Rescued Animals Showing Signs of New Life at SPCA

As many are already aware, Sacramento County is in the midst of resolving significant fiscal issues. Recently, the Board of Supervisors made the difficult but necessary decision to cut over $100 million in spending from the Fiscal Year 2010-2011 budget. The cuts were not easy, but they were necessary to balance the budget and put the County on a more prudent fiscal path going forward. However, as the budget hearings approached, it became clear that the cuts were not being prioritized in the proper way. As I have stated clearly from Day One as your County Supervisor, law enforcement is my number one priority as an elected official. The cuts proposed by staff that would have cut $37.6 million from the Sheriff’s Department were unacceptable, and would have resulted in the complete elimination of patrol services in the community.

After talking with Sheriff McGinness and the County Executive, I felt it was necessary to cut $27.6 million from other areas of the County to ensure an adequate level of law enforcement services to the community. I took this information, scoured the budget, and came up with a plan to restore $27.6 million to the Sheriff’s Department. I was also working to identify funds to make restorations to the Probation Department and the District Attorney.

Unfortunately, I was unable to get support for my proposal from a majority of the Board of Supervisors. Fortunately, though, a majority of the Board did support restoring $17.8 million to the Sheriff’s Department, $3 million to Probation, and $1.5 million to the District Attorney. These restorations are significant, and I do support the benefit that they will have for the community. However, I simply felt that the budget failed to deal adequately with the need to prioritize our expenditures. While the decisions would have been difficult, I felt that this was the time to draw a line in the sand. For example, over $150,000 is being spent to provide cultural arts awards through the County. While this is not an unworthy goal for the County, I feel it is an inappropriate allocation when critical public safety services are being eliminated.

I also felt that not enough was being done to control costs in the Public Defender’s office, and to ensure that those receiving legal services at taxpayer expense were truly unable to afford their own legal counsel. While the restorations to the Sheriff were significant and critical to preserving safety in the community, and while I voted in support of these restorations, when it came to the budget as a whole, I felt it necessary to oppose the budget for the reasons stated above. These are difficult times that require public officials to prioritize spending and give the community the peace of mind to invest in the community, engage in commerce, and work to improve their own lives.

As the County moves into the next fiscal year, I hope you will attend my monthly community meetings to keep up to speed on any new information that becomes available. We meet in Orangevale on the first Friday of each month at Annie’s on Greenback Lane, and in Fair Oaks on the third Wednesday at Dianda’s in the Fair Oaks Village. While we take the month of July off for the summer recess, we will be back in August and will hear a presentation from Child Protective Services on their recent efforts to improve the agency’s efficiencies and effectiveness. I hope to see you there.