Out of the clear blue, during his Supervisor’s Report on Tuesday, Supervisor and Board Chair John Haschak casually told his colleagues: “The Budget Plan. We heard from the CEO that we don’t have a balanced budget [for next fiscal year, July 2025-June 2026]. Last time I think it was said that we were $28 million in the hole, but maybe that’s, um, closer to $15 million after the, kinda, the wish-list stuff is taken out. And we still have a lot of work to do to get our budget to a point where we can balance it. And of course we will have a balanced budget in June. But we have this workshop April 8 in Willits and that’s coming up in two weeks. What I would like to see is us bringing forward ideas to balance the budget because we can say all day long that we want money for this and that but really the idea is we gotta get a balanced budget so any ideas that are forthcoming will be appreciated.”
What ideas might be “forthcoming” from Haschak’s flummoxed, unprepared colleagues? Did anyone suggest cutting their own salaries and those of the highest paid officials, especially those involved in the very costly Get Cubbison fiasco? Did anyone ask for a list of the highest paid employees? Did anyone ask the department heads to submit suggested cuts? Did anyone ask how much they are paying for liability insurance? Did anyone ask for a list of the most expensive contracts? …
Of course, you know the answer to those questions.
The only Supervisor to respond to Haschak’s off-hand request was, of course, the Board’s gadfly, Supervisor Ted Williams. Williams asked for a list of all County “transactions.” Williams The Omniscient said if he could get such a list he could go through it “with a red pencil” and strike out all the unnecessary spending and voila! Budget balanced! DOGE could learn a thing or two from Williams. Don’t even bother to ask the departments anything — just strike out any unnecessary “transactions.” Poof! Gone! Problem solved!
Instead of pointing out how ridiculous that was, CEO Darcie Antle tried to clarify what Williams wanted, suggesting that maybe what he wanted was already in the “budget book.” Williams said that wasn’t detailed enough. Williams wanted “every line item, every invoice.” County Counsel Charlotte Scott noted that some invoice information in Social Services might be confidential and would have to be gone over and redacted. CEO Antle said that she would “send a message to my team.” Scott added that her office was already dealing with a similar Public Records Act request and they’ve been working on it for months. After a few more minutes of confusion, Haschak suggested asking for copies of the budget requests submitted by a few selected departments — say facilities, transportation, social services, maybe?
Haschak: “Each of us should be thinking about where cuts can come from. I’m trying to figure out how to balance the budget.” Right. Haschak suggested that maybe the miniscule Municipal Advisory Councils be defunded or maybe the Board’s travel budget. Maybe there are “other funding sources.” Maybe they could get a look at all the contracts for next year. “We need an analysis of opportunities for savings,” insisted Haschak.
The other three Supervisors had nothing to say on the subject, no ideas, no objections, no questions, no corrections of Haschak’s $15 million shortfall, or is it $28 million…?
It was truly pathetic. As if these five overpaid bumblers — each of whom cost the County about $150k a year now including benefits — know anything about the departmental budgets and what could be cut.
Remember, most of the budget is salaries, not “line items,” not “transactions,” not “invoices,” not even contracts. Almost two-thirds of the General Fund goes to Law Enforcement which the Supervisors have previously said is not only exempt from cuts but is expected to go up by as much as $10 million next year, just in the Sheriff’s office.
As usual, it was left kinda vague. Maybe they’ll get a few random departmental budget requests for next year in time for the April 8 “workshop.” But the idea that these Supervisors can review departmental budgets for what can be cut is absurd on its face. They have no idea; they never ask questions about departmental budgets.
The simplest approach would be to identify and apply any one-time funds available for next year, calculate the remaining shortfall and give each department an allocation reflecting their share of what’s left and telling them to submit a list of cuts to get there.
But even that crude approach is obviously beyond their very limited abilities.
Hashack and Williams are the two morons who also gave away the unincorporated county’s only hope for tax roll growth to Ukiah. Anybody who thought the Cubbison political assassination attempt would wake any of them up is sadly mistaken. They will double down on dumb. Dumb AND dangerous. Also, why does the CEO get paid big bucks only to ever say yes to every dim witted board member utterance? Isn’t part of the whole “CEO” job to tell the board members inconvenient truths, truths that could put the “CEO”‘s job in jeopardy? Isn’t that why the position is so well compensated? Even County Counsel seems like an intellectual waif. They might have to review and redact all Social Services AP/AR? Ya think? Any other departments you want to throw in? No mention of the time commitment such a project would involve for one moronic supervisor? Will Ted red line the steak dinners?