Copyright, Fresno Bee 2008

Fresno County weighs cost saving plan

By Kerri Ginis
4/22/2008

Fresno County supervisors took the first steps Tuesday toward reducing a projected $10 million shortfall in next year's budget, saying employees may have to pay more for health benefits -- and some may lose their jobs.

The supervisors have already clamped down on hiring.

On Tuesday, they set in motion more cost-saving plans that include consolidating some county departments, reducing the number of county cars and capping their contributions for health insurance, which could lead to higher premiums for employees.

Supervisor Susan Anderson said the county's 23 departments have already taken hits through the elimination of some vacant positions.

But she warned that the cuts are far from over: "There's still one more round of cuts to make. Those could be cuts to people's jobs."

It was the first salvo in what's expected to be a difficult budget-balancing spring. The 2008-09 budget starts July 1.

County supervisors took some of their decision-making discussions behind closed doors Tuesday, saying they were reviewing options for reducing costs in the 2008-09 budget that related to labor negotiations.

They were vague, however, about which options they were discussing. Some included reducing the number of county cars and instituting a cell phone stipend program -- issues they maintain related to employee labor contracts.

But at least one expert in the state's open-meeting laws said it's "a big stretch" to relate those issues to contract negotiations.

"Under that logic, you would have most of the decisions concerning a county's budget and taxes and financial priorities all being made behind closed doors," said Peter Scheer, executive director of the California First Amendment Coalition, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing free speech and open-government rights.

County officials disagree with Scheer's assessment. Board Chairman Henry Perea said supervisors have been more open about the budgeting process this year than in prior years.

Said Perea: "I think we're giving more context to some of the issues that are affecting our budget than we have in the past."

It's clear that supervisors will have some tough choices to make as they begin the process of balancing another budget that doesn't have enough revenues to keep up with rising expenses.

Although the actual budget decisions won't be made until June, supervisors said it's already becoming clear that it's going to be very hard to maintain the same level of services, continuing a trend that has marked many recent budgets.

The projected shortfall in next year's budget is partly due to a slowdown in the growth of property and sales taxes. The county also expects to carry over less in unspent funds from this year.

As a result, supervisors will have $5 million less in discretionary revenue -- cash they can spend as they please. This is the first time in a decade that number has declined.

Departments such as the sheriff, agriculture and county clerk compete for that money. Most goes to public safety, the board's top priority, sometimes at the expense of other departments.

This year, for example, the board put about 83% of the $350 million in discretionary cash toward the county's justice departments.

County officials said on Tuesday that they can't afford to maintain that same level in the coming year because other departments are suffering.

The board said one priority in next year's budget is to beef up staff in the county counsel's office, which lost two attorneys this year.

County officials said they also need to look at long-range options for controlling expenses.

Perea said they need to review all of the programs they are providing and consider eliminating those that are not required by the state.

One of those programs is the Elkhorn boot camp, which officials said they may have to eventually phase out and instead use electronic monitoring to deal with juveniles who have committed crimes.

But at least one supervisor already voiced his disapproval for that option. Supervisor Phil Larson said it "scares me to death" to think about eliminating that program.