By Zach Friend, County Supervisor 2nd District
The Board of Supervisors recently completed budget hearings and adopted a $695 million budget. The proposed budget reflects a near status quo to last year. Even so, after hearing from many of you about key priorities, the Board adopted a budget that will make notable improvements in our district. Overall, the budget increases Sheriff’s Office staffing, makes significant investments in our local parks and strengthens the County’s reserve fund.
Here are some key highlights:
Parks
Last year, after the generous passage of Measure F by our community, the Board of Supervisors re-established the Parks Department as a stand-alone agency, spinning it out from underneath the Department of Public Works. With the department re-established, I met with my parks commissioner and the new parks director to hear about what the greatest needs for our local parks. In addition, I’ve heard throughout the year from many in our district about local parks needs and by far the number one priority was capital improvement.
Over time, play equipment has deteriorated and long-standing needs within park master plans haven’t been met. As such, this year’s budget included the strongest investment in our local Parks infrastructure in over a decade. In Aptos, we finalized funding for Phase 1 of the long-awaited Seacliff Village Park (at Sea Ridge and McGregor in Seacliff) with groundbreaking occurring soon. This will bring new play equipment and more to the Seacliff area. In addition, this budget brings significant funding toward new permanent restrooms at the Polo Grounds as well as a new concession/snack shack. Lastly, the budget will allow for some play equipment to be refurbished and other capital work at parks throughout our district.
Sheriff’s Office
Throughout my tenure I have met with the Sheriff’s office leadership numerous times and their clear priority is the restoration of staffing. Since the height of the Great Recession, the Sheriff’s Office was down 17 positions. In the last two year’s budgets we have begun to reinvest in the restoration of the department’s staffing and this year’s budget provides a significant movement toward the complete staffing restoration by adding 6 new Deputy Sheriff positions.
On top of last year’s 7 additional Deputy Sheriff positions back on patrol we have almost returned to full staffing. The Board of Supervisors, and Sheriff Jim Hart, have made it clear that we are dedicated in the near future to restoring the Sheriff’s Office to a full staffing complement.
District Attorney
Our office has heard many unfortunate stories of people taking advantage of local seniors through unfair practices. These cases are addressed by the Consumer Protection Program within the District Attorney’s office. According to the District Attorney’s Office, the number of reported senior fraud cases has increased in local years. In order to address this, the Board of Supervisors added positions within this department to help with crimes involving elder abuse, privacy issues and other forms of fraud.
Reserve Fund
In November of last year our Board voted to significantly increase our County reserves over the next 7 years. An increased reserve fund can lower borrowing costs, protect against economic uncertainty and quite simply is smart public policy. This year, the state budget provided one time reimbursements for some prior expenditures that they had mandated that the County outlay. We took $3.5 million of this one-time (unexpected) funding and placed it into our reserves – a sizable investment into our reserve fund.
This year’s budget is a reflection of the many conversations I’ve had throughout the year with my constituents. Please do continue to give me your priorities for the coming year so we can work to realize them in coming year’s budget.
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As always, I’d love to hear from you. Call our office at 454-2200 to share your thoughts.