.”

SEIU and county officials are expected to meet again Wednesday.

Gore said he hoped to be able to keep employees’ pay in line with inflation.

“Contrary to some people’s beliefs, the rank-and-file employees of the county are not making out like bandits,” he said.

Contract negotiations notwithstanding, next fiscal year’s budget plan envisions spending ?$654 million on salaries and benefits, a 6 percent increase from last year. The projected growth stems from a change in the way the county records ?$35 million in pension liabilities. Previously, those costs were budgeted as “other expenses,” but now they are included in salary and benefits, according to Rivera.

Without that accounting change, the county’s salary and benefits spending would actually decrease by nearly $338,000, according to Rivera.

The budget proposal also includes more than $9.5 million in general fund spending on road pavement projects, an increase of about $187,000 from last year.

You can reach Staff Writer J.D. Morris at 707-521-5337 or jd.morris@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @thejdmorris.