Board of Supervisors — 2017-08-22

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¶¶ ¶ Good morning welcome. We're reconvening after our August recess for this August 22nd 2017 meeting of the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors here in the Santa Barbara hearing room would you call the roll Mr. Allen?

Ms. Wolfe, Mr. Adam, Mr Lavinino, Mr Williams, Ms Hartman.

And turning to the minutes, may I have a motion to approve the minutes of July 25th 2017? All in favor say aye. Aye. The minutes are approved turning to our CEO's report Ms. Miyasato.

Good morning supervisors so I to top off the beginning of our day and our return back from the break I'm pleased to welcome introduce our new public health director Dr. Von Do Reynoso and she as you know she Has managed county behavioral health and human service programs since 2004. Most recently as Madera County's Public Health Director for the past seven years, and even during her interim time there she also served as an Interim Director of their Behavioral Health Department for one year.

Sounds familiar to us. Vaughn is deeply committed to public health, public service and collaboration. She has extensive experience working at the state level and serves on the California Medical Services Program and the California Health Executives Association of California Executive Committees. She's one of the founding members and served as the chair The San Joaquin Valley Public Health Consortium, which engages public health leaders in strategic planning to improve the quality and responsiveness of pressing public health issues faced by the region. She is eager and well prepared to lead our community in achieving its public health goals with her extensive experience, go-getter attitude, and her collaborative style.

So before I ask Vaughn to come up and say a few words, I also want to take the opportunity to recognize and thank Carrie Topliff for her work and leadership over the past seven months. As you know, Carrie has been filling in as our interim director in public health following the departure of Dr. Wada in December. We are very appreciative of her efforts to improve processes and forge critical community relationships in her tenure there And Kerry now returns to her role as the director of the county's child support services. You'll be hearing more from Kerry later today, there's an item on D2 and Joni Baden who also stepped up and was the acting Child Support Services Director during this time as well. So for now I'd like to introduce Dr. Del Reynoso

Thank you CEO Miyasato, good morning Chairman and members of the board. It is an honor and a privilege for me to be here in Santa Barbara County so it's been a whirlwind of meets and greets these past three weeks but I have made a conclusion that In all my career of being in multiple counties, multiple settings Santa Barbara County is the best one yet. So I've been meeting with department staff, county departments as well as external community partners and really have come to the conclusion that We have the resources. We have the partnerships and we have the will, the commitment to work together to make even greater strides in our community. So with that thank you for your confidence and I am super excited to start my work. Thank you.

Thank you and

welcome.

And I believe Dr. Russell you had something to say about United Way was that correct?

So good morning Supervisors. I'm here to announce the charitable giving campaign. I am, hi Steve, I am the chair this year and Chief Peterson is the vice-chair we'll be working together it runs from September 5th to October 13th. It's an opportunity for people to give to their community, it's amazing what this campaign achieves. You'll see a lot of the Santa Barbara United Way of Santa Barbara but this campaign you can give to whatever charitable organization You want, you can give where you live.

It's really a wide open opportunity to contribute to your community. We annually raise over $200,000 for the community non-profits throughout the county. These are invested in the community of all sorts of educational financial health and veterans programs that truly make our communities stronger and a much better place to live. The goal this year we want to celebrate County employees who give their time And their funds to the community. We want to provide opportunities for employees to volunteer.

Our goal is to raise at least $204,000 from employee donations this year and I would like now to introduce Steve Ortiz President and CEO of United Way of Santa Barbara County.

Thank you.

And a new member of the first five board right?

I am, as of yesterday. Good morning and thank you for having me here today and Glenn we just want to say thank you for the support the county has had for our community. You know the county along with the many employees who participate raise critical funds needed for many programs in Santa Barbara County Without the support of the county and county employees, a lot of what we do would not be possible.

The greatest thing for you to know is that the county has been the top campaign for this county for 30 plus years. So it's not just an insignificant amount for community programs, it's actually the cornerstone of what we do in Santa Barbara County. But not only is it financial, a lot of your employees actually volunteer for our work as well. Just this past summer, couple weeks ago many of your employees volunteered for Fund the Sun helping children in their academics over the summer. We even had the county fire department out at Santa Ynez during the fires taking some time off volunteering with the students and that was a big piece for those students being able to participate with them. So overall I just want to say thank you again for your support and thank you for allowing us to do this every year.

Thank you and this kicks off September 5.

September 5 and there will be more coming information on the intranet for employees to see so this is just sort of a beginning kickoff.

Thank you. So turning next then to our administrative agenda we have two honorary resolutions to be presented today, A40 and A41 may I have a motion to approve? And a second. All in favor say aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Would you read A40 into the record?

Chair Hartman, members of the board item A40 sponsored by Supervisor Hartman this is a resolution of commendation honoring Pam Niekau for her service initiative and tireless dedication to the saying as Valley senior citizens and if Pam could come on up to the podium right now that'd be great I will read the resolution into the record All right, whereas Pam Neacow through her work as director of the Pulton Senior Center has provided crucial and caring nutrition and social services for seniors in the San Ynez Valley.

And whereas during nine years, Pam has worked tirelessly to ensure that no resident of the San Ynez Valley goes hungry by providing a free farmer's market, free monthly community dinners, weekday lunches at the center, 1900 meals on wheels a year, and a free brown bag breakfast program for homebound seniors. And whereas the Buellton Senior Center also provides medical referrals, home repairs, assistant locating housing and spiritual support for homebound seniors. And whereas PAM in collaboration with the Presbyterian Church has provided housing assistance and covered medical legal and other costs to seniors in crisis. And whereas PAM is recognized by the Food Bank of Santa Barbara County, the San Ynez Valley Foundation, Meals on Wheels, the City of Buellton and the San Ynez Valley Elks for her work supporting seniors in the valley.

Now therefore it is hereby ordered and resolved that the Board of Supervisors honors and commends Pam Niekow for her service, initiative, and tireless dedication to our community. Pass it adopted today.

I would just like to take this opportunity to say a few words because Pam is from my hometown of Buellton and she is a treasure in our community. She is a chef and the seniors and the school children, many people gather around the senior center where she works and through food has created a tremendous sense of community and thank you for all that you do for Buellton and the county.

Thank

you, Chair Hartman for this award. Thank you for the Board of Supervisors. I just want to say this is a wonderful award but these awards don't come because somebody does it. It's a lot of volunteers, it's a wonderful staff. It's all of the organizations that keep grants and the Board of Supervisors promoting those grants, and all of our community efforts. And the people who give and just love our seniors and keep taking care of them and letting us do what we do. We so appreciate it. Thank you for this honor.

I just can't, I have to add it does take everyone but it takes a magnet and that's what you've been. Turning to A41

Chair Hartman, members of the board. Item 841 also sponsored this morning by Supervisor Hartman. This is a resolution of commendation honoring Angela Villalobos from the Planning and Development Department as the county's August 2017 Employee of the Month. If Angela would come on up and Dr. Russell as well and I will go ahead and read the resolution into the record.

Whereas, Angela Villalobos began her career with Planning and Development in 2003 as an office assistant. And due to her strong work ethic and conscientious nature she was promoted to Building Permit Technician 1 and subsequently to Building Permit Technician 2. And whereas Angela is an International Code Council certified building permit technician who also holds an accounting degree she brings an ideal combination of education and skill to implement the building codes and policies to protect the health safety and welfare of our communities And whereas Angela's a team player who goes out of her way to be helpful and provide excellent customer service to our colleagues and customers alike.

And whereas Angela is truly committed to assist customers through the sometimes complex permitting requirements, and patiently works with customers to help them navigate through the process to ensure their projects are successfully processed and ready for permit issuance. And whereas Angela is a positive force that brightens the atmosphere in the Santa Maria Permit Center with her cheerful attitude and dedication to improving the way things are done.

Now there is hereby ordered and resolved that this Board of Supervisors recognizes Angela Villalobos as our Santa Barbara County Employee of the Month for August 2017.

So it's really a pleasure to present Angela with the Employee of the Month Award. Actually, this only comes around once every two years so for us she's employee of the year actually employee of two years! So it's an honor. She mentioned we already heard about her strong work ethic. She works in our Santa Maria Permit Center and what she does is she takes some permits I'm going to She takes the responsibility to the next level, and she works until the job is done. And that even means coming in on a Saturday sometimes in order to get things done. So I'm told she likes to cook. She takes care of her family members, has a lot of responsibility there, and loves the holiday decorations which we do in our office up there. So all-in-all, she's a great employee and a great person, and we're lucky to have her doing the important activity of managing the intake and issuance of building permits.

Congratulations Angela! You deserve it.

Like what Pam said is that. You know my job I'm just one person if I didn't have such a great team to work with, I wouldn't be able to do what they do so you know the whole department in my opinion deserves this thank you.

So we're turning now to the rest of our administrative agenda and no supervisor has informed me that he or she wants to pull any item. Do we have any public speaker slips to pull in any items?

No requests to speak on the administrative agenda.

Okay may I have a motion, oh we are withdrawing one item 821.

Chair Hartman, members of the board. Yes we're going to honor the request by the Public Works Department that we withdraw item A-21 from the agenda this morning. This is regarding agreement for services of independent contractor with Imperial Electric. We did post an addendum also with corrected a Board of Supervisors appointment from Supervisor Adam on Item A-36. That's an appointment to the Arts Commission and not the Commission for Women And those are my only announcements on the administrative agenda.

Okay thank you, may I have a motion to approve the administrative agenda excluding item A21? So moved. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The administrative agenda stands approved. Now is the time for the public to comment on any item that is not on today's agenda.

Chair Hartman, members of the board we have two requests to speak this morning on public comment. We're going to start with Peter Marin. Peter come on up and then Barbara Close.

I was here a few weeks ago you may remember in drawing your attention to the fact that the jail ride program for mysterious reasons had six months ago ceased to exist In any case, it apparently began when the cab company that was providing rides from the jail went out of existence. And then apparently the jail could not find a substitute cab company and then six months passed we learned what had happened After I spoke to you, I went home. It took me two days and six phone calls to find two cab companies willing to take over the ride program.

This raises a lot of questions about What the jailers were doing, what they didn't do. I've been cautioned not to introduce acrimony into these proceedings so I won't but it's quite clear that up at the jail something went wrong or there weren't people there interested enough in the continuation of this program to proceed to find a solution to the problem Now as I say, I have my own ideas about what happened or didn't and I won't go into those. And things are now back on track to find a solution. DAS's office has been terrific especially his associate Cameron.

who's communicated with me and then translated this for the jail and kept after the jail to proceed with what's going on. Along the way we've hit several glitches, the jail said they couldn't do this couldn't do that again it fell to me to make a few phone calls in a day we could clear up all those difficulties. We're now on track to get this settled but Here's the problem from my point of view.

When all of this began, we came to the supervisors and said we can't raise money for this anymore. We can't handle it. I want to stop doing what I'm doing. You guys accepted responsibility for the program and then passed it on to the sheriff who was, I think somewhat reluctant to take it on but it became the jail's responsibility run this program but there was no oversight There was no way for anybody to check up on how the program was going or to see if the jailers were doing what they said they were doing.

When all of this happened six months ago there were two or three people associated with a program that were very disturbed that it had come to its end But apparently they couldn't think of where to come to raise a red flag or to make a complaint. It's quite possible, if DASA's office wants to take this over for them to become responsible for making sure the jailers are doing what they say they're doing.

But I think there's another solution, and that is C3H and Chuck Flax. I've talked to Chuck about this. He's a terrific guy. His organization was tasked with many things when it was first formed. Many of those tasks have sort of disappeared. I think it wouldn't be difficult to ask him and his group To just be fundamentally responsible for making sure these program go well and also to be there where if anything goes wrong for the jailers to go and say we can't fix this. Can you help us fix it?

But there has to be some second level of supervision here. My experience with the jail is some of them are terrific, and when you have a problem they solved it instantly. There's guy up there named Laz Salinas who was wonderful. I'm watching him. In any case, you're over time. Right okay so I'll go back to my solution one problem is we only get three minutes there I have an appointment with DAS in a month but it's very difficult to find a way to make these issues clear and to figure out a way to solve them thank you.

Thank you and I'd love to meet with you too

I'll

Barbara close

a lot. Just wanted to add to it that there is based on some of the leads that Mr. Marin gave us we contacted the owners of the cab company they provided us with an application Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I think that's a good spot would be. I also want to tell you something that also went right between the when this was started and what it what it is now- thanks to efforts made by the sheriff and with encouragement from supervisor Wolf they have reduced the number of releases that happen late at night This is less of a problem from that perspective than it used to be.

But we that doesn't mean we don't still need the rides program for late night releases and we really appreciate Mr. Marin's vigilance on this and in helping us locate a vendor.

Supervisor Lavanino.

Thank you madam chair and I just want to thank you Mister mayor for bringing this to our attention because after reading the article I saw in the newspaper. If you hadn't come to public comment, I don't think we would ever found out about this.

Good morning, my name is Barbara Close and I'm from the Eastern Goleta Valley. And I decided to drop in this morning after I attended the City of Goleta's first public meeting on cannabis last night. I went because I was curious as to how they were going to involve the public. The workshop was to hear from the community about how they feel about all aspects of marijuana. It was a dialogue format that engaged the public. There were no speaker slips, people raised their hand and were given a microphone if they wanted to speak and questions were addressed openly on the spot by the two moderators and it truly felt like a town hall meeting.

In contrast I want to speak about how the county has disregarded and basically eliminated some of the public process. I believe the planning commissioners and the three supervisors are getting a very wrong impression about what the county is doing to include the public. It is being reported that there have been two town hall standing room only meetings. I attended the one meeting held in Santa Barbara which was really not actually a public hearing but it was a cannabis registry meeting.

It was only about the registry and we were told that no questions would be answered. So it was no surprise that it was 98% cannabis advocates because the general public was not noticed about the meeting. If this is what the county is calling a public meeting, then it's very insufficient. The second meeting, the scoping meeting fulfilled the county's requirement but it was really a waste of time which I will address later in written comment. The county has been working on cannabis regulations and ordinances for six months with an EIR about to be initiated. And there has been zero communication that has gone out to the residents of the unincorporated area.

Everyone on every email list should have received some notification about this project, and I'm wondering who made the decision not to notice us? I and many others have put in countless months and years working on land use issues in our community plan. Now when land use is a huge issue with significant impacts to our communities, we are completely left out of the conversation and marginalized because it's not efficient to include us.

The ad hoc committee has been private and there are no minutes and no way to know what is being discussed or who's saying what. There's no transparency, accountability or integrity in the process in my opinion. We have never done land use this way. This breeds a huge level of suspicion and mistrust among the citizens. Going forward I ask that the committee meetings be held in public or the committee is disbanded and the remainder of the process include all the supervisors. I feel that it's very important for all of you to hear exactly what is being talked about, who is being asked questions and to hear with your own ears and see with your own eyes what is being said because it is very different than just Seeing a PowerPoint report on that.

So this is something that we're going to be permanently impacted by and I just ask that you would take action on this. Thank you.

Okay we are turning to our departmental agenda and I just for anybody who is watching, we have an eight item agenda. The eighth item is Goleta Beach there will be a lot of interest in that item. We are unlikely to get to that until after our closed session probably 130 or 2 this afternoon And when people do comment those who put a one minute in their left-hand column on their speaker slip will be given preference at the front of the line.

So would you read number 1 into the record please Mr.

Allen? Chair Hartman, members of the board item number one is from planning and development this is to consider recommendations regarding the Olson Trust appeal of the Montecito Planning Commission's April 18, Teen Conditional De Novo Design Review Approval of the Olstein Trust Single-Family Dwelling Demo Rebuild New Detached Garage, Cabana and Pool. There's a request that this item be continued to our meeting on October 17th 2017 and I do have one request to speak on this item from Ms. Petrovich

Thank you Madam Chair, members of the board. I'm here representing two of the appellants Tom Sturgis and Mike Hare on behalf of the Olive Mill Trust and I have been authorized to consent to the continuation of this hearing I talked to Mr. Weston when I first heard about the proposal to continue it, and at that time he said he posed the date but the fact that he's not here indicates to me that I guess he's reconciled himself that October is the time for this hearing so thank you we do ask that you continue it.

So that closes the public comment on this item and may I have a motion to continue to October 17, 2017? I will move this item. And a second?

Second.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

None opposed, motion passes. Item number two Mr. Allen.

Chair Hartman members of the board item two some child support services this is a hearing to receive and file a presentation from Child Support regarding the Child Support Awareness Month.

Ms. Topliff

Good morning, Chair Hartman. I'm very happy to be here to discuss child support with you. As you know we celebrate August as Child Support Awareness Month and like you I've had a lot of catching up to do since I've been away for awhile so I did want to acknowledge Joni Maiden who's been The other member of the executive team at Child Support, the entire 11 years that I've been there. So she and I have had a great partnership and she's done an absolutely outstanding job while I've been away. And I think that the kind of partnership we have at the top really has permeated the whole department And a lot of things that we accomplished, we could not do without teams. Also in the back of the room are a substantial portion of our management team, our supervising attorney Kelly McLaughlin, Maria Aguilar and our business manager Meta Richardson.

So I appreciate being back to all these wonderful people who are doing such great work in child support. As usual, we're trying to increase our efficiencies all the time. We have some changes with the courts this year. We have a brand new family court commissioner, Vaughn DeRoyan. She follows in a long line of commissioners who really pay attention to the very complex rules of our program and try and make decisions that are both pragmatic and heartfelt.

Recently, Denise Motter retired. Colleen Stern was a former commissioner and James Iwasco for a long time. This year we have started doing electronic filing with the courts and were thrilled about that. Although we're not too far distant from them, we have spent a lot of time printing documents, schlepping them over to the court waiting for them to be processed by the court Going back, getting the documents and then scanning them and getting them into our system. And that's all done electronically now so we've really saved a lot of time with that. We're very excited about it.

Additionally, we have gotten out of the cash handling business after all these decades Through contracts with Pay Near Me and MoneyGram, and now with cash kiosks in our offices customers can actually make their cash payments without having to interact with our staff. Even though I would have thought that nobody would prefer a stainless steel slot in a machine to a warm and friendly interaction with the child support staff, our customers have taken to it. Our total cash collections are up almost 40%, and we have totally gotten away from The contracts for the armored trucks, all the interactions with the auditor controller's office and then the cash actually gets to the customers a lot faster too. So we feel like that has been a super improvement during this time period.

Additionally, we are now doing lean filing with the clerk recorder assessor electronically. That's saving us a lot of time. We have a new online application for the 75 new customers a month who open cases with us and the way that helps us is that a lot of the information and data about their case goes directly into our electronic system and we don't have duplicate data entry.

We gave up some office space in Santa Maria to save us $3,000 a month and we're very pleased about that. In addition to all these efficiencies I just want you to know that we really do pay a lot of attention to our customers and their needs. We are advertising our compromise of arrears program now it's a way for I would like to begin by thanking the Board of Supervisors for this opportunity.

received during the period that they were not receiving child support. Well over half of our customers formerly received cash aid and thanks to the improvement in their financial conditions partially assisted by the regular collection of child support no longer need cash aid so this is a very good outcome from our program and the fact that we can also help Some of those people get out from some of those debilitating arrears through the Compromise of Arrears program makes us very proud.

We do have a lot of very difficult cases that we manage just recently homeless veteran who was selling blood plasma to make a $15 a month payment luckily he was able to get Thank you very much. Thank you. We also work with people who are in danger of losing their driver's licenses because they're delinquent in their child support. And we've been able to come up with payment plans for them so that they can keep those driver's licenses and they can keep their ability to earn a living.

We did quite a bit of outreach to employers this year to help them be more efficient in their management of the program, because a good two-thirds of the collections that we get do come through wage assignments. And a lot of those employers are also very committed to making sure that money gets to the families in a timely way. We had a very large collection during this time, something that we're seeing these days.

Inheritance that we collected on the children were long grown and emancipated but there was quite a considerable past due balance and from paying off that past due balance with the inheritance The mom was able to give each of her children sufficient funds for a down payment on a home. So these are all things that our staff participate in day after day, they are tender hearted problem solvers but they're also hard nose debt collectors and we're very proud of them for honoring Child Support Awareness Month They did a backpack drive and we got a bunch of school supplies that we donated to the families at the Good Samaritan homeless shelter in Santa Maria.

So we're keeping up the good work and we thank you for this time to tell you about it.

Thank you Ms. Topliff do any board members have any questions or comments? I

knew that. Supervisor Wolf. Thank you, thank you Madam Chair. Well first of all Carrie I just want to thank you for stepping up and helping the county as the interim public health director. As always you are just so committed to this county and you have an incredible work ethic. So thank you for that.

And can I tell you one thing about that too? Sure. As I left public health, I recruited my sister who is a nurse to go work at public health and yesterday was her first day. Oh

excellent!

An auspicious day. That's great. And I also want to thank you. You know it's kind of this small but mighty department that we don't really hear too much about except maybe during budget. I think what we had started was an opportunity to have a conversation with you in our district offices, which I've always appreciated. But I really do think that this is important for the public to know that the county has a service and you know I was struck by the report where it says That you have served almost 13000 families in this program and last year alone distributed twenty three million dollars to families in Santa Barbara County. I mean that's just remarkable. So again a small and mighty department that's really doing excellent work so thank you thanks to you and to your staff and to those who are still back in their offices doing the work.

Thank you. Thank you.

Supervisor Williams.

Just on a behalf of. I guess I grew up, I grew up with a single mom and we needed child support and so I very much understand the vital function that your staff performs and so I want to give them personal encouragement on behalf of folks who grew up like me and also I appreciate the kind of metrics that you outline. And I think it would be useful for the board if you can ever give us some of the numbers on that because that is just wonderful To hear the I think you said the 40% that came off cash assistance. That's a mind blowing number and I think should really be celebrated when that number of folks in our community thanks to your work and the parents' work are able to get off welfare, that is a great sign of progress And should be celebrated.

So those kind of metrics I think please give them to us and we don't have to wait once a year to get those. That's that's a wonderful metric to have in our budget documents as well. Thanks so much.

Thank you. Thank you. May I have may I have a motion to receive and file the report? So moved. And a second?

Second.

Any further discussion? Supervisor Wolk. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Thank you Ms. Toplin. Turning to item number three would you read that into the agenda Mr. Allen.

Chair Hartman and members of the board, Item 3 is from the auditor controller and the county executive office it's a hearing to consider recommendations regarding fiscal year 2016-17 financial status report.

Mr. Frapwell, will you start off or Mr. Filotti? Okay.

Good morning members of the board. Theo Filotti, Auditor-Controller and with me Jeff Frapwell, the Budget Director. I'm here to present to you the results of operations for fiscal year 16-17 our annual financial status report Items that we'll cover today, economic indicators, a review of the governmental funds and then also the general fund itself and then other major and non-major funds. And then some conclusions.

So overall theme for this last year was temperate growth. Basically the economy was referred to as boring and as a plow horse economy so there were not wild swings with stock market ups and downs it was pretty steady, it was just pretty much small and steady growth. And this kind of growth is necessary for us to fulfill the commitments of the board Unemployment rate continues to decline.

Also, the real estate market has remained positive and then there's a continued overall improvement in our discretionary revenues with property tax that last year increased by 4 1⁄2 percent. The sales tax, local sales tax increased by 20% and the transient occupancy tax improved by 11%. Now those numbers are inflated as a result of I'd like And then additionally the sales tax as a result of the triple flip being reversed back in the recession. The state had borrowed, had issued some economic recovery bonds and they diverted a quarter percent of the 1% sales tax to repay those bonds. Those bonds have been repaid and then the one percent has now been restored. And so that's the reason for the large increases The actual year-over-year increases are more in the four to four and a half percent range for those two sources of revenue.

In our governmental funds here we I'll leave this slide up basically what it shows is Across the top we have our general fund and then our major special revenue funds here, and then all our other funds. So these are the governmental funds pretty much all rolled up together. And then what you can see here is that total for the current year, the revenues grew 4.3% and they were $889 million above the $852 from the prior year.

And our expenditures grew 4.7% to 866 or $867 million. Then the revenue and the source of this revenue sources. It over that in the uses for all of the governmental funds increased by about 22 million dollars And the next slide, we can refer back to this in the future or as we go through it but the next slide basically goes over the information I just provided and then really some of the salary and benefit costs which are with salaries and benefits being 61% of our total expenditures.

The increase was 17 million or 3.4%. And the components of that really the regular salary increased by 6.7% 6. 7 million or 2.2% overall and then overtime regular overtime grew by 4.6 million or 21.5%. And that's mainly in the sheriff and fire departments health insurance costs increase $4.2 million and you don't see pension up here is a large increase because in this last fiscal year, the rate was actually pretty flat we're going to see the increases So in the general fund, the revenues and these numbers are also back on that prior slide too.

General fund revenues were $396 million, expenditures $344 million and then we had other financing sources and uses and these are mainly uses of $54 million. These are mainly the general fund contribution and transfers to other funds from the general fund. And so then you can see we had a net decrease of $2 million in the total fund balance of the general fund down to 113 million from 115 million.

And the changes in the components of fund balance in the general fund. You can see that our non-spendable fund balance went up 1.4 million dollars, that was mainly due to impounding some property tax appeal impounds so we pulled those aside and those are set up as a receivable and non-spendable. Our restricted fund balance went up $4 million and the majority of that is a result of a $12 million increase in the realignment, local realignment offset by some other releases. But there was a net increase in that component of fund balance and those are restricted funds.

Then we also have a reduction of seven and half million in our committed funds. Majority of that came from a transfer from the general fund to the northern branch jail construction fund, and then also transfers to the mental health funds or the be well funds. You can see our unassigned was down .3 million dollars and then our residual fund balance. Was also was up .3 million dollars you can see that in the current year it is 7 million dollars and then in the prior year 6.7 million dollars so that leaves a 2 million dollar net reduction In the general fund itself, this shows by department here. Department down the side and then their annual variance here and you can see in total that there was a $7 million positive variance for all the general fund departments combined.

And if you make a note of this 7 million dollars is about 1% of the 680 million dollar total appropriations budget so ended up to be very close within 1%. Generally the increases are due to increases in the general revenues and we'll go into those a bit later. And then the remainder is mostly savings in individual departments, and I think what we see here is the department's sort of mid-year knowing what kind of economic issues we're going to face in the future probably started to begin their cost cutting and saving measures, and that would be the reason for some of the ending balances that we have.

I will go into some specifics in general revenues there was a four point two million dollar increase in general revenues and two point two million of it was in the property tax area. And of that one point one was from secured escapes and these are property tax bills that had been issued as a result of either assessment appeals being settled. And we also had a reduction in our backlog We were able to reduce the backlog tremendously during the year. Additionally, then the TOT increased about $600,000 and then one of the big things was 1.4 million dollars in delinquent property tax penalties And basically that this has occurred as a result of when we have a good economy. Many of the prior delinquent penalties and property taxes get paid off, and then we see those increase during the recessionary time so as we have better times than we get the collection of delinquent property taxes and then also the penalties that are associated with those delinquent property taxes.

In the general County programs. $1.4 million positive variance and it was resulting from a little bit of revenue, a little bit of expenditure savings and then about 700,000 was not transferred to the be well Department and I think that was a it was a result of the Laurel's law would have been budgeted transfer and then it wasn't necessary during the fiscal year.