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(DISCUSSION/ACTION) Review of the draft Dept FY 06-07 budget with possible recommendations to the full commission.
The Chief said that this draft was a starting point. There are items that still need adjustments in order to meet all the targets set by the city.
M. Lui said that the target reduction asked by the city is $1.2 mil. He pointed to a $472K amount that the Dept needs to absorb in salaries and benefits (not paid by general funds). Another aspect is a continuing 3% (total $740K). This is a reduction of an ongoing expense vs. a one time expense. These two parts equals the $1.2 mil.
Lui spoke about the equipment request forms (a one time request, not part of the general fund budget). He said that the Dept got an additional $120K this year to repair the road at LCRS, but because of environmental impacts it hasn’t been done. That money was used to cover overages in the new juvenile hall project (about $6.6 mil), so the Dept is requesting another $170K in this next budget to do the road.
The Chief mentioned two things that are not in this budget. LCRS’s planned budget for improvements, and expansion of programming supported by Children’s Baseline funds.
Lui said that last year the Dept saved $300K in workers comp. This year it is projected to be $450K. No new figures are in yet from DHR for next year.
While overtime is lower now, next year there will be increased costs because of training of staff for the new facility.
There was a short discussion regarding the appropriateness of Huckleberry’s contract. The Chief was in support of keeping the contract.
There was a short discussion about fee for service contracting.
Comm Stiglich also spoke in support of Huckleberry.
There were questions about the benefits gotten from the increases in CBO contracts this year (approx. $20K per contract). What were the resulting service levels?
L. Jackson-Simpson said that most of these contracts have to be “re-competed” this year, and most are funded by TANF. She said TANF funds are for community based, family focused more preventative type programs. She said they needed to keep in mind what the legislation mandates be done with the funds.
The ones who will continue to be funded are those probation services like home detention and intensive home based supervision.
There was a discussion about multi year contracts. Comm Fetico opposed blanket 3 yr contracts.
Comm Ricci asked about the debt repayment for JH. M Lui said that this was moved from the Mayor’s budget (MOCJ) to the Dept’s budget. The money is given to the Dept for payment of this amount.
Comm Stiglich asked whether it was possible to say the Dept would only spend approx $500K and not the $700K for CBO contracts, and work from there. L. Jackson-Simpson said that the city was mandated by Prop D to spend 4% of its budget on children’s services. Further cutting the general fund support is dangerous, if and when TANF funds end (TANF is now called Juvenile Probation and Camps funding)
Comm Ricci commented that in the past, the Program Comm would work closely with the Finance Comm to seriously see how programs are working and whether they are providing the services that should be maintained. Comm Stiglich repeated that she was interested in seeing whether the increases in CBO contracts led to commensurate increases in services. Such a measurement could also be used for LCRS. She said she wasn’t advocating this, but there needs to be a thorough examination of the budget to see where trimming could be done. M. Lui said if the 3 limited tenure positions from LCRS could be cleared out, a significant savings could be had, but they have no guarantee this can happen this next year.
Comm Ricci said perhaps they should look at the equipment list in prioritized format, item by item.
The Chief said that the items on the equipment list are done in prioritized fashion. This is also not part of the Dept’s general fund budget, so changing it doesn’t affect the bottom line.
The Chief commented that he was hoping to be able to convince the Mayor’s office that this requested cut should not be imposed on the Dept, due to the work needing to be done.
It was decided to give the Chief the rest of this week to see how much he can win in concession from the Mayor’s office, come back next Monday to hold a Finance Comm. mtg to review the changes, and see where to go from there. The Commission Secretary will find a room for the full commission mtg to act on the budget. Potential dates to look at: Feb. 9 or15th.
(public comment)
Bruce Rice, Fiscal Director of Huckleberry Youth Services, agreed with the Chief about advocating no cut to the Dept budget, and believed the Commission and other CBOs should be in support of this. He also said that the 200+ status offender kids they deal with in a year aren’t so different from those that would have come to the Dept, even though they may not have been referred to Huckleberry from the Dept. He said since taking over these services 18 yrs ago, there have come on the scene other bodies and initiatives (eg. DHS, DCYF) and felt there was a basis for collaboration with them on continued support of the status offender services.
Comm Ricci agreed that perhaps we can start to alert our CBO partners to advocate for the Dept’s budget, at the Mayor’s budget office.
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