Supervisors Propose Standing Committees For Budget Challenges

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA — The Board of Supervisors Tuesday will consider whether to establish standing subcommittees to review financial challenges facing county agencies throughout each fiscal year, preventing often complicated funding requests from bogging down formal budget hearings.

Board Chairman Kevin Jeffries and Supervisor Manuel Perez are jointly requesting formation of the subcommittees, which would likely meet a minimum of every two months to pore over appropriations requests and zero in on looming impacts to each agency's bottom line.

Jeffries and Perez point out in documents posted to the board's policy agenda that holding quarterly budget conferences as part of regular county business -- which can include transportation, waste resources, economic development and a plethora of other hearings -- are inadequate to address agencies' fiscal issues.

The supervisors said intervening budget "workshops" are helpful but still don't leave sufficient time to drill into short- and long-term problems.

The pair wrote that "deeper discussions" are vital to gain a complete picture of "departmental and agency budgets," and in particular "whether their budgets align with ... (board) goals and mandates."

The proposal in front of the board Tuesday calls for three subcommittees.

The first would oversee general government and internal services, including the Office of the Assessor-Clerk-Recorder, Department of Human Resources, Department of Animal Services and the Office of the Registrar of Voters.

The second subcommittee would focus on health and human services, including the Department of Public Social Services, the Office of Veterans Services and the Riverside University Health System, which includes the county hospital in Moreno Valley.

The third and last subcommittee would scrutinize public safety and public works, including the Office of the District Attorney, the Fire Department, Sheriff's Department, Transportation & Land Management Agency and the Department of Environmental Health.

Public safety agencies account for the largest share of discretionary revenue allocated annually, and the agencies are generally always struggling to structurally balance their budgets, with several starting each fiscal year in the red.

Jeffries and Perez are advocating that two supervisors sit on each committee, joined by the respective heads of each department and supported by their staffs.

"The committees would not formally vote on agency budgets, but could submit budget and finance-related proposals to the full board for consideration," they wrote.

Under the proposal, meetings would be open to the public and held in the fifth floor conference room -- not the board chamber -- of the County Administrative Center in downtown Riverside.

— By City News Service / Patch file photo by Renee Schiavone