lakePORT >> After a day and a half of meetings with various county departments, the Board of Supervisors approved the budget recommended for the next fiscal year. Approval of the finalized budget for the upcoming fiscal year will come in September, giving the board time to make adjustments.
The budget as it stands now amounts to $223 million that will be distributed to some 25 different county departments. The amount was determined after the supervisors heard from each department on needs, issues and priorities.
Currently the county is still in recovery mode after two seasons of devastating fires. The county’s share of the financial toll is over $2.6 million. Huchingson said she does not think there is any other county in the state that must cover the cost of a stack of disasters comparable to Lake County.
The budget for the next year is balanced, but the county did need to use an Unreserved Fund Balance Carryover to continue support of ongoing operations. Last year the county used $1.5 million from the unreserved funds. This year demand for unreserved funds has been reduced to $1 million.
With fires, flooding and other issues, funds available in the unreserved till dropped from $11 million to $6 million over the past four years.
A challenge the county has been facing is with staffing and keeping positions filled. Most department heads are said to have a 20 percent rate of vacancy — or higher. One common complaint across the departments was turnover. When they reach full staffing and new employees are trained, the hires end up leaving to other counties with higher pay rates.
“One of the greatest challenges we are facing is staffing and our ability to fill positions and keep them filled,” Huchingson said.
Short staffing affects the budget. With certain department positions vacant, the county cannot collect fines, fees and other moneys in a timely manner. A big hit comes from the inability to collect transient occupancy and property taxes.
The resulting revenue shortfalls prevent county departments from filling positions and addressing projects.
“We’re sort of in this catch 22 where we need people in positions to collect taxes and create revenue for the county, but don’t have the funds to staff people to collect those taxes,” District 4 Supervisor Tina Scott said.
She added that with empty seats it also takes the county more time complete projects. Between now and when the budget gets adopted the staff and Board will look into how to adjust staffing issues for the upcoming fiscal year.
Huchingson said hearing from each department was something that was practiced in the past. She recommended making the meeting a permanent aspect of budget planning.
“This gives department heads more opportunity to present their goals, their plans, issues, challenges and engage in a more comprehensive discussion with the board,” Huchingson said. “Given the challenges that we are facing in ’17 and ’18, I felt it was prudent that we return to something like this model.”
Scott said she enjoyed listening to each of the department heads and it was really eye-opening to see what struggles each of them face and how they are going to handle it.
