Hiring Freeze Planned Across Riverside County Government

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA — The Board of Supervisors has scheduled a final vote on the tentative 2025-26 fiscal year budget for June 24, when a hiring freeze will be implemented throughout Riverside County government to keep a lid on spending in the face of a budget gap totaling almost $100 million.

After testimony from department heads on Monday, the board concluded most budgetary business and did not ask county Chief Executive Officer Jeff Van Wagenen on Tuesday for further explanations or recommendations.

Final consideration of the tentative budget blueprint is now set for the last Tuesday in June. The new fiscal year starts on July 1.

"We had more than $500 million in spending requests from departments; some requests were funded, some were not," Van Wagenen said.

He said that while excess costs will require tapping $73 million from the county reserve pool, a number of funding necessities will have to be placed on hold for "just-in-time" consideration, as discretionary revenue builds throughout 2025-26.

"We're recommending a hiring freeze for all departments that receive discretionary fund revenue," the CEO said Monday, further stating that exceptions to the freeze would include the Department of Public Social Services and Department of Animal Services.

"The freeze on the other departments ... will require them to shrink by attrition," he said. "Revenue is not decreasing across the system, but we are seeing it flatten and go down in certain areas."

The last stoppage to rein in spending occurred in 2016-17, and Van Wagenen said that action succeeded in saving the equivalent of $40 million to $50 million in Tuesday's dollars.

The current budget deficit stems from "inflationary pressures, growing labor costs, unpredictable state and federal funding and necessary investments in aging infrastructure (that) strain our financial capacity," the CEO said in the 500-plus-page budget proposal.

The aggregate budget for 2025-26 would be $9.98 billion, compared to $9.58 billion in 2024-25. The Executive Office is predicting a reserve pool of $655 million. It had been projected at $728 million, but the total will have to be pared down to fix the budget gap.

Payrolls continue to consume almost half of outlays under the budget plan. The county employs 25,632 people on a regular or rotating temporary basis

Public safety agencies led Monday's budget hearing, though the county's top law enforcement officer, Sheriff Chad Bianco, did not appear in person, offering a videotaped statement because he was attending a ceremony in Sacramento.

Bianco said the Executive Office's proposed appropriation for sheriff's operations "falls woefully short" of what's needed. The sheriff's department will end the current fiscal year $10 million in the red, and the proposed "flatline" spending plan for 2025-26 would put the agency $76 million in the hole, he said.

Unlike in previous budget hearings, the sheriff on Monday emphasized the need to make the Benoit Detention Center in Indio fully operational. Only one-third of the facility, which was completed in the previous decade, is functional. Undersheriff Don Sharp said about $32 million would be required to complete a two-phase activation of the jail in the coming fiscal year.

The board indicated it will follow the Executive Office's recommendation not to obligate any funds, up-front, to a phased opening of the detention center.

Other costs weighing on the department include ballooning labor and pension expenses stemming from the county's agreement with the Riverside Sheriffs' Association, the collective bargaining unit representing deputies, as well as court security expenses, the anticipated agreement with the Law Enforcement Management Unit, and internal service obligations, such as for maintenance of facilities.

District Attorney Mike Hestrin acknowledged that his office continues to contend with heavy case loads, but the agency has remained within spending limits, and he expected to end the current fiscal year in the black.

He asked for an additional $1.4 million over what the Executive Office recommended in the office's 2025-26 spending plan, mainly to pay for additional victims' services specialists and "senior" paralegals to handle more administrative work that might otherwise require the attention of higher- cost attorneys.

The board has tentatively approved that request.

Fire Department Chief Bill Weiser gave the briefest presentation, requesting an "augmentation" of $6 million in the agency's 2025-26 appropriations plan outlined by the Executive Office. The funding would be roughly split between equipment outlays and new staffing expenses. The board signaled one-third of that money would be included in the budget; the remaining needs would be met by just-in-time funding.

More than two-thirds of the county budget is composed of programmed spending, including federal and state earmarks for specific uses, along with grants and related external source revenue. The board has little control over those dollars.

Direct property taxes remains the county's largest source of discretionary income. It rose to $574 million in 2024-25, compared to $542.6 million in 2023-24, according to figures. The projection is for a $54 million, or 10%, jump in the next fiscal year.

The Department of Public Social Services consistently requires the highest level of appropriations of any one agency. For 2025-26, DPSS, which is an umbrella for a range of programs, including dependent children, foster care, adult protection and welfare benefits, is seeking $1.63 billion, while the EO has said the ceiling should be $1.59 billion.