BUDGET HEARING UPDATE: Plans To Shutter El Cariso Fire Station Off The Table

Increased revenues and cost-shifting will help pare down a shortfall in the Riverside County Fire Department budget for the 2011-12 fiscal year, but staffing reductions are still possible, fire Chief John Hawkins told the Board of Supervisors today.

During the final budget impact hearing before the start of the next fiscal year, Hawkins detailed how the board's planned spending cuts will eat into his resources.

This afternoon, Sheriff Stan Sniff and District Attorney Paul Zellerbach are slated to address the same issues.

According to Hawkins, up to 70 firefighter and support positions remain at risk of "displacement'' under the county's deficit reduction plan, which calls for a 5 percent cut in general fund appropriations to the department.

The agency was originally girding for a $9.9 million loss, but that was whittled down to around $3 million thanks to an increased county commitment of discretionary funds, pension benefits concessions by the firefighters' union and a million-dollar-plus bump in Proposition 172 safety sales tax revenue.

Hawkins said staffing levels at fire stations in 15 unincorporated communities, including Glen Oaks, French Valley, Lake Riverside and Nuevo, would be lower to stay within budget. However, plans to shutter fire stations in Blythe, El Cariso, Oasis and Poppet Flats were no longer on the table.

"These are tough times,'' Hawkins said. "But I think we can find success and continue to balance the public safety needs of Riverside County with funding needs.''

Ideas for near- and long-term cost reductions included seeking reimbursements from American Medical Response ambulance services for the cost of supplies used by fire paramedics to save or stabilize patients until AMR takes over, and stepped up recovery of costs incurred by the county for rescuing or saving people whose negligence led to their being hurt.

The county Executive Office is proposing a 5 percent cut in general fund support for the Sheriff's Department and a 6 percent cut for the District Attorney's Office.

Other county agencies are facing cuts as high as 25 percent.

Sniff has warned that the $224.7 million spending threshold set by the Executive Office will leave him with no alternative but to slash payrolls. The expenditure limit is roughly $11.4 million below the current fiscal year, but the sheriff has said union-negotiated salary increases for deputies and higher operating costs connected with the jails will result in a funding gap of $40 million or more.

In the last two weeks, that figure has dropped to $17 million based on talks between sheriff's officials and Executive Office administrators who identified budgetary relief using sub-funds and other methods. But the prospect of layoffs remains high.

According to Sniff, anywhere from 100 to 500 patrol and correctional deputies, along with support staff, could be handed pink slips in the first quarter of the next fiscal year.

Sniff has also indicated that several sheriff's stations may have to be consolidated, jail pods deactivated and the coroner's Coachella Valley office shuttered to stay within budget.

The district attorney has blamed his current-year cost overruns -- which will have to be carried over -- on his predecessor, whom Zellerbach said hired staff without the funds to pay for it.

The $58.6 million in appropriations proposed for the agency in the next fiscal year is about $4 million lower than the current one. According to Zellerbach, around three-dozen positions may have to be chopped to erase next year's shortfall.

All the public safety agencies' budgets include revenues from other sources, including state funds, locally assessed fees and federal grants. The board only controls general fund disbursals.

According to the Executive Office, the aggregate 2011-12 county budget will be around $4.78 billion, compared to $4.73 billion in the current year.

Discretionary revenue -- more than half of which comes from property tax receipts -- is expected to slip about $10 million year-over-year to $582 million.

Budget documents indicated $32 million in reserves would be tapped to meet some funding needs, shrinking the reserve pool to $148.2 million.

The county's reserves have been sliced in half over the last three years to cover shortfalls triggered by the downward spiraling economy. The Inland Empire ranks among the top 10 regions nationally in foreclosure activity.

The board implemented a gradual deficit-reduction strategy in 2008. In the ensuing years, the county's workforce declined from nearly 20,000 to just over 17,500 -- the result of early retirements, attrition and terminations.

Recent economic forecasts predicted either limp or no revenue growth regionally over the next two years.

County administrators remain concerned about the consequences of the state's budget fixes, which may not be known for another two or three months.

The fiscal blueprint pieced together today will remain a working product through September, when the budget will be formally adopted, according to the Executive Office. --City News Service