BOARD OF SUPERVISORS

Good morning, everybody. I'd like to bring this meeting of the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors to order. We are about to embark on our third and hopefully final meeting where we will be deliberating and deciding on our fiscal year 12-13 budget. Mr. Allen would you call the roll please?

Mr. Carbajal? Here. Ms. Wolfe? Here. Ms Gray? Present. Mr. Lavagnino? Here. Ms Farr?

Here, would you

public comment period on the agenda for the whole day, which means the public had to come speak on things not on the agenda and then after 1 or 2 hours of deliberations they were locked out of being able to comment on your final recommendations. Right now the public has no idea On what amount of horse trading is going to be taking place in the next couple hours and what the final recommendations of the Board of Supervisors are going to be.

So my public comment this morning, instead of trying to guess what you're going to do and being locked out at that process I'm asking you to formally notify the public that they will in fact get to speak to the final deliberations This is an error that we bring up almost every single year, but thus far to no avail. You know over the last number of years your former county administrator and now your current county administrator has warned the board that they need to do something different If they're going to get out of this structural deficit problem of declining revenues, declining services but higher costs.

I understand that you believe you're going to implement a strategic plan while there is nothing stopping you from beginning today There are items that are not mandated, there are items that don't work. There are items that can wait. There are items that have other funding sources and then there are things we simply can't do without We expect you to prioritize them now, not kick the can down the road saying someday we're going to get to it. Because in reality some five or six years ago Mike Brown and others have highlighted things for you to cut and he didn't do it. The buck stops with you on your in the hot seat I don't envy you because I know that a lot of these things we're getting down to the bone, but you know what? We don't have any choice.

So again, I ask that you add another comment period per the Brown Act so that we can speak to item number one on your agenda because this is not public comment for item 1 it's general public comment. Thank you.

Thank You Mr. Colwell next speaker

Our next speaker is Andy Culbertson to be followed by Silvio de la Reda.

Good morning, Madam Chair and members of the board. My name is Andy Culbertson and I'm a resident at the Santa Ynez Valley and Supervisor Farr's district. I've come before you today to express my gratitude in that of my husband for the Board's opposition to Senate Bill 162 which would prohibit state agencies from opposing fee-to-trust applications, obviously a prominent issue in the Valley. But secondly I would like to make a generic comment about revenue and spending.

All agencies such as yours are challenged by lowered revenues and increased costs and we all understand that. But I ask that as you deliberate, and now and in the future, that you keep firmly in mind the relationship between having an adequate property tax base and having enough money to spend. And when a fee-to-trust application is approved it comes away from your property tax base. And property tax is a central support to the county. So I come before you today just to make those brief comments and to thank you for your continued opposition and help to our valley. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Sylvia DiLoretto to be followed by Emily Allen.

Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak. I'd like to speak on behalf of the Rental Housing Mediation Task Force. It has been in existence over 37 years and it has phenomenal results, and it's made up of 15 members of the community who don't receive one penny, and many of them are Very high paid, you know as far as individuals are concerned. I think the public is aware of the fact that you must cut but please don't cut the Rental Housing Mediation Task Force because you will have thousands of citizens on your doorstep complaining and you don't want that to happen. Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak.

Thank You.

Emily Allen followed by Robert Burke

Good morning Chair and Supervisors. Since this is general public comment, I'll cut my remarks to make it very general and just thank you for taking the time to hear from the public especially those of us who've spoken multiple times. And just to note, you know, the one thing I've seen that's really emerged from the budget is the need for collective impact in nonprofits, the business community, volunteers The cities and counties working together on the most difficult and challenging problems. So I think it's been a good hearing in that way. Thank you, thank you.

Robert Burke to be followed by William Connell.

I would like clarification first please is there a time when I can speak that addresses the items on the agenda? Or is this it?

This is it.

Madam Chair, members of the board. My name is Robert Burke. A man, a person died stood before the creator and the creator said would you like to see the story of your life? And the person said yes. Over there, see those footprints in the sand on the beach that is the path of your life. The person went over, looked down and said yes this is the path of my life but I noticed that there are two sets of footprints here.

And the creator said yes I was by your side the whole time. So the person went along and realized there was a first disturbance and says yes I remember that. That was the schoolyard incident. And the person went along and noticed that there were various disturbances, and recognized them. And finally came to this one portion where there was chaos, confusion, and consternation.

And the person says yes I remember this time. This is when I lost everything. I lost my job, my house, my family, my car. I even lost my dog. It was a time of desperation and despair. And then the person looked down again and became very angry. He said, there's only one set of footprints here. You betrayed, abandoned and isolated me. The creator said no, that is where you stumbled and fell and I carried you.

Members of the board, I kindly request that you grant a boon to those who aid those who stumble and fall. Thank you.

Thank you. William Connell be followed by Vicki Allen.

Anyway,

hi. What I have to say is that I think it's important to... Excuse me

sir. I think your name was not called. Did you put in a speaker slip? No! I thought you could

just come up.

Well, you need to put in a speaker slip if you will speak to this young lady right here she will help you and I think that the gentleman whose name was called will come up next and then you can have your turn.

I'm sorry.

You're fine.

William Connell, to be followed by Vicki Allen.

You can't make this stuff up. First of all, good morning everyone. Second of all, I've given great thought to the proceedings of the other morning and especially suggestions by Joni Gray which was excellent. I called for five service officers at that time. And main reason was the outreach and the major backlog, and the major group of veterans coming back. I really thought at that time five as a single service officer for each district was in order.

Sitting down, I realized that we the veterans and the veterans returning and those who are in this county would be well served by less than that. By four as long as the volunteers with the clerical can be available It would take, four would take up the backlog that's now created five six weeks. It would also take care of the upcoming veterans coming forth. We don't need a band-aid on this. We need the four individuals badly As I understand, with four individuals there'll be $18 million worth of federal monies coming into this county.

That's an awful lot of money for a very, very small investment that you should make. You're all leaders and that's why you're up there and that's why you're elected This is a decision that should be an easy one for you, but given the restraints that you're under, please. The finances of how much money would be returned can be calculated by our tax collector.

In conversations with him he has assured me that with four service officers, he can keep every one of them busy every day. So now is not the time to shortchange the veteran. Now is not the time Especially right before 4th of July, I want each one of you to take a nice big deep breath. Take care of our emergency services. Right next to that are American veterans and those who return because none of us would be sitting here right now if it was not for the American veteran.

Please add a minimum four service officers to serve the entire

county.

Thank you very, very much.

Vicki Allen to be followed by Chris Benedict

Good morning, Chair Farr and Supervisors. My name is Vicki Allen and I am speaking on behalf of the League of Women Voters of Santa Barbara. This statement was submitted yesterday after the previous hearings. We support joint planning and coordination by federal, state, county, and city government entities with the private sector including non-profit and private organizations, the business community, and private citizens.

With regard to addressing homelessness, we also support a government-sponsored communitywide task force. The magnitude and diversity of the needs of the homeless require active participation at every level of government with the private sector in Santa Barbara County. We support appropriate solutions with adequate funding to respond to both short-term and long-term needs of homeless people.

These include providing better access to existing social services with an emphasis on affordable housing, subsidized rentals, and establishment of criteria for shelter services with counseling and referral of those with special needs. We hope that you will consider our positions in your final budget deliberations. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Chris Benedict, to be followed by Sharon Rose who is our final speaker.

I'm going to get a mic for him.

Thank you. Hi my name is Chris Benedict. And I'm here to support the Human Services Commission. I am a client of the Independent Living Resource Center. Their staff has helped me find affordable, accessible housing. They also have helped me with issues regarding In the home supportive services, and that's very important for in disabled and homeless. You have that resource in Santa Barbara.

So I ask you not to touch their budget. Thank you.

Thank you Mr. Benedict.

Sharon Rose is our final speaker

Good morning. Thank you, supervisors and thank you County staff for all the work you've put into these various budget hearings. My name is Sharon Rose. I'm the mother of a son who almost died several times. The last time he hit the streets as a bipolar person in need of medical care his family got him into a religious Rehabilitation Center. There he was able to rebuild his life.

I want to remind us to think of prevention. People are dying on our streets, the homeless and chemically dependent are affecting tourism. We need 15 acute psychiatric beds immediately not next year Not when the health care bill comes in 2014, if it does. We need it now. We've heard of many proposed cuts to important services but let's keep in mind that those who live on the street, many of them who are put in jail for substance use disorders, many of them were veterans too If you have a home and drove here in a car today, you are better off than them.

In these difficult times we must make difficult decisions. We have heard that the county is putting aside $1 million a year for jail, a new jail. We've heard the county will have 1.9 million to pay in increased salaries and benefits. We've heard of almost $10 million for AB 109 and there are MHSA monies as well. We ask you to revisit the funding pools and find the money for 15 acute psychiatric beds Many states have innovative solutions for this population of people. We need a collaborative of the private sector, the non-profit sector, our cities and everyone else to be at the table to work with this population and come up with solutions. We're willing to help.

For 5150 for mentally ill and alcohol and drug users, other states have receiving centers for both where they process someone for three days and divert them from jail. I ask us to look at these other states in other counties that are doing a better job at the time of crisis and let's work together. Thank you for your help in your work and your service to our community.

Thank you Ms. Rose, and that concludes public comment so public comment is now closed the board is going to go into deliberations and I think what I would like to do and Ms. Waller I don't know if we're gonna put something up on the screen here but what I would like to do is first poll the board on what they would like to restore, and we'll see what has at least three votes for that.

And then I will poll the board again on the sources of revenue that they would like to use to support those restorations. And I think in some cases the sources of revenue may be specifically tied to that restoration. In other cases perhaps they're more general. So do we have something that we can put up on the board Ms. Waller?

Yes, Chair. And I was wondering with your permission would you like Mr. Alvarez to go over your new materials? And then I have some closing comments if your board would like. That's right. Go ahead and let's do that first.

Madam Chair, members of the board. So we had distributed some additional materials this morning and so the green are distributions from this morning for new items that were just put out this morning. I think you also got a gold colored sheet that was also from distributions that were made yesterday. So those are the two documents and again we've got the summary of the inquiry forms and the other document is the final budget adjustment. And if I could just steer you to the final budget adjustment that would be attachment A I'll let you know of the new ones. We've marked them as addendum, however there were a couple made and previously distributed so I just wanted to point the new ones out to you and next year we'll put in the dates of addendum so that we can make it a little easier for you.

You can't put these up on the screen for everybody to see

at one time? I do not have this available. We can get something shortly and get it up on the screen. And maybe at the next break we could put it up for any interested parties who would want to know.

I would assume that we have copies for the back of the room as well. So, I mean do we have those right now? Okay, we'll also have copies in the back of the room for anyone who would like that.

Okay and there's about four of them I believe so in the CEO's office number 4 In the fire department number 2 In alcohol, drug and mental health number two. In planning and development number four. Madam Chair hold on.

I think we need more explanation so we're looking at this sheet. So the first one was in the CEO's office you said number 4?

Yes,

I'm sorry. Okay so why don't as you go through there why don't you just give a little explanation on each one?

Very good.

So under CEO the number four for $250,000 you're going to explain that one

first. As we had previously discussed this is to fund the consultants to review the mental health department to look at all operations including the inpatient services and so that would be funded out of the CEOs Department

Actually Mr. Alvarez if you could just go back to the ADMHS item. Because we've, since we've talked about this. It says it also restores 474,661 in homeless and indigent services listed on the ADMHS service level impacts. So is it as the same or different than what Dr. Dietrich talked about in moving increasing the impact to the PUF but decreasing the impact to the indigent contracts?

This is the same item that she was referring to by moving, by having these programs funded through MHSA. It frees up those other dollars in Fund 44 to address those items that were on the surface level impact previously.

Okay so that doesn't change what she said at all one way or the other? Okay

thank you. This is just a formalization of that into the budget.

Okay go

ahead. The next item is in planning and development item number four This adjustment will rebudget the 11-12 funds that were not spent into next year.

Page three under planning and development item number four, the $50,000. Is that right Mr. Alvarez?

That's correct.

Yeah.

So that's moving it into next year. And the very last item is on the very last page and it is the very last item And as we talked about the successor agency, this is one of the... This adjustment is necessary to eliminate the budget in the Redevelopment Agency Successor Agency Housing Fund. A separate adjustment is within the housing community development to create a budget for the successor agency. So this is just moving from one I'll say fund account in our structure to another.

Okay. But is this being kept separate because we're still not sure whether the housing funds are going to be able to still be utilized for housing and not be dumped into the whole redevelopment pot to be redistributed?

Chair Farr, the housing funds were going to be still managed by the county and not be segregated out into that separate trust fund.

Okay. But I thought that there was legislation saying that the housing, they were trying to keep the housing separate but it wasn't supposed to be separate. That's not right?

Chair, there is some discussion going forward but this specific one is just to set up the fund that your board already approved when you elected to have the county be the successor agency for the Housing Authority. Okay. I get it. Thank you.

Alright any other questions from the Board? Supervisor Wolff?

Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Alvarez I just wanted to clarify something that you didn't mention on page five the treasurer tax collector it mentions that that position is being funded from their fund balance but I understood that funding was coming from contingency?

Supervisor Wolf yes that is correct that will be funded from contingency

okay thank you not fund balance

All right, any other questions from the board at this time? Supervisor Gray.

I'm getting an email from Becky up in North County asking that we e-mail this addendum up to them if somebody could do that or fax or something.

Chair Farr, Supervisor Gray, this has been posted

so it is posted online. Yes. Thank you.

All right, anything else for this part? Thank you Mr. Alvarez. Ms. Wallen. Thank

you chairwoman. Over the last several days, your board has received testimony from all county departments describing their current year accomplishments, their proposed service level reductions and funding gaps that they anticipate in 2013-14. Additionally you have heard from members of the public requesting funding restoration for programs they believe to be of importance.

When combined this information makes clear that our county and its residents continue to experience ongoing and unparalleled challenges, and there are still many difficult years ahead of us. State budget shortfalls, program realignment, escalating retirement costs, and the ongoing economic downturn contribute to the dour predictions and may result in the need for additional program reductions in upcoming months.

The FY 2012-13 proposed budget of $828 million is balanced with revenues equaling expenditures. Expenditures are approximately $25 million less than last year. Staffing is proposed at 3,800 FTEs which is down 550 FTEs since FY 07-08. The proposed budget represents thoughtful consideration of impacts, the consequences, alternatives and difficult choices made by the department and county executive office staff. And still it reflects the board's stated priorities of maintaining public safety, protecting our children and families and supporting sustainable communities.

However, it reduces to mandated levels many core county services and significantly reduces or sometimes eliminates non-core discretionary services. These choices were difficult and many times forced decisions between programs that have a long term value and those that we are legally mandated to provide. These proposed cuts will most certainly negatively impact the quantity and quality of the services the County provides to its citizens. I, and the entire County staff truly do find this distressing.

We understand that these proposed reductions translate into real people impacts. Please know that staff will stay focused on the people we serve in cooperation with the organizations who share our common missions and goals. That said, we must weather the current storm and chart a strategic course that enables the county to the extent possible to be prepared for future challenges.

As I mentioned in my opening, your board's commitment to provide resources to ensure public safety is reflected in the proposed budget. This is reflected by the fact that over the last 10 years, funding for the Public Safety and Law and Justice Departments has increased from being 47% of discretionary revenue to the currently proposed 64% of discretionary revenue.

In dollar amounts, general fund support for these groups has grown from 66 million in 0203 to 127 million proposed in FY 1213. On the downside this shift of funding has resulted in critical underfunding of community resources, health and public assistance and internal support services. These reductions result in deterioration of the quality of life for County residents and pose a significant increase in the risk of financial losses.

As you've heard, the recommendations to close this budget gap are a combination of $9 million of ongoing program reductions and $16 million of one-time solutions. To enhance ongoing savings, departments will continue to seek efficiencies such as reorganizations, consolidations, reengineering, public-private partnerships and information technology innovations.

As your CEO, I feel compelled to recommend to you that any additional funding that becomes available in the next year be used to reduce one-time fund use and deferred maintenance instead of being used for program restoration or new programs. This will enhance our county's ability to close the 2013-14 budget gap without further service level reductions. In total, our employees will give nearly $15 million in concessions in FY 12-13.

However, it should be noted that current salary and benefit levels for public safety employees are not sustainable Our labor relations staff has initiated discussions to negotiate elimination of pay increases and reduction of benefits, including a lower retirement tier for new public safety employees. However, even with the cost containment measures previously noted, the county will still be unable to close the expected budget gap for 13-14 and beyond.

In 13-14 alone, staff is currently estimating an $18 to $20 million budget gap just to maintain our current services. It will be imperative for the board to also consider ongoing revenue solutions to fund needed services in deferred maintenance and set aside reserves for unexpected costs. In the months and years ahead, the County should examine how we can help enhance economic development and job growth and increase the economic vitality of our businesses.

An added but as yet undefined and quantified concern is state actions that could translate into millions of dollars in lost revenue and substantial workload. In summary, the proposed 12-13 operating budget is cutting away some bone. The proposed budget reflects careful consideration and balancing of cross department service levels and the impacts of reductions.

The entire breadth of county activities forms an intertwined system of services. I encourage your board to see into the future and prepare for substantial challenges It will be necessary for you to make significant policy decisions and prioritize difficult budget requests. It is my hope that you will all support the effort and operational knowledge of your department heads and CEO staff in preparing these recommendations by adopting the proposed budget at the end of your deliberations.

In closing, I'd like to acknowledge the leadership your board has provided in the difficult financial and policy decisions you have made over the last year and to thank you for that support. I would also like to thank the department heads and the CEO executive team for their significant effort and input into the proposed budget. Also, to all our county employees Whose commitment to providing exceptional public safety, excuse me, exceptional public service is the foundation that enables Santa Barbara County to continue to provide a wide array of services to our residents.

This outstanding team stands ready to support and implement the final budget your board adopts. Over the last two days, I have felt personally moved by the credit and the praise the supervisors have given to each of our departments and employees for maintaining the commitment to public service during the ongoing budget challenges. Not once did they say this not twice but multiple times thank you all for what you do.

Thank You CEO Waller All right. Any additional questions from the board at this time? All right, Supervisor Gray.

I'm still not quite sure what's appropriate. I had a couple of questions but I don't know if it's the time to ask them.

I think now is the time to ask

them. My question had to do with the increase in number of employees and we were talking that That some were going to mental health 10, I believe it was Mr. Alvarez and of that 10 there was a discussion as to whether or not they were administrative or people that were in the field and I'm still not clear on that so I need some explanation as to what are those 10 employees?

Chair Farr, Supervisor Gray. I recall that the increase in administrative staff were 3.2 and I think that was tied into the billing and those type of activities but it wasn't the 10 that was noted in the book. I think there were some adjustments. I do recall that there's a lot of detail provided and I don't know if Dr. Dietrich is in the audience or not Administrative piece was, in fact, a change of 3.2.

As we recall, we also mentioned that part of the change was really in the vacancy factor, that in some prior years a vacancy factor was applied and it's no longer being utilized in our projection so it may be a more conservative budget from that respect but I think the actual change in administrative staff was approximately three staff.

Three? Okay because that did seem like a lot when you said ten administrative positions

That is correct, and it was a combination of the vacancy factor and really just the actual change in administrative bodies was three.

Thank you. That's it? That's it. Any other questions? All right. I'm going to start over here. You pan. You don't get to pass now.

I'm actually waiting for something, but okay we can... Andrew if you're ready? I kind of got mine. Are we talking about restorations at this point?

Restorations is the first level. I

think I started last year, but we'll go ahead that's okay.

It's good to be on the left.

Next year

I may be on that end and so

I'll be in that seat. That's right! I'll remember that when I'm chair.

Andrew if you bring up the District 5 please.

Okay,

first off before we go there. Let me just say that I Just want to say what a And maybe it was because last year was my first year, but going from this year, last year to this year I just felt the whole process was better. I really commend our CEO and also Mr. Alvarez made everything a lot clearer to me all the way our whole executive team all of our department heads down to the frontline employees who give us everything that they have. I really appreciate the county team.

Also want to thank the public speakers that came You gave us some difficult decisions to make. We're sitting up here and you have to make a decision between supporting the mentally ill or our veterans, or the homeless, or public safety. It's not easy so I did the best job that I could. I think obviously for me Human Services Commission is something that I believe needs to be fully funded

I just have a question. Last year to help staff, you looked at these one by one and saw if there was general support of at least the majority of your board and at that point if there was general support we moved the topic over to the tentative picture for your later consideration. I'm not sure if you'd like to do that this year

again. Yes, but what I'm doing is that I think once Supervisor Lavinino is done, I'll go to Supervisor Carbajal and if something that he wanted to restore is on that list, he'll say yes me too and we can put that check mark and we'll do that all the way down the line up and then he will add anything that he's interested in restoring that is not on that list. Okay thank you Chairwoman.

For me, the Conference and Visitors Bureau and Film Commission we always talk about that economic development is our number one priority. I don't really know anybody in the county. We don't really do that ourselves so I think that's important. Pro-pay I would like to see made permanent and find it somewhere in the budget where we don't bring it back every year.

That's obviously something that we need to do. The truancy program serving on the subcommittee with Supervisor Carbajal I think that that's going to be money well spent, that we will definitely see the return on that in the long run. As far as parks goes, I can't really find a department that's being hit and cut more to the bone than parks. And I think we had a number of public speakers that came and talked to us about how important it is when people come and visit us if this is someplace that they want to return to.

Looking at the response that we got regarding the water sewage plant operator, I'm not comfortable that that's acceptable. That we have somebody that's in training that is responsible for our sewage operation. I'd hate for us to have a spill in that area and although... And same thing, I know you all got the same letter from our mechanic out there. For $73,000 he's the person responsible for keeping the boat in operation both boats Keeps all of our equipment running out there.

I think we would burn through $73,000 hiring somebody continually bringing them out there, especially with all the downtime that would be involved. I don't think that's a wise investment to cut that. Veteran services, I'd like to see go to three when I asked about the wait time and I understand Mr. Connell would like to have four. When I discussed the wait time it's totally It's unacceptable to me that we're waiting six weeks to have a veteran get their benefits looked at. But with three individuals, one in Santa Barbara, one in Lompoc and one in Santa Maria I believe that we would have only a week's wait I find that acceptable.

Working in a congressional office, that's about the given time you basically get an appointment anyway so I'd like to see that happen. The emergency shelter services $45,000 to go to restore that. $23,000 for the Guadalupe Dunes staffing so that park is open seven days a week And our ag biologist, I just think that's short-sighted if God forbid we run into a situation where we have through a lack of inspection.

Ag is a $1.3 billion industry in Santa Barbara County and we can't afford to lose that. Having said those, I also have a question regarding the Sheriff's Department I guess if I could get the sheriff or a representative for somebody. Just because of, and I kind of wanted to do it at this point Sheriff because I didn't want to come to you before because I think we probably all have the same questions but I can't talk to them outside of this so on the 227 I think because we went through it so fast for me, I just wanted to get a good feeling again of what the 227 was.

And then in your... I just got something that also said you had a fund balance of like 565. So my first obvious question would be well why don't we just take it out of the 565? And then help me with

that one. The 575 is the Prop 172 balance which is something that we have as basically It's a contingency fund, if you will, for major developments that we have, major purchases that come up that we don't have funding for and so forth. So it's kind of like our savings account, if you will. The $227,000 request was for three custody deputies and one sheriff's deputy to be funded for one half of the year. In other words, it would start in January And go through the balance of the fiscal year. The reason for that request is the significant problem that we're having in filling positions now and the vacancy factor that we have, and a real need for additional staffing in our jail. Our jail is becoming...

It's not really becoming any more crowded because it's always been crowded and we have, in essence, a finite number of people that we can keep in there. But we're cycling through a tremendous Highly higher number of people than we have in the past. We're changing classifications and having many people there for longer periods of time. We're having many people there who are for more serious crimes than historically has been the case, and we just feel that we need to start to increase the staff level within the facility because the dangerous situation that exists there. So my request, you know I think is a modest one in terms of half a year and allowing us to fill those positions. Quite frankly we couldn't fill those positions July 1st if you gave me the full funding for it so just trying to balance all

of that. All right thank you. So I guess I have to at this point figure out where the money is going to come from. Actually,

you can just wait on that.

You

can just say what you want to say right

now and we're going

to come back in

another moment if there's anything else. Also, okay let's leave it at that for right now because I do want to talk about acute beds but we'll talk about that later.

Okay if it's something that you want to restore even if you think you have a...

There's a possibility of restoration but a different way to do it so I want to hear what everybody else has to say first.

Okay, well do you want to restore it?