Board of Supervisors — 2017-06-14

And welcome to the June 14th, 2017 Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors budget hearings. Would you call the roll Mr. Allen?

Mr. Adam? Here. Mr. Labadino? Here! Mr. Williams? Here Ms. Wolfe? Here Mrs. Hartman? Here

public comment for items not on the agenda but you don't have any other public comments scheduled on your agenda so in other

words. Mr. Caldwell we do indeed we will have a presentation from our staff and then we will have public comment after that.

Okay, because there's somebody else here to speak as well. Anyway I didn't see it on the agenda today but my general public comment today is going to be a repeat of what I asked the other day and that is for the JAWS chart. One of the biggest things going on with the Board of Supervisors is that you are overly dependent upon state and federal funds Today it was announced that the state of California is borrowing $6 billion to try to shore up its pension obligations.

The fact that they're borrowing it means that they don't have the means of paying for it right now. I did a show yesterday that demonstrated that CalSTRS and CalPERS Their rate increases are going to be going up about 50% to jurisdictions throughout the state in the next couple of years. What does that mean for you? What that means for you is there's gonna be even less money coming from the state, to pay for programs and the fact that you already know that your pension costs are going up and their pension costs are going up I want to lay out one extremely important principle for you right now, and this is where you need that JAWS chart.

I believe that any extra money that you pay into keeping the ship afloat this year from discretionary revenues Means you're going to have that much less money in the next three to five years for those same programs throughout your county budget. Some of the department goes, well, we have a structural deficit next year. We're going to need $1 million. That line's repeated throughout the document.

I believe it's entirely irresponsible for you to spend any quote unquote extra money this year Thinking that you're going to be able to patch it in a similar manner in the next three to five years. You know we have suggested for instance the Human Services Commission, that is a silo of programs why is that being untouched when your cutting money to all the other outside agencies?

What about the energy program? There's $2 million there. The Employees University, those three programs added up together is $4 million. I think you're going to wish you had that $4 million over the next couple of years. And again we ask that before you pull any triggers today, you have your staff come up with a JAWS chart and give you an idea How much what you do right now is going to multiply in a negative way down the road. Thank you.

Chair Hartman and members we had that late slip from Phil Hanson in Santa Maria Mr. Hanson

I'm sorry before we go to that Supervisor Adam had a comment

Well, I'm just wondering Mr. Frapoil you're kind of the keeper of the charts Is there any way we can get a JAWS chart?

Supervisor Pattern to the chair, I think there was that chart if I recommend or realize which one he's talking about. It was something we covered in both the gap report in March as well as your board's report in January so I think we can pull it up and have that. And it probably needs to be updated at this point. The problem with the chart is it assumed, it showed a ongoing gap of available resources from the general fund discretionary revenues versus where we saw expenses for our programs going into the future.

It assumed if you look in the out year and I think that was in the 2021 fiscal year, it showed a potential gap of over $40 million but that was cumulative And it assumed that the board did not take action to, you know, balance each year going forward. So obviously the budget before you is a balanced budget and so that automatically brings down the gap there in out here. So we have not updated that chart. It'd be difficult to pull and have that for today's hearings.

Well you know I think it's one of those clarifying things because it's kind of shocking and sometimes we need a little shock to make us think straight. And so I think in future budgets if you cannot just physically get it done this morning which doesn't sound like you can let's make sure that that's a component of every document we put forward from here on out.

Thank you. Supervisor Adam through the chair agreed what we will do in the fall is bring forward to the board or 5 year forecast and we'll have a better gap chart chart I do want to point out that Mister Frapple did say something in his opening remarks yesterday and I don't know if people caught it but it did say looking at our financial challenges ahead, the current forecast for 1819 based on information we have today is that a potential budget gap in excess of 20 million dollars

Yeah. And you know what I was thinking and didn't bother saying at the time was I hope that you know if we review the budget gap for this year it started out in December at 16 million and then in January it went to about 20 and in February if I'm recalling correctly it went to like 28 or something. And then in March it went 35 I think and then at some point it 39.5 and then it seems to have come back down off of that a little bit so it's a bit of a moving target but I'm hoping that we're not starting at 20 now and will be expanding each month from now on.

Chair Adam, Supervisor Adam through the chair. We'll again we'll provide a better gap chart as we go forward after we close this budget but I also want to say that as Mr. Frappel said the difference in the numbers was that we were looking at general fund contribution and then general fund departments and then looking at DSS altogether and that's why it grew so much

Well and the general fund is pretty important because that's the only thing we really have control over. Whatever the state decides they're going to give us or take away then you know we just have to live with that.

Do we have another public comment in Santa Maria?

We did receive a slip from Mr. Hanson in Santa Maria if we could go to Santa Maria please.

Good morning, Chairman Adam and honorable members of the board. My name is Phil Hanson and I'm a commander with the Santa Maria Police Department. As luck would have it, I was also named yesterday as the acting chief of police with the pending retirement of Chief Ralph Martin. I realize that the issues surrounding the operation of the North County Jail have been a frequent item of conversation among this board, so I'd like to spare you the usual remarks in terms of population figures and numbers of arrests and transports and things like that. And instead just briefly appeal to your sense of what is reasonable and best in the best interest of the community at large.

Closure of the North County Jail represents much more than a simple inconvenience to our regional law enforcement agencies. It represents a substantial negative impact on the community members and the safety of the community. When officers are engaged in transporting prisoners to the main jail, they are out of their respective jurisdictions and unable to respond to calls for service and work in their respective jurisdictions for hours at a time.

Due to the already existing conditions and restrictions at the North County Jail last year Santa Maria police officers made over 700 trips to the South County Jail. And that's due to the fact that under current restrictions, the jail doesn't take female prisoners, doesn't take prisoners with medical issues and won't take combative suspects. So we're already under a substantial burden and frankly if the jail closes completely, that will make the situation untenable for us.

Therefore I'm respectfully asking that you consider continued funding for the operation of North County Jail and I thank you very much for your time and attention.

Thank you. That concludes general public

comment.

Madam Chair, I don't mean to interrupt but we have another speaker here that I don't know if this slip didn't go through?

I received a slip from Mr. Stilwell but it said budget so I assumed he wanted to speak after the update if you'd like to speak now that's fine

And Madam Chair I'd like to respond to that last speaker.

Okay Supervisor Adams.

Mr. Hanson I don't know if you're still in the room but congratulations on your appointment to police chief. You know, I just can't let this chance go by to correct this record. We keep getting people telling us that we are responsible for whether or not that jail is open and that just isn't the case. The sheriff has complete control over his budget and he can choose to stop doing something else and keep that jail open.

And you know if it gets made into a political football That's a choice that he's making. And you know I for one am funding that budget item so you know if he chooses not to spend his money in that way and he chooses to do other things instead then that's that's on him that's not on me

Well I thank you for your response sir and thank you for the congratulations. And while I understand completely, I know that the Sheriff can't do it without support from his Board of Supervisors but I just ask for your consideration and thank you again very much for your support.

Supervisor Williams?

I'll just indicate that there is also an established nine nine million dollar fund for pre hiring for the new North County Jail. That is accessible for the sheriff to cover that expense if necessary

so we have a final speaker from Santa Maria

Mr. Caldwell would you like to speak during public comment or after the presentation update Still

well. I'll speak now, thank you. So Madam Chair, members of the Board. Thank you for the opportunity to speak again my name is Jason Stillwell I'm with the City of Santa Maria and I'm here today to ask that the board continue to prioritize public safety funding with its limited general fund dollars. The reduction of the Foster Road Jail would impact half a dozen law enforcement agencies by pulling Thank you.

Thank you. So now we're ready for staff presentation, CEO Miyasato and Mr. Fratwell.

Chair Hartman and board members so as you know today is the second day of our budget hearings. Mr. Fratwell's just going to do a few housekeeping items and then he's going to provide a few slides to remind us where we left off on Monday then we will hear an update from our assessor Joe Holland there's been any updates from Monday and then it will be time for your boards deliberation.

Thank you Madam Chair, members of the board. Just as a matter of housekeeping between Monday's hearings and today we have distributed for your boards information a number of responses to inquiries from your board those can be found in tab 2 of your binders And so I think that's really kind of the housekeeping for this morning. Let me just quickly though remind you kind of where we've been on our journey through yesterday, through Monday. We had budgetary materials, we went through a summary, talked about service level reductions provided your board with our recommended restorations and expansions, went through key general fund discretionary fund balances. We had an update from Mr. Holland with respect to property taxes And went through a number of department presentations.

So really as we focus here, we're winding down to your boards deliberations and recommended actions. Just quickly this is a slide all these are repeat slides that were in Monday's presentation so I won't go through each one but it really did in developing the recommended budget look at a balanced approach. Our recommendations restorations group based on a variety of factors as we outlined on Monday We continue to have financial challenges ahead as mentioned earlier this morning.

You know we do see and looking at the the potential budget gap next fiscal year. This is not just as a result of discretionary revenue growing under rates lower than expenses but it's also those expenses within traditionally non general fund departments as well as those who Receive their revenue from non general fund sources from fees or other sources continuing to see those not growing at the same pace as their expenses. So that's about a 20 million dollar gap in the minimum.

Obviously with the other presentation as we presented Monday, the other challenges we have in Northern Branch Jail, inmate mental health and patient costs technology maintenance salary and federal state budget uncertainty That chart hasn't changed, that's just there for reference today if that comes up. We had a discussion on Monday with respect to potential growth in our assumed, we assumed a 4.5% growth in the county's assessed valuation and we talked about both the potential 1.25% increase above that or 1%. We continue to believe based on information In discussion with the assessor who's here as well this morning and the audit controller that the 5.5 percent assumed growth in AV is the appropriate growth for use of developing and adopting today's budget.

That was a resulting allocation under 18 percent and it really gets us down to this chart here which is the crux of our conversation this morning With respect to your board's deliberation and allocation of remaining resources available. So this is updated to reflect and assumes a 5.5% property growth, just quickly walking through this you'll see there that increased our property tax revenues by 1.4 almost $1.5 million Decreased by the allocation according to policy for the 18 percent maintenance up to 60.

Continues our recommendation that we reclassify CalFresh monies from one time to ongoing it shows the availability of $181,000 in ongoing contingencies and 319,000 in One time contingencies, it shows there the $2 million increase because the shift in IHSS as a result of the Governor's May revise budget. And it reflects your board's actions that you took last month with respect to funding a full year of AOT or lower slot program. So that brings you down to total sources and you can see it in the far right column roughly three points seven million dollars. And then in the bottom section of this chart we show kind of recommended uses of that which if you look at the very bottom line then brings you to fairly balanced number of negative actually negative fifty five hundred dollars an ongoing and a positive 454 in one time.

So that's kind of the basis for our conversation this morning and with that I'd be happy to hear from our assessor.

Good morning Madam Chair members of the board. Not a whole lot of an update that current property tax increase as of just a few minutes ago was 5.64 which is down just a little bit from the 5.65 with that in mind I would concur with Mr. Frapp well that probably

With that Madam Chair, I think that we'll go over recommended action after your board's deliberation. But we have Paul Comende from our staff is prepared and waiting with bated breath with respect to your boards Recommendations and desires on funding. I would ask a couple things, please. This is live so he's going to try to keep up with your board as you identify those priorities that you each have and he's gonna address if we can The top section of what we're referring to is attachment E, which the top section is respect to ongoing and in the bottom section of this spreadsheet down below is one time. So if at all possible, if board members could speak slowly enough to allow him to keep up with you that would be appreciated and will populate this chart and it will move from there.

Okay. Do any board members have questions of staff on the presentation they've seen today? We'll go out then one more time for public comment on this budget.

Chair Hartman, Members of the Board we're going to go back to Santa Maria for Mr. Caldwell and then back to Santa Barbara for Gabby Edwards.

Madam Chair. We're being, we're kind of being asked to comment on a blank slate right now. I mean you have the list but we don't know how many board members are going to vote for X Y or Z that we can comment on that. Do we have the comment period after you count to three on those items?

Mr. Caldwell generally what we do is we listen to public comment, we close public comment and come back to the board for deliberations that's how we will proceed today.

Well Madam Chair you know this is I've complained about this every year for a long time. How in the heck are we supposed to comment on your deliberation and your decision because right now it's up in the air you guys are going to be voting flipping coins and horse trading? What are we supposed to comment on? The fact that you have X number of proposals in front of you. I don't understand that process, I've never understood that process and it doesn't cost you any more time if you let us do it now versus later it's still the same three minutes

Supervisor Williams.

I would just defend this process in that it would be better for us to be informed by your priorities in the budget before we stake out territory than afterwards so you know it just seems to me more constructive for us to hear from the public beforehand so we might be able to incorporate some of those priorities into our budget deliberations.

All right, well I'll go with that Supervisor Williams and Chair Hartman. Thank you. I'm Andy Caldwell representing Colab. I believe that we have made our position known throughout the course of these proceedings namely people that are inferring that you're going through tough budget times are completely ignorant of the circumstances Your property tax revenues are high, the stock market is at an all-time high and you are still struggling mightily to balance your budget.

So what you have right now, you're operating in a disconnect from the greater financial reality in the financial world that the rest of United States is operating in. And you can't, there is no white knight coming to save you because the state of California is short a couple hundred billion dollars on the same things you're short on. The pensions and infrastructure.

And as your public works director said last year you went farther into the hole 30 million dollars for infrastructure I'd love for you to ask them how much farther will you go into the hole this year, next year and the following year? What are their projections? Will you be another $100 million in three years? How much farther into the hole are you going to go into pensions if when the market's at an all-time high, you're still not even meeting your 7% return on investment that you need.

We believe that it is time to start jettisoning all of the politically correct bandwagon programs such as climate change, university program and a lot of the other things you do on a day-to-day basis And I think you need to call 9-1-1 and get PCEC, Santa Maria Energy and Short Term Rentals back in front of you. And say, you know what? We made a colossal mistake. We made a $10 million mistake by shutting down your industries by tying conditions on you that you can't possibly meet. And we now know we need that revenue.

Santa Maria Energy, PCEC, short-term rentals. You might want to bring back the winery industry as well and start rethinking the decisions that you yourselves made that have got you into this predicament and I think you need to start... The big one is privatization. The only way you're going to be able to cut your losses is to privatize the staff because you cannot afford your pensions So our priority is public safety and public infrastructure, and let the chips fall where they may. Thank you.

Gabby Edwards?

Good morning Madam Chair and Board I'm back. I was here Monday. I'm back because a couple of important things have happened that you may have heard about both the Carpinteria City Council and Santa Barbara City Council met on which night was it Monday night And deliberated on libraries and we're especially grateful for your even considering putting aside that extra money in addition to the 780 per capita. I have to say Supervisor Williams was masterful in twisting the arms of the Carp City Council who admitted that they walked into that meeting You know determined that they were not going to give us back the 15,000 extra which they had given us last year. And he was able to persuade them look the county is stepping up and we're asking you to step up We were also able to persuade them by saying, look yes we say that we have a crisis every year.

We admit that we do but we think we're in the transition year because the Board of Supervisors has agreed to hire a consultant and look at a better system, a better structure for administering our branch libraries and we are counting on that. We're not saying it's going to cost us any less but at least it will be transparent, it'll be collaborative You know, it's going to work better for us and for our cities.

Um, you probably know that downtown that here in town, one of the themes that came out of, of that city council meeting was that there are members of that council who wonder what's in it for them to administer the branches sort of took our breath away that that was the way they were putting it, but it made it pretty clear they don't want to be administering our branches anymore. And we don't want to be administered by them, and so it's a win-win. We have got to get out of this current structure. We may be in it for another year or two.

It is not just about money, and we're going to be looking to you for guidance in just getting through the next two years figuring out what's best for our libraries in a pretty contentious atmosphere. Thanks.

That concludes public comment.

Okay we are bringing it back to the board to deliberate on the budget and Supervisor Wolf has had her light on patiently waiting so I guess you're first to go forward.

Okay well thank you Madam Chair and before I get started I want to thank my colleagues on the board for I think all of us working together in a collaborative way although I think as we move forward we are going to start seeing some differences. In our priorities and where we have expectations for our county. I gave Mr. Clement my attachment E, and as I go through my comments he can fill the different categories.

So let me just start off with my remarks and then my comments will then be incorporated into this attachment. After my first year on the board, my colleagues and I made an effort to ensure that the budget truly is the voice of the board and of all the residents of our districts. We had to make tough decisions we had to give and take But I always felt that at the end of the day, I could support the budget that was in front of me.

I never expect that I would or should get everything that I feel is necessary but as I reflected on my comments from the budget workshop this year wherein I said that we should take a balanced approach to both our human and physical infrastructure, I'm sad to say that this budget falls well short of that desire. It will have a devastating impact on our most vulnerable, particularly our children and elderly.

Extreme cuts to children's welfare, foster care workers and adult protective services will have a significant impact. The cuts to juvenile probation officers is incredibly unfortunate. I'm not making this up nor am I a fear monger. I am basing these comments on facts. I mentioned on Monday as well as the comments by Mr. Nielsen and Chief Taylor everything that was documented in our board inquiry forms and from meetings that were attended by the Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council The attachment E form, or allocation of discretionary funds identified at the time of the budget this year is very limited.

And yet it is our job to make some recommendations and when I say very limited given the information that we got today there's essentially no ongoing funds for us to be considering. And 454,000 one time. And as I look back over the years even when we were experiencing the Great Recession, we always had additional funds that were available for us to look at for discretionary purposes.

So my focus is the huge increase that we have of unallocated enhancement of our maintenance funding in a year that human infrastructure is being gravely reduced. That is tantamount to robbing human infrastructure to pay for capital infrastructure. To demand a 2 to 5 percent across the board cuts of all departments as the CEO did earlier this year and then move a substantial amount of money proportionately to maintenance than ever in my opinion is unconscionable.

The bottom line is we cannot take from our safety net and put all that money into asphalt and nails. I sponsored the Child Welfare Task Force with Supervisor Carbajal last year, and despite their recommendation, I did not advocate for additional funds as was requested. But what I heard from staff is that they stressed that caseload numbers would not be further increased or staffing decreased Yet, in this proposed budget they are.

We must restore those cuts. In a fair world all of those cuts would be restored and I am requesting that the cuts made to child welfare, foster care, adult protective services that were presented to us in April be restored. There is now more money going to those departments for maintenance that was anticipated during the special issue discussion in the April workshops. I would urge that they that those departments return to the board with more specific expenditure plans Now moving on to probation.

I believe that I'm the only board member who was here in 2009 in the midst of the recession when the probation department had to cut over 40 positions, 33 of them were sworn officers they were cut to the bone more cuts and following years as well they have never been returned to the capacity and yet they've continued to forge ahead and make adjustment just like many of our other safety departments But for probation to again be hit with significance now in my opinion is tragic. Cutting 14 positions to give $1.8 million back to the general fund are we now giving that money to maintenance and contingency or will we at least return Some of that money to help the most vulnerable at risk youth and restore only two positions as I am requesting to juvenile field supervision.

As my colleagues know, I have been one of two board liaisons to the Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council for my entire 10 plus years history as supervisor. Again, as I mentioned Monday but it bears repeating. Every couple of years we receive a report on juvenile crime and delinquency trends. Last week we received that update and we've seen an increase in the rate of violent offenses, the number of felony referrals, and the number of violations most significantly in Santa Maria and Santa Barbara offices.

Why in the world would we reduce the number of juvenile probation officers, especially after decimating that department during the recession? How convenient that we are building a beautiful jail in the North County yet we somehow can't afford to provide prevention and intervention services to keep these young people out of detention or eventually jail. Again I find this unconscionable.

I have also added increases to our per capita library funding. A modest amount increasing to $8.80 per capita which would be a little over $400,000 to go to all the libraries in our county based upon their per capita To use as a see fit. We did this last year is a one-time expenditure of $200,000 and I'm recommending this year that we allocate our one time funding of $400,000 to our libraries.

If someone asked their friends to borrow money and then they won the lottery, wouldn't we expect to pay back their friends before buying a car or painting their house? That's essentially what we are looking at here. We have asked our departments to make extensive cuts and yet instead of returning all of that money back to the departments which may not have been a reasonable expectation but to put the majority of those cuts into maintenance and capital is simply wrong.

So some of my priorities and principles, don't pull threads from the safety net otherwise it will disintegrate. The cuts should be made as far away from the bone as possible. And you know that was one of my budget principles when I served on the school board for 12 years. We had to make sure that the students and the teachers had the resources that they needed. That was our primary focus We can't just talk about prevention, intervention and protection of our most vulnerable without putting our money where our mouth is. There's too much at stake.

I believe that the drastic proposed cuts to DSS have hit every component of that net short of restoring all which of course for me would be the best outcome I have focused my request on those whose work is vital to the safety and well-being of the most vulnerable in our community, whether administrative support staff eligibility or emergency response. To say that this has been a moving target is an understatement between the materials for the workshop, the D pages, the new lists and restorations, new found money reduction of new found money makes us a very challenging year however I think that our CEO and Mr. Frapwell have guided us well in this at times ever changing budget year, but My recommendations which I think are very reasonable.

I hope my colleagues will take a good hard look at what I'm requesting. So with that Mr. Clement I would like on the ongoing that we add nine hundred thousand dollars from the Historic Baseline Maintenance Fund, $300,000 from Public Works and $600,000 from General Services. And I didn't make this request lightly because when I looked at past years even with these reductions we have still increased the maintenance funds as allocated in the maintenance 18% chart.

I should also state that this year also includes the $2.8 million for roads and I believe Mr. Frapple had mentioned in one of his slides that next year that amount will be significantly higher. In general services. Again the amount is would still be greater than it was last year and I'm pleased that the CEO is recommending that we allocate the $700,000 for the debt service and again this doesn't include the fund balances.

Mr. Fretwell just gave us that information on Let me just find that chart. In addition to what we have for the 18% deferred maintenance which I just spoke about, we have capital of $1.4 million with a balance of $700,000. We have roads of $2.2 million and deferred maintenance fund of $4 million. I think that especially with this 18% new policy, actually we are more than meeting that policy. Because as Mr. Frappel had indicated in that chart, we are ahead over $4 million from what the policy is recommending. So okay let me go back to the chart.

So I am adding $900,000 essentially for ongoing.

Supervisor Wolf we have that reflected on the chart.

Okay good because I can't see

it.

Okay, I'm also going to accept all of the recommendations from our CEO that are listed on that top area right? And then Did you fill in the issues that I provided the juvenile probation officers to is 200 And fifty nine thousand adult protective services three point one three social workers. One hundred ninety thousand dollars seven sixty four foster care eligibility workers one point seven five for eighty four thousand dollars and child welfare program an additional four social workers for three hundred fifty one thousand three thirty three.

And I might also add that these with these numbers and positions and allocations it would ensure that we get federal and state monies. That would help to stabilize these programs so I didn't include that but we are getting state we would be getting state and federal money to supplement these programs Now if you go down to the one time, at this point I am…

Hold just one moment if you would. Did you prefer we go with the ongoing or do it all at once?

Okay thank you. So I am agreeing with recommendations from the CEO as noted, all of those which increases the compliance and permitting for Goleta Beach a million dollars for contingencies And the set aside for court security and the set aside for the IV foot patrol. And then my addition would be the county libraries increase per capita to $8.50 for a total of four hundred forty six thousand eight thirty nine.

And so and I'm not adding any one time funding other than what's listed here. So bottom line is, um, I'm taking the budget as presented an over $1 billion, $1 billion budget. And I'm repurposing or taking not even a million dollars out of our maintenance fund, which is, which will probably never be fully funded but we are spending so much money in that right now that I don't think $900,000 in order to fund these important positions is an unreasonable task. And I just want to say for social workers that you know, I'm really proud. I know Supervisor Lavagnino and Supervisor Adam and myself and I think our new supervisors will do the same. We've spent time with our social workers we've gone out and spent the day with them if not a day at half-day So we know the type of work that they do.

We know the type of clientele that they're dealing with, and we know the impact that it's having on children and families regardless of economic standing. And so and of course You know, I can go on again about the foster care expansion and the adult protective services. But honestly for $900,000 to ensure the safety of our most vulnerable, I think is a reasonable request. Thank you Madam Chair.

Supervisor Lavinino?

Thank you Madam Chair. I guess you know what's great about this country is that you can have two seemingly intelligent people just look at something and just have to totally divergent thought processes when you when you break down a budget. And I've also voted for every budget since I've been here and I guarantee you I never got what I wanted it was always trying to Trying to make it a little bit better than what it was to start with, the way I looked at it.

But what I would like to say today is welcome to the new normal. This is this is what we're going to be dealing with for awhile and It's not that revenues aren't increasing as Joe said but they're not gonna increase fast enough at the pace that our expenditures are increasing And I share your frustration Supervisor Wolf that this chart does not look like our previous budgets where we had a bunch of discretionary revenue to move around and put into where our priorities were.

But some of that has to do with the fact that we've tied our hands somewhat because this board set budget priorities. And one of them was, I mean if you look at this budget in North County Jail, we put another $9.1 million into that account. And there's a reason why boards for decades struggled with trying to figure out how to do this and how to fund in North County Jail because it's not easy. It would be a lot easier to just have a free-for-all and we fund everything that we would want to do, but we realized through many grand jury reports that is the right thing to do.

We also are taking over $8 million this year and putting into increased fire protection And beefing up an area in our county family that we have underfunded over the years. And so, that was another decision that we made with the fire transfer tax. So that's coming close to $20 million a year that we sucked out of this general fund because we made those decisions and they were the right decision.

And it just leaves us a little fewer discretionary dollars You know it's hard for a taxpayer right now and I kind of you know Andy stole my thunder a little bit but if you're sitting on the sideline as a taxpayer and you're saying. You guys had an above average property tax collection year. You increased our TOT and it's the highest it's ever been. TOT collections the highest it's ever been.

Unemployment numbers are probably record low in the county stock market hits a daily high Every day we wake up and we in this county for all the resources and the abundances that we have in this county somehow we've managed to get it to where we're laying off employees. And we're cutting essential services to those that are that are in the most need I look at that though and think most of this is self inflicted Yes the state and the feds have fallen short but we collectively, and I'm going to take responsibility as well.

What we've done on this board hasn't worked. I don't think anybody can argue with that. The decisions that we've made, policy decisions this board has made. This is not the CEO's responsibility or fault. Definitely not the budget director's fault or our department heads who we've asked to make substantial cuts. They're doing the best they can with the policies that we put forth and it's definitely not our employees' fault and I want to stand up a little bit for the employees because I know in the public sector, out in the public right now You know there's a tendency to blame the employee and it kind of reminds me of people that get upset with you know baseball players or basketball players and they're talking about how much money they make.

Somebody is paying them somebody somebody has made that decision to do that so they do a lot of great work and I think it rests here with us. I also want to say that I am not the type of person that wants to get rid of this social safety net. I've never been one to get up on this dais and pound the ideology of no government When I came to this board, I think I've changed over the seven years.

But I mean, I'm the chair of C3H. I have been involved in homeless issues. I know the good that we can do. I've been out in the alley doing the point-in-time count and met with somebody that really needs our services. You know I've seen and heard from the families that have come here and struggled with somebody in their family has mental illness. And trying our best to try to get those people out of the jail, and spent a lot of time working with veterans and trying to get them the services that they need. So I am absolutely not trying to pull the strings of this social safety net.

I know why that's there, and I'm going to do my best to try to keep it. I just have a completely different idea How that safety net gets manufactured. And I think when we're pulling the strings on that is when we are denying revenue and I know that drumbeat gets old but for me that's the reality that I live in, is that we, I've had to come some to the middle I've tried my best to be practical and responsible, but I think I've moved some to the middle to try to get a functional board.

And what I'm asking for is—and I know we have a couple of new members—is that I think there needs to be some movement on the other end as well. That we kind of have to get out of our ideologies and realize that we are really impacting some of those in our county that are the most needy. I really can't, in good conscience with a $20 million budget deficit facing us next year spend any additional one-time monies.