County of Sonoma, California FINAL BUDGET 2006 - 2007 SONOMA COUNTY MISSION Final Budget 2006-2007 and Statistical Report 2005-2006 2004-2005 SUPERVISOR VALERIE BROWN FIRST DISTRICT SUPERVISOR MIKE KERNS SECOND DISTRICT SUPERVISOR TIM SMITH THIRD DISTRICT SUPERVISOR PAUL L. KELLEY, CHAIR FOURTH DISTRICT SUPERVISOR MIKE REILLY FIFTH DISTRICT RECOMMENDED BY BOB DEIS, COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR COMPILED BY RODNEY DOLE, AUDITOR-CONTROLLER Cover Photo: Riverfront Regional Park Sonoma County, California Provided by Sonoma County Regional Parks GOVERNMENT FINANCE OFFICERS ASSOCIATION Distinguished Budget Presentation Award PRESENTED TO Sonoma County California For the Fiscal Year Beginning July 1, 2005 President Executive Director The Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada (GFOA) presented a Distinguished Budget Presentation Award to Sonoma County, California for its annual budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2005. In order to receive this award, a governmental unit must publish a budget document that meets program criteria as a policy document, as an operations guide, as a financial plan, and as a communications device. This award is valid for a period of one year only. We believe our current budget continues to conform to program requirements, and we are submitting it to GFOA to determine its eligibility for another award. COUNTY OF SONOMA FINAL BUDGET 2006 - 2007 Need Help? See A Guide to Reading the Budget TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Page County Overview Development Services Board of Supervisors' Letter to 1 Permit & Resource Management 145 Sonoma County Citizens Community Development Commission 150 County Administrator’s Transmittal Letter 3 Emergency Services 157 A Guide to Reading the Final Budget 17 Transportation and Public Works 162 Financial Policies for Budget Development 20 Water Agency 171 Sonoma County Supervisorial Districts 27 Economic Development Department 179 County Overview & Demographics 28 Regional Parks 182 Directory of Elective & Appointed Officers 36 Organization Chart 38 Other County Services Financial Summaries Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation 191 & Open Space District Introduction 39 Agricultural Commissioner 196 Financing Sources & Uses Summary 40 U.C. Cooperative Extension 200 Final Budget By Function 41 Library 203 County General Fund Summaries 43 Fairgrounds 207 Advertising 209 Administrative Support & Fiscal Services Capital Projects County Administrator 51 County Counsel 52 Capital Projects 215 Human Resources 57 General Services 60 Debt Information Systems 65 Non-Departmental 70 Debt Obligations 241 Auditor-Controller 74 Debt Margin 245 Treasurer/Tax Collector 77 County Clerk-Recorder-Assessor-PA 80 State Financial Schedules Justice Services Introduction 247 Summary of County Budget 249 Court Support Services & Grand Jury 87 Analysis of Fund Balance 250 Probation 90 Schedules 1-8A & 13-15 District Attorney 95 Cross Reference of County Services to 286 Public Defender 100 State Function Categories Sheriff 103 Position Listing Health & Human Services Position Listing 287 General Fund Health Financing 115 Position Allocation Detail 288 Health Services 117 Salary Schedule 328 Human Services 129 IHSS Public Authority 136 Glossary Child Support Services 138 Glossary of Budget Terms 335 Hospital Enterprise Closeout 141 Index 343 OFFICE OF THE COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR COUNTY OF SONOMA BOB DEIS COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR 575 ADMINISTRATION DRIVE – ROOM 104A SANTA ROSA, CALIFORNIA 95403-2888 JIM ANDERSEN ASST. COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR TELEPHONE (707) 565-2431 FAX (707) 565-3778 JENNIFER M. MURRAY DEP. COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR CHRIS THOMAS DEP. COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR June 20, 2006 TO: Board of Supervisors FROM: Bob Deis County Administrator SUBJECT: Proposed Fiscal Year (FY) 2006-2007 Budget Submitted for your consideration is the County Administrator’s Proposed Budget for FY 06-07, totaling $1.1 billion. Approval of this budget by your Board will make it available to the public as an appropriate source of information regarding issues proposed for consideration during final budget hearings. This action will also provide appropriations for normal maintenance and operating expenses until the adoption of a Final Budget. The State Budget Act requires the Board of Supervisors to approve a Proposed Budget no later than July 20 and to adopt a Final Budget no later than October 2. This memorandum provides a summary of: 1) the issues, initiatives, and current year accomplishments you will see in the departmental budgets; 2) the overview of the County economy and assumptions used in preparing the budget, including your direction during the Budget Policy Workshop; 3) the status of the State Budget and some of the potential impacts from the current proposals; 4) a list of other emerging issues that are not yet reflected in the Proposed Budget; and 5) a series of recommended actions for your consideration. I. KEY BUDGET HIGHLIGHTS FOR FISCAL YEAR 06-07 For at least the last five years, the County has not been able to fully fund “baseline” services and programs with ongoing revenues that we know about at this time, and this trend continues into FY 06-07. This is a result of significant increases in the costs of doing business driven over time by health insurance, retirement, worker’s compensation insurance, materials, and energy, while available on-going resources grow at a much slower rate. In many cases these costs account for all of the increases in a department’s budget. This situation is exacerbated by cost shifts for technology, infrastructure, administration, and regulation by the state and federal governments as they continue to divest themselves of responsibility for programs the County is obligated to operate on their behalf. As just one example, various state agencies are making the unilateral decision to transition their information systems from in-County hardware or software, thereby causing the County to pickup the fixed costs at a formerly shared system or IT platform. We expect these trends will continue into the foreseeable future. Again, “baseline” services represent the service levels or staffing levels of the previous year rolled forward to the next year, whereas demands for service have generally increased as opposed to remaining constant or declining. When looking at any one year by itself, the incremental change or shortfall has been relatively small, but the cumulative effect of cutting baseline budgets over the years is getting increasingly difficult to manage and still provide meaningful services in all areas. If this trend continues it will be more problematic in the future. Unless we see a slowing of the increases related to the cost-of- doing business or a dramatic increase in revenues, the choices will become ever more difficult. Some key examples in this budget where difficult choices were made include the Sheriff, District Attorney, Health Services, Human Services, Child Support Services, Public Defender, Transportation and Public Works, Agriculture Commissioner, and Parks where staffing, maintenance, and other services were reduced to meet available resources. In some cases, this represents the fifth year in a row where reductions have been made and cumulative effects of up to 20% reduction in staffing have been seen. Strategic Planning To address this trend, the Board authorized, and the County has embarked upon, a Strategic Planning effort to help define what kind of community and organizational service system we desire in the long- term, vis-à-vis what kind of service systems we have now and will likely have in the future given status quo assumptions. This effort has focused on four areas for development of potential initiatives: 1) Setting priorities, resource development, and performance measurement; 2) Demographic trends and service delivery implications; 3) Infrastructure and carrying capacity; and 4) Jurisdictional roles and relationships. As we go to print, the analysis to define trends, needs, and potential options is being completed. The next step, evaluating options and developing strategic initiative plans, will continue this summer/fall and begin to generate guidance for the next (FY 07-08) budget. In the meantime, our budget document itself is changing. The goal is to provide a more concise and reader-friendly presentation of the operating plan that the Board adopts each year, which reflects the policy direction and priorities for allocating the resources among the service needs in the community. This will be a multi-year project to coincide with the Strategic Planning effort above, and will more clearly align the information so that the public can see the plans and progress we make on the policy goals of the Board, rather than an extreme focus on minute changes in the budget numbers. In addition, in this document you will read about initiatives that are already underway such as: Reorganizing and Consolidating Since the mid 1990’s, the Board has directed staff to identify options to reorganize the functions of the County in order to provide services more effectively and to reduce costs. In FY 05-06, the latest of these consolidations was approved, merging the elected offices of the Auditor-Controller and the Treasurer-Tax Collector into one elected office for fiscal administration. The transition to the consolidated office is underway and various actions will take place throughout the coming year to provide one-stop direct fiscal services to constituents and free up administrative resources to allow for enhancement of other priority services. Since this