Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "susan peters"

County approves budget, layoffs expected

2011-06-10T01:22:31Z

Sacramento County elected officials approved a budget Thursday that could result in more than 200 employee layoffs, according to county budget officer Tom Burkart.

These layoffs for the 2011/2012 fiscal year are in addition to the 1,299 layoffs the county has made since the 2008/2009 fiscal year, said county spokeswoman Chris Andis.

She added that 1,299 people were actually laid off as opposed to job positions being cut.

The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors balanced its budget for the 2011/2012 fiscal year on Thursday afternoon, closing out a $90 million shortfall. The county has a general fund of $1.9 billion and a total budget of roughly $3.5 billion.

The approved budget is a first version – the supervisors will pass a final budget in September.

While Burkart provided an estimate for upcoming layoffs, exact figures were unclear Thursday.

“As a board member and member of this community, it weighs heavily on me that over the past several years, we’ve laid off hundreds and hundreds of people,” Supervisor Don Nottoli said at Thursday’s budget meeting.

The people who will be laid off attend local churches, shop in local stores and send their children to local schools, he said.

Interim County Executive Officer Steven Szalay estimated that more than 300 job positions will now be removed. That number does not include lost job positions from the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department and the District Attorney’s office, Szalay said.

District Attorney Jan Scully and Sheriff Scott Jones are responsible for calculating their departments’ lost positions and possible layoffs.

The loss of about 300 positions – which does not include the D.A’s office and the Sheriff’s Department – may translate to about 200 actual layoffs, Burkart said.

Positions are different from layoffs because they can include vacancies. The county also uses a complicated system of demotions as part of the layoff process, which can affect the number of actual layoffs.

The Sheriff’s Department had faced a $26.7 million shortfall, but Jones recently pared down that number to $9.5 million. Thursday, the Board of Supervisors brought down Jones’ budget shortfall to $4.3 million.

Jones was scheduled to hold a press conference late Thursday afternoon. The Sacramento Press will follow up on any information about possible layoffs at the Sheriff’s Department on Friday.

The District Attorney’s office is facing a $6.2 million shortfall in response to the Board of Supervisors’ budget approval. Scully’s office had a $13.3 million gap in February. She brought it down to $8.6 million. The supervisors restored about $2 million to the D.A.’s budget, leaving it with a $6.2 million gap.

In a press advisory released after the budget approval, Scully said the upcoming cuts to her office would hurt residents.

“Arrests take criminals off the street – only prosecutors keep them off the streets,” she said. “It is the responsibility of the Board of Supervisors to fund prosecutions for the entire county – the unincorporated areas and all of the cities.

“Most of the cases my office prosecutes come from the cities. By failing to take that into account, the board shortchanged more than 60 percent of our residents.”

Scully will speak publicly next week about how the cuts will affect her office, according to the news advisory.

While exact layoff figures are unclear, Andis provided statistics showing that the the departments of Human Assistance and Transportation are among other departments with filled positions slated to be cut.

The county’s drop in revenues since the 2007/2008 fiscal year has been a central reason for the county’s poor financial state, Szalay said in May. Since then, the county’s revenues from property, sales and motor vehicle taxes have dropped by more than $100 million, he added.

State budget cuts have also hurt the county, according to Szalay.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

County leaders pass budget with at least 725 layoffs

2010-06-18T03:20:44Z

At least 725 county employees will be laid off as a result of the county budget approved by the Board of Supervisors Thursday in a 3-2 vote.

The board has now balanced its the county's budget, which had a $181 million gap. The total budget for the 2010/2011 fiscal year is $3.5 billion. Of that amount, $1.9 billion makes up the county’s general fund.

Supervisors held lengthy meetings on the budget over the course of four days this week.

Supervisors Roberta MacGlashan and Roger Dickinson voted against the budget’s general fund allocations, offering different reasons for why they disagreed with the budget. Supervisors Don Nottoli, Susan Peters and Jimmie Yee voted in support of passing the budget, which led to its approval just after 3 p.m.

MacGlashan said she could not vote in favor of the budget because it did not put enough money toward public safety.

“This budget tells the residents of the unincorporated area they’re on their own,” she said.

Dickinson objected to the budget because he said he thought it did not make social services a higher priority. While public safety is the board’s top priority, he said, it’s not the board’s only priority.

“We have an obligation, a duty, particularly as a county, to address those who are the least among us,” he said.

Supervisor Don Nottoli said he felt he had a responsibility to pass a budget for the county, even though the budget includes compromises.

“The bottom line is that there’s not sufficient funding,” Nottoli said. “Yes, we prioritize and we make decisions.”

Major cuts to public safety and social services programs and departments are included in the budget.

Before the board passed its budget, it lessened the damage to some departments. Sacramento County Sheriff John McGinness said earlier this week that the department faced a $37.6 million budget gap.

Because the board moved additional dollars to McGinness’s department Thursday, the sheriff’s deficit was lowered to $19.8 million.

McGinness declined to estimate how many layoffs his department would need to make to balance out his budget.

“Everything’s on the table at this point,” McGinness said after the hearing. “We need to find a way to live within our new budgetary constraint, which just got constricted by another $20 million dollars.”

The layoff figures are not final at this point, according to Nav Gill, the county’s chief operations officer. However, there could be more than 725, he said.

The county refers to the budget that was passed Thursday as the “recommended budget.” That’s because it will look at its figures again in September, after hearing how the state’s budget will affect the county.

Ann Edwards-Buckley, director of the county’s Health and Human Services Department, said her department was cut in several areas, including public health services, public health nursing, Child Protective Services and in-home support.

“We’ll have significant reductions in health care services for the poor,” she said.

The public can watch Monday's meeting here. View Tuesday's hearings here. Watch the video of Wednesday's meeting here.

Photo of Supervisors Roberta MacGlashan and Don Nottoli by Anthony Bento.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

County lays off 300 staffers, 700 since July

2009-09-23T03:20:59Z

Sacramento County’s elected officials laid off 300 employees Tuesday, which brings the total number of layoffs to more than 700 since July, according to county spokesman Zeke Holst.

Susan Peters, chairwoman of the Board of Supervisors, said at the Tuesday board meeting that the layoffs were needed in response to the ailing economy. In her comments, she foreshadowed possible upcoming layoffs to address the county’s $76 million shortfall. “I honestly don’t think that this is the last time you’ll see us back here with position reductions,” Peters said.

“And we may be able to tweak a few things next week, but it’s not going to be very much, if anything,” she added. “I’m sorry the economy is the way it is, and I wish there was some way we could patch together this budget that no one would be hurt.”

Many more budget-related developments are expected to unfold in the coming weeks. The board approved layoffs Tuesday, but hasn’t yet passed its final budget for the current fiscal year. It has planned new budget hearings to take place Sept. 29, Oct. 1 and Oct. 2. The final budget is now scheduled to be approved Oct. 2, according to Mark Norris, administrator of the county’s Internal Services Agency.

County unions, including United Public Employees Local 1 and the Sacramento County Alliance of Law Enforcement, are likely to continue battling with the supervisors. Unions are strongly protesting a county plan to create shortened work schedules for about 7,000 employees.

Christa Yous, an investigative assistant with the Department of Human Assistance, told the supervisors that she has received a pink slip from the county and is on a future rehire list. With her voice shaking, Yous said she has become “the face of the terrible economic turmoil that’s before this county.”

Photo of Supervisor Susan Peters by Kati Garner.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

County budget hearing draws big protests; union calls for Schutten to step down

2009-09-11T03:46:01Z

It would be an understatement to use the word “passionate” to describe the emotions of the hundreds of people who gathered in the Board of Supervisors' chambers for Thursday's budget hearing. The word “livid” would best describe the mood of the crowd as elected officials considered making $48 million in cuts to county social services programs.

The supervisors are planning to cut more than 360 positions as they face a new budget gap of more than $54.5 million. In addition to the scores of planned layoffs, the board proposes cutting 16 hours per month from the workload of county employees who are represented by unions. The supervisors will hold another budget meeting tomorrow and are scheduled to decide the final budget on Sept. 16.

Supervisor Susan Peters said the county's finances are being harmed by the recession and state cutbacks. "Unfortunately, today's economic circumstances have not changed — again, due to the national and state economic decline," she said. "That's a cold, hard economic fact. And compounding that are cuts imposed upon us by the state of California."

Ted Somera, executive director of United Public Employees Local 1, told the board that the county was cutting rank-and-file workers while maintaining jobs for many officials.

“You’re too top-heavy,” he said. “You have too many chiefs.” Somera’s union alleges that the county’s plan is illegal.

Somera’s remarks received loud applause from the audience. When protesters of the cuts made their remarks to the board, audience members reacted loudly with applause and cheering. Some even exchanged high-fives.

Outside the doors of the board’s chambers at the County Administration Building, the United Public Employees Local 1 collected signatures from people who support firing County Executive Terry Schutten. The union said it had nearly 600 signatures by Thursday afternoon.

During the morning session, about 250 people filled the supervisors’ chambers. About 320 people attended the afternoon session, filling the chambers and packing into the overflow seating area in the lobby.

Supervisor Don Nottoli suggested the board consider cutting a deferred compensation benefit for managers, adding that he wanted to discuss the idea during budget deliberations. The benefit, which helps employees save for retirement, has a general fund cost of about $390,000 per year, he said.

“As we’re looking at this, I certainly want us to have that conversation,” Nottoli said. “And again, I know there’s sensitivity to it.” The crowd cheered in response to his suggestion.

Also Thursday, Ann Edwards-Buckley, the county’s director of Health and Human Services, delivered dismal news to the board about how the cuts would harm the Child Protective Services (CPS) program. CPS has faced criticism over child fatalities from both the county’s grand jury and MGT of America, Inc., a management consulting firm that reviewed the program.

The $14.9 million in cuts to CPS would create a “weakened infrastructure necessary to provide oversight, accountability and improvement as identified in the MFT and Grand Jury report,” according to Edwards-Buckley's presentation to the board.

Dominic Bobo, a 17-year-old who was in foster care since he was 7-years-old, urged the board not to cut jobs for social workers. At times, “life was just so stressful that sometimes I just wanted to stop,” he said. “But it was my social workers that helped to push me through and keep me going.”

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Pink slips going out to 800 county employees

2009-06-18T03:58:42Z

About 800 county employees could lose their jobs as a result of the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors' approval of the proposed 2009/2010 budget Wednesday, according to Nav Gill, the county's chief operations officer.

Supervisors will approve a final budget for the fiscal year in September. The county must still resolve a $19 million budget gap in the state-mandated programs the county administers, according to Gill and county budget officer Linda Foster-Hall.

The budget process for the 2009/2010 fiscal year has been “a difficult task under extremely trying circumstances,” said Supervisor Susan Peters.

The county’s $19 million shortfall for state-mandated programs is affected by the state’s budget. The state is currently facing a $24.3 billion budget gap.

While the pink slips are being sent to employees this week, the layoff numbers could soon change. That’s because the county has completed labor negotiations with only one of its unions.

Here’s a breakdown of some of the board’s key decisions Wednesday:

*The Board dedicated $12.5 million more to the Sheriff’s Department. Also Wednesday, the Board formalized a labor agreement with the Deputy Sheriff’s Association. This union agreed to concessions that totaled $10.6 million. The roughly $23 million will be used to cover 124 jobs for sheriff’s deputies.

*Sixty employee positions in the Boys Ranch, a county youth offender program, were maintained. The Boys Ranch is run by the county Probation Department.

*Some social services programs, including Stanford Settlement and the popular parenting program Birth & Beyond, received some funding from the Supervisors Wednesday. The board allocated to Birth & Beyond $211,000. The Stanford Settlement received $100,000.

County homeless programs could face major cuts

2009-06-12T02:31:01Z

The director of the county department that works with the homeless population said Thursday that the department is still significantly hampered by the budget crisis even though county managers want to provide it with additional funding.

Bruce Wagstaff, director of Sacramento County’s Department of Human Assistance, told the Board of Supervisors the department is facing a general fund budget gap of $36.8 million and will no longer have the ability to fund 154 shelter beds for homeless people. Wagstaff presented his department’s outlook during the board’s third day of budget hearings on the county’s $180 million budget gap. A proposed budget for the 2009/2010 fiscal year may be approved by supervisors next week.

The social services presentations, which included DHA, attracted a crowd of more than 250 people Thursday morning. All seats in the auditorium were filled, and a second crowd filled additional seats that were set out in the lobby.

“While I am extremely appreciative of all the hard work that has gone into this -- to provide the reduced impact we’ve been able to come up with -- I am not here today to tell you we have fully addressed this reduction,” Wagstaff said.

The department continues to have a “very serious problem” that will lead to fewer services for homeless people, he said.

DHA’s general fund has been reduced about 38 percent over the last two years, Wagstaff said. Meanwhile, the department’s “case loads in every program are reaching unprecedented levels,” he said.

County officials are recommending that the board move $350,000 more to DHA’s budget. Wagstaff originally projected that the department would be forced to stop funding 328 shelter beds. DHA, with the help of other county departments and stakeholders, was able to restore 174 beds. But that still leaves 154 shelter beds in the county that will disappear, according to Wagstaff.

The department also plans to lay off 40 employees, according to its most recent count.

After Wagstaff’s presentation, Supervisor Susan Peters said that there were so many people who wanted to speak that testimony from the public could take more than three hours.

Valerie Feldman, acting managing attorney for Legal Services of Northern California, was one of many speakers who opposed cuts on county programs that help the homeless.

“At the time of the greatest need, this is not the time to balance the budget on the backs of the most vulnerable,” Feldman said.

Tensions mount over county funding for public safety, social services

2009-06-11T02:46:36Z

The Sacramento County Sheriff’s testimony to the Board of Supervisors Wednesday revealed tensions over funding for the sheriff’s department and county human services programs, with Sheriff John McGinness saying that the county must put more funding toward public safety.

The county sheriff’s department told the board that planned cuts to the department would lead to major public safety problems. The sheriff’s department presented to the board in its second day of budget hearings to address a $180 million budget gap. Supervisors may approve a proposed budget next week.

McGinness said the planned $80 million in budget cuts to the department would mean that the “basic level of protection and security cannot be provided.” Proposed cuts would endanger the public, as well as discourage developers and business people from investing in the county, he said.

“How can the economic condition turn around in Sacramento County when the only thing a property owner can expect to get from their tax dollars is social services?” McGinness asked the board.

Supervisor Roberta MacGlashan asked county staffers to prepare a proposal that would fund the sheriff’s department with an additional $20 million. Supervisor Susan Peters also asked staffers to examine the possibility of more funding for the department.

The board uses a set of principles in its budgeting. Its first priority is to fund programs that are mandated by federal, state and county laws, according to the proposed budget document. The document notes that the county's other top priorities are to allocate money for programs "that provide for revenue collection" and to pay off county debts.

After the board addresses its top priorities, it uses a guide for its discretionary funding. Discretionary public safety tops the list, followed by social "safety net" services. Funding for programs that create a "sustainable and livable community" is the board's next goal. General government funding is the board's fourth focus. Prevention and intervention programs are the fifth and final priority.

The county’s proposed overall budget is $4.3 billion for the 2009/2010 fiscal year. The proposed general fund budget is $2.03 billion.

The board’s budget hearing on county social services departments begins at 9:30 a.m. Thursday. For more information, read The Sacramento Press’s guide to the county budget hearings.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.