Politics & Government

Law Enforcement Cuts Expected To Dominate Final Budget Impact Hearing

The county Executive Office is proposing cuts to funding for the Sheriff's Department, and Monday's hearing will be the last before the board finalizes details of its 2011-12 fiscal year spending plan.

Budget concerns within the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department will be a main topic of discussion Monday during a Board of Supervisors budget impact hearing.

The county Executive Office is proposing cuts to funding for the Sheriff's Department, and the hearing will be the last before the board finalizes details of its 2011-12 fiscal year spending plan.

On Tuesday, Sheriff Stan Sniff put out a statement warning cuts will impact public safety.

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“The CEO's budget proposal critically damages frontline law enforcement services for both our agency and our allied agency partners in the criminal justice system,” the Sheriff said. “Taken in context with the State realignment impact upon our communities, and our local crime surges, we have all the ingredients of a ‘perfect storm.’ … we see a proposal to treat public safety like a piñata to be smashed to pieces at a party.”

Riverside County Supervisor Bob Buster, 1st District, said there is “no question that the board wants to preserve necessary public safety services” and give the Sheriff the resources he requires to protect communities and residents, which the supervisor argues is evident in both funding and staff increases over the past several years.

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The supervisor said that as county departments have had to tighten spending over the last several years due to the state’s fiscal problems, the county has seen an 82 percent increase in net costs for the Sheriff’s Department over the last eight years.

“Whatever he has wanted, he has received,” the supervisor said of the Sheriff. “We have continued to increase the Sheriff’s budget by leaps and bounds.

“We told him (the Sheriff) that he has to live within his budget,” the supervisor continued. “He has not responded to this board’s policies. The Sheriff’s budget should and could have been ramped down sooner at a slower rate than the steep revenue declines with no adverse effect on safety.”

In a news release Tuesday from the Sheriff’s Department, Sgt. Joe Borja said net county costs have indeed grown, but some of that increase has been a direct result of the “explosive growth Riverside County has had over the last decade.”

Currently, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department serves approximately 2.3 million residents, the sergeant said.

While both sides agree the population has increased, Supervisor Buster said the growth rate of Sheriff’s Department staffing has exceeded the population rise.

But Borja contends there other factors "outside of the control of the Sheriff's Department," such as Board-negotiated labor union raises that have added over $27 million since early 2008.

“Over the current FY and the proposed budget for next year, the CEO refused to fund these raises. In addition to those de facto cuts, Prop 172 shortfalls” and unfunded Internal Service Fund rates have increased the county costs “outside of the control the Sheriff's Department,” the sergeant said.

Monday's hearing is expected to be contentious, but the supervisor said that whatever the reductions are, the Sheriff still has ample resources to protect the public.


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