At Tuesday’s Board meeting, Supervisor Glenn McGourty invoked Detective Hieronymous ‘Harry’ Bosch’s slogan, “Everybody counts or nobody counts” during the budget discussion. McGourty didn’t mention that in one of his early Bosch novels author Michael Connelly has detective Bosch strongly object to the political use of his pet slogan. Detective Bosch meant it to apply to crime victims, not the public at large — or Mendo bureaucracies.
As fictional slogans go, we prefer George Orwell’s quote from Animal Farm: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others” because it more accurately captures the underlying attitude of politicians who like to put themselves first when making political and financial decisions as they exempt themselves from cuts as they pretend to be so objective and fair-minded with their less than equal subordinates.
The most surprising aspect of Tuesday’s Budget Hearing for the County’s 2024-2025 budget was the silence of the department heads whose budgets were slashed.
Back in 2010 when similar sized cuts were imposed on the departments, several department heads objected. Then-Sheriff Tom Allman even threatened to sue the Supervisors over his budget cuts because then-CEO Carmel Angelo had overspecified what parts of the Sheriff’s office she was cutting from the Sheriff’s budget. Later Allman backed off when the Board decided to let the Sheriff decide for himself what cuts he’d make. But the cuts were still imposed.
In 2024 as staffing continues to decline from those 2010 levels not one department head complained about the cuts imposed on all the departments, some of them substantial.
But, as Orwell notes, not all departments were required to absorb big cuts.
The Supervisors, for example, only took a tiny $26k cut, most of which was in deferred computer expenses.
The Executive Office was cut a mere $23k, also mostly in deferred computer expenses.
And rounding out the minimal cuts for the departments with the highest paid staff, we find that the County Counsel’s office was cut by only $49k, again, most of it by deferring computer costs.
Despite making a big deal out of hiring more staff in the Assessor’s office to catch up with badly lagging assessments, the Assessor’s office was cut by almost $1 million, more than half of which was for “regular employees.”
As we mentioned before, the District Attorney’s office took the biggest cut at over $1.8 million, more than half of which was for “regular employees.” Not a peep out of DA Eyster.
The Sheriff’s Office took a big hit too, but most of that was in equipment, not much in line staff.
Probation was cut by about $235k. But it could have been much bigger if not for Chief Probation Officer Izen Locatelli’s creative budget juggling. Locatelli explained that he has managed to eliminate the General Fund contribution to Juvenile Hall and might save even more money by “partnering” with Behavioral Health or Public Health regarding various services to probationers both adult and juvenile. Locatelli pointed out that his staffing costs have increased due to pay raises the Board approved, not from additional staff.
Despite these large cuts, Supervisor Ted Williams insisted that the County is still “deficit spending.” Williams also noted that the Assessor’s office is still behind in assessments even though they’ve hired several new assessor staffers. (Yes, we noticed the mixed message in hiring assessment staff while cutting their staff budget.) “The public thinks we have a revenue crisis,” said Williams; the “public” in this case being the AVA and a few private individuals who are following the ongoing revenue crisis. “We are not billing fully,” continued Williams, “not collecting fully, not assessing fully. Our software doesn’t work. And there’s some truth to that. There’s nothing in this presentation that addresses that fundamental problem. How do you address that? Are we not losing potential revenue every year going forward?”
Budget presenter/Acting Deputy CEO Tony Rakes had no answer, resorting to the CEO’s office standard reply that there is “ongoing activity” and “lots of efforts on processes and software for County,” adding that they are “working on” the software problem.
Williams followed up asking how far behind the tax collection process is, adding, “Every year some taxes due become uncollectable. We have to catch up on revenue. We can not continue to use one-time money. We have used $7 million in one-time money this year and it will get worse in future.”
CEO Darcy Antle had no specifics. All she could offer was more “we’re working on it” deflections.
“We are looking for outside help. Some have suggested we hire additional folks to assist. We are working with Human Resources and the Assessor. We are recruiting. We are working those avenues. Evaluating. Discussing what’s needed and what’s not working. There’s no short term fix. It took several years to get here… We hope that the use of one-time funds will be worked down over the year. There are active initiatives in process. We are looking at licensing, audits, a General Services reorganization, co-location of Fort Bragg’s Environmental Health staff with the Planning and Building staff, evaluating the property tax system, re-organizing code enforcement, improving unpaid fee collections, re-evaluating our investment portfolio, coming up with creative and innovative ideas… We need a couple more months. Hopefully in a couple of months. …” Antle drifted off.
This is all the familiar delaying tactic that Antle has been successfully getting away with ever since she replaced Carmel Angelo as CEO in 2022.
Supervisor Maureen Mulheren pointed out that after the 2025/2026 budget year they will finally no longer have to pay $8 million a year on the decades old Pension Obligation Bond from the 90s, Supervisor Williams replied that by then much of that $8 million will probably be eaten up by inflation. “We may have more money,” said Williams, “but even more expenses.”
Supervisor Dan Gjerde asked that the CEO report include specifics on what’s being done to improve efficiencies and revenue collection. As usual, nobody followed up on that plaintive request which has been avoided like a tar baby for as long as we have been following County mismanagement. Of course, CEO Antle is always ready with more we’re-working-on-its, but actual numbers? Never.
Union representative Patrick Hickey came to the podium near the end of the budget hearing to observe that this budget: eliminates 142 vacant and unfunded positions which is about 11% of the overall workforce. “Most of these positions have not been filled for some time,” said Hickey. “But there’s no explanation of what changes are associated with this reduction. What won’t get done? What programs or services will be reduced or cancelled with this dramatic reduction in positions? It’s unrealistic to think that technology improvements and efficiencies will make up the difference. We are doing less with less. Things will take longer, response times will suffer and roads will deteriorate. The Grand Jury recently focused on the short staffing in Family and Children’s Services. 42 positions in Social Services 42 are being cut. Public Health has had 23 positions eliminated. Transportation has eliminated 22 positions. People have to reduce their expectations.”
The CEO could only reply that these position eliminations are for positions that have been vacant for at least 18 months and they simply make official what was already in place. CEO Antle didn’t explain why so many positions are vacant. But the primary reasons are: line staffers leaving for better paying jobs in Sonoma County or elsewhere and not being replaced due to the hiring freeze that even applies to non-General Fund departments; an across the board low morale among the remaining staff in almost every department as remaining line workers struggle with understaffing, ever higher workloads and caseloads, spotty management, and a board of supervisors that has no interest in how departments operate.
Notebook:
Supervisor Gjerde asked the Air Quality manager about their pending move out of the old Veterans Service Office to make room for the return of the Veterans Service Office to their original building from where they were unceremoniously evicted last December. The Air Quality manager replied that they now have a contract with a landlord for some space on Hastings Street in the same building as radio station KWINE. They hope to exchange keys with the Veterans Service Office this week so they “can begin the move process.” They are working with staff to make arrangements for computers and phones and such. No dates were mentioned but the Air Quality manager insisted it would be “ASAP.”
PS. Either the Editor or the Webmaster chose to not post the second of two screen-grabs I snagged from Tuesday’s board meeting when Ukiah City Councilperson Mari Rodin appeared to pressure the Supervisors into giving Ukiah some $3 million in tax revenues from County properties surrounding Ukiah under a lop-sided “tax sharing” agreement engineered by Rodin, Supervisor Mulheren, and Ukaih City Manager Sage Sangiacomo behind closed doors. Granted the picture did not protray Ms. Rodin in a particularly flattering pose as she implored the Supervisors to agree with her and beg that they not consider the loss of $3 million a year to be a loss. But that’s how Ms. Rodin is much of the time — it’s a style she uses whenever she thinks it might work. So here it is: Mari Rodin in all her dreamy, solicitous glory:
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