County Budget Comparison

County Budget Comparison

County Budget Comparison

Fresno County

Introduction

In June 2008, the Fresno County Board of Supervisors (Board) adopted the fiscal year 2008-09 budget for all County Departments. Subsequent to approval of the adopted budget, the Sheriff issued layoff notices and began releasing prisoners from the Fresno County Jail (Jail). Board members expressed concern because it was believed that the adopted budget fully funded the current staffing level at the Sheriff Department (Department). On September 9, 2008, the Board requested an analysis of the Department's budget for fiscal year 2008-09 (The Washington Times, 2010).

Objective and Scope

The objective of the analysis is to understand the Department's current spending requirements and to provide the Board with information to assist them in determining the adequacy of the Department's currently budgeted Net County Cost. Net County Cost represents the net effect of expenditures incurred in excess of Departmental revenues, which is typically funded by the County's General Fund (Seper, 2000). The scope of this project is defined to include analysis of the current year revenue projections, current year services and supplies appropriations, and salary projections (assuming current staffing levels). More detail regarding the project scope and approach is presented in page 1 of the report (The Washington Times, 2002).

Trend Analysis

In analyzing the Department's three year revenue trend, it was noted that when Courts revenue was excluded, the Department's actual revenue exceeded projections during each of the last two fiscal years (2006-07 and 2007-08). The under budgeting departmental revenue results in an increased need for Net County Cost to support current ongoing service levels. The Department has subsequently asked the Board to increase revenues and appropriations as in the case of the budget resolution taken to the Board on February 3, 2009 to increase current year revenue and appropriations related to inmate housing and grants by $3.8 million. If properly projected during the budget process, this would have reduced the need for Net County Cost (The Washington Times, 2003).

Booking Fees

Pursuant to Government Code section 29552, the Department may charge a portion of the established booking fee to agencies booking arrested individuals (cities, etc.) in the event of a shortfall to the state appropriations that generally allocate $35 million throughout California (The Washington Times, 2006). The shortfall for the current fiscal year was 10%, resulting in an overall allocation of $31.5 million to the entire State of California (State) from which Fresno County (County) is allocated 4.03%. Charging a portion of the established booking fee would allow the Department to recover the 10% shortfall from the state allocation and would offset some of the costs associated with booking and processing arrested persons in the Jail. The booking fee rate was not updated by the Department at the beginning of the current fiscal year (for consumer price index, etc) (U.S. Department of Defense Speeches, 2004). As of the day this report was issued, no portion of booking fees applicable to the current fiscal year had been billed to any agency for arrested individuals booked in the ...