Plain Talk
From 1997 through 2002 the actions of our County officials made us one of California's most indebted County per capita, and perhaps the most indebted. The citizens of this relatively poor County have been put in the position to pay a heavy price through reduced services and having to pay $10 million a year to pay off this debt for the next 30 years.
And we may as well say something else now – our County being known as perhaps the most indebted County in the State is, to be polite, humiliating. The people will know we didn't get this way through a natural or social catastrophe. We got here because of the actions of our elected County Officials and their staffs. We should not be the most indebted County residents, but we think we probably are.
Our County is going to need the citizen's help to get out of this hole. The majority of our current Board of Supervisors and our new CEO didn't do the things that created this debt, but they are going to have to overcome the mistrust and lack of confidence this has and will create.
The Board needs to show the people now that they are serious. We believe the people will not tolerate being asked to bail the County out in any way until the County government that put the people in this position proves it can bite bullets and make hard decisions and do hard things.
We've tried hard to produce a solid report, based on real data, with compentent analysis, and drawing conclusions that make sense. If we've made some fundamental mistakes we certainly want to know about it, and if they are crucial, we are prepared to change our views. But we don't think we've made such mistakes.
Unless someone can show us where we went astray in this report:
We are unalterably opposed to paying down this debt with new taxes or fees, and will oppose all new fees or other ways of getting more money from the people until the County adopts a believable plan to fix the problems identified in this report.
The Board of Supervisors led us into the deepest County debt hole in California. They are going to have to lead us out.
Our Proposals
This is our community, our home, and we're in trouble. We want to help. We offer these suggestions to the community and County officials.
- Serious Down Payment: The County must pay down significantly more debt than scheduled this year and must not increase other spending anywhere near the 9% recommended by staff in the current Proposed Budget. If for no other reason (and there are plenty of other reasons), the people will not have confidence in the seriousness of the Supervisors if they don't."Business as usual" just won't cut it anymore.
- Plan to Get Out of Debt: Develop and implement a believable plan before the next budget cycle that will get us back to normal debt levels fast.
- Pension Fund: The County's Pension Fund is the main cause of our extraordinary debt; its problems are not solved. We are extremely concerned that our County may have experienced total staff costs over $100 million more than has ever been reported by the County. We don't know yet if this is true, but we fear it may be. Each year's pension costs must be paid and reported as expenses each year – not hidden in the future with debt. The County's Pension Plan must be intensively studied this year as a part of the larger Debt Reduction Plan. We don't want to do away with our County's employee' retirement plans. We want the people to know what they cost, we want those costs to be "paid as we go" and not hidden in the future, and we want those costs to not crowd out other programs that the County needs to fund for the good of the people.
- Reform Budget Process: The County needs a "financial strategic plan". It needs to look at and report major long term trends and projections, compare itself with other counties' finances, include its balance sheet and long-term pension obligations in its budget, set debt limits, and keep its budget and payroll in balance with the general community.
- Create Jobs, Raise Incomes and Tax Base: Either protect and increase jobs, incomes and tax base in the private sector or significantly and permanently cut County expenses. This County needs to develop and implement a jobs, family incomes and tax base plan. This County needs to not just consume our funds, it must invest some to reverse our decades–long economic decline and rebuild our local economy. The Board of Supervisors needs to learn the difference between spending for curent expenses and investing in the future.
- Properly Define the CEO's and Supervisors Roles: The County's debt crisis is a perfect example of why we need a strong County CEO. We became the most indebted County per capita in California largely because previous Boards of Supervisors lost themselves in comfortable operational details and did not focus on long-term impacts of their most important decisions. Solving our huge debt, budget, economic and water problems is our Supervisors most important responsibility, and they fail when they lose themselves micromanaging the County. Our qualified CEO should manage the County's operations. It is absolutely imperative that the BOS properly define the CEO's role immediately, and as a part of that, understand and commit itself to the role the BOS has not fulfilled in the past decade.
We stand ready to help.
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