The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink AboutMINUTES - 06231987 - 2.2 THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS OF CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA Adopted this Order on June 23 , 1987 , by the following vote: AYES; Supervisors Fanden, Torlakson, Schroder NOES; None ABSENT; Supervisors Powers, McPeak ABSTAIN; None ------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------ SUBJECT; Report from Blue Ribbon Task Force on Financing of County Services The Board received the attached report dated June 16, 1987 from the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Financing of County Services. IT IS BY THE BOARD ORDERED that the attached report is REFERRED to the Finance Committee (Supervisors Powers and Schroder) for report to the Board prior to budget hearings. cc: Supervisor Powers Supervisor Schroder County Administrator 1 hereby certify that this Is a true and correct copy of an action taken , /191 and entered on the minutes of the Board of Supe . rs on the date shown. ATTESTED: - PHIL SA CHIELOR, Clerk: of the Board of Supervisors and Counts Administrator By eWM44.01 , Deputy ♦!i _ ! ♦ ASI �1.!!"ire CONTRA COSTA COUNTY ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON FUNDING COUNTY SERVICES June 16 , 1987 Board of Supervisors 651 Pine Street Martinez, CA 94553 Dear Board Members: At our meeting on June 15, 1987, the Advisory Committee on Funding County Services was advised by staff that the Board of Supervisors has asked for a status report from our Committee and is also expecting our final recommendations before the Board opens budget hearings next month on the 1987-88 County Budget. we herewith provide you a status report on our activities to date and other comments on when we expect to make our final report to the Board of Supervisors. Our Committee was formed by the Board of Supervisors on February 11, 1986 and given the following instructions, which we quote from the Board' s order of that date: 1. Agree to form a Blue Ribbon Committee on the Financing of County Services. 2. Provide the following charge to the Blue Ribbon Committee on the Financing of County Services: A. Based on public hearings to be conducted by the Committee, determine whether there is a need for additional revenue to finance certain programs specified by the Board of Supervisors. B. If such a need is determined to exist, arrange the programs suggested by the Board of Supervisors in priority order, according to their need for revenue, the relative availability of other sources of revenue than the County to provide for their support, and the perceived likelihood that the voters of the County would support additional taxes to support such services based on a survey to be conducted by the Committee. C. Determine how much additional revenue is needed for the highest priority services on an annual basis and over what period of time. D. Determine the most appropriate means of allocating taxes to provide the revenue needed, consistent with Article XIII-A of the State Constitution. E. Report their findings and recommendations to the Board of Supervisors. 3 . Request each member of the Board of Supervisors to submit to the County Administrator' s Office a list of programs and priorities which should be considered by the Blue Ribbon Committee. Our Committee has met on a monthly basis for the past year. We initially received an overall orientation and budget briefing from Phil Batchelor, County Administrator, and Kerry Harms, Assistant County Administrator - Finance. Subsequently, we have received one or more presentations on the needs of the following departments or programs: Sheriff-Coroner County Library Municipal Courts Social Services Health Services - Emergency Medical Care Health Services - Mental Health Consolidated Fire District From these departments we have received proposals to raise additional tax funds to accomplish the following: Department Program Amount Needed Sheriff-Coroner CAL-ID & Laboratory $7 . 3 million plus $2.7 million annually County Library Restore Service to $824,000 annually 1981 levels Social Services (See Mental Health proposal below) Emergency Medical County-wide paramedic $2 million annually Care services plus support systems Mental Health Comprehensive - joint $8 million annually proposal with Social Services for various services ( see attached proposal) We fairly quickly dropped the Municipal Courts out of our, consideration because the Board of Supervisors is already pursuing several legislative measures to raise funds to support the Municipal Courts. We have likewise decided not to pursue funding for the Fire Districts because the Board has before it a number of funding recommendations which the Board is currently addressing. While several members of our Committee expressed considerable concern about financial support for a variety of transportation needs, we initially deferred consideration of these needs because Measure C was pending on the November, 1986 ballot. Since Measure C' s defeat we have been advised that the Board and the cities are continuing to consider taking steps to meet the transportation needs of the County and we did not want to interfere in those actions. Our Committee has reached one unanimous conclusion in terms of the charge to our Committee--it is obvious to anyone who studies County government that there are many existing programs which are underfunded and many more vitally needed programs which do- not exist at all and should be funded. The limited proposals we are currently studying do not, in general, exist at all and require $13 . 5 million in additional annual funds. Our Committee is currently attempting to balance these proposals against three criteria: 1) Which has the highest priority in terms of need in the community? 2) Which is most likely to be supported by the voters? 3) Which is clearly needed but has no readily available alternative funding source? Our Committee understands our charge to have included responding to recommended programs suggested by Board members. We are aware of Supervisor Fanden' s interest in Mental Health and Supervisor Powers ' interest in Emergency Medical Care. Beyond this we do not have a clear understanding of what priorities Board members have. Until we have those, we do not believe we can adequately respond to the Board' s charge to our Committee. In addition, we understand our charge to be to determine whether a need for more funds exists and if so to prioritize the Board' s programmatic concerns in such a way that they could be presented to the voters. We will also consider increased efficiency measures and alternate funding mechanisms before recommending that any measure be placed before the voters. We do not believe that this longer-term view of the funding needs of the County should become intertwined with the annual battle to allocate inadequate resources among equally deserving programs. We therefore believe that our recommendations can best be formulated by our Committee and considered by the Board of Supervisors after, rather than before or during, hearings on the 1987-88 budget. None of our recommendations could in any way affect the 1987-88 County budget and may, in fact, be influenced by the Board' s and the Legislature' s decisions on their respective 1987-88 budgets. Your Advisory Committee on Funding County Services, therefore, respectfully requests that Board members provide our Committee with their personal priorities, following which we will formulate our recommended priorities and recommendations to the Board. Very truly .yours, &Wzx�y- LYDI7UCAMERON, Chair Advisory Committee on Funding County Services LC:sr