Layoffs, cap on inmates loom

While 30 people took the early-outs, it’s unclear how many of those vacancies will need to be backfilled with other employees and how many can be used to offset the budget deficit.

“Out of the 30 people total that took the incentive I have five of them that their positions have been eliminated already,” Galatioto said. “We’re reviewing the rest of them.”

The county plans to eliminate 26 positions in its proposed budget. Of those, 16 are vacant, five are employees taking early retirement or resignations and five will result in layoffs.

There will also be four positions that will go unfunded, three of which are in the Del Norte County Jail.

“The dollar value for those positions is gone,” Galatioto said. “Basically we’ve taken away the funding and they’ll have to make that funding up somewhere else.”

Not all county departments have been able to meet the 10 percent reduction mandate. In particular, the Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office, Clerk/Recorder’s Office and District Attorney’s Office failed to meet this goal, with each department being over budget by around $150,000.

“Some made an attempt to get it as close to that 10 percent as possible,” Galatioto said. “If everybody actually did, we would be balanced.”

The county Board of Supervisors discussed Tuesday how to balance the remaining budget. The supervisors said they wanted all department heads to explain the impact of cuts to their facet of county government to help the elected officials make a decision on what services to cut.

“Government is not there to provide employment,” District 5 Supervisor David Finigan said. “Government is there to provide services, and that’s a cruel fact.”

With the county’s revenues declining or staying stagnant and the state looking to raid local governments to fill its own $24.3 billion shortfall, the supervisors said they were going to be forced into making difficult choices about funding.

“There are no sacred cows,” Finigan said, referring to the District Attorney’s Office and what he perceived as “over-inflated” revenue projections. “Now we’re going to have to take the next step — prioritization.”

Some department heads claim there isn’t any room for more cuts, and say if they reduced costs it would cripple their office and might force them to reduce the hours they’re available to the public.

The Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office, for instance, is already reducing its jail capacity from an average daily population of 140 inmates to 105. According to Sheriff Dean Wilson, this will save the county hundreds of thousands of dollars on food and medical expenses.

While Wilson said there aren’t any plans to release inmates early, he did note that it will mean being more lenient with housing non-violent offenders.

“We have not had to extend that credit for early release,” Wilson said. “We’re working hand-in-hand with the courts to keep our bed counts down.”

He said people arrested for non-violent felonies, such as drug charges or grand theft, will be booked and released until their first court appearance rather than staying in jail until their arraignment. There will also be discussions with the probation department to reduce the amount of jail time it gives people who violate probation.

“The reality is that if you hold somebody in jail it’s just going to cost you money,” Wilson said. “There’s no way around it, and it’s expensive.”

A similar approach will be used at juvenile hall. To comply with the 10 percent reduction, the facility will cut the number of beds it has in half, from 20 to 10, and juveniles arrested for misdemeanors will be released to a responsible guardian.

It’s still uncertain how the state’s cuts will affect Del Norte County. Galatioto calls it a “shot in the dark” because legislators are still battling over what services to cut or continue funding.

She said social services and mental health will likely see some reductions, and the county roads department could lose up to $750,000 alone. Whatever funding or programs that are cut by the state, she said the county will need to do the same.

Unlike Crescent City, the county is not expecting the economy to turn around in the upcoming year. Officials expect revenues to stay where they are now or continue to decline.

The county still plans to spend some money on economic development, and in particular promoting tourism to the area through the local Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau.

Del Norte County will adopt a final budget in the coming months, and is required to have a balanced spending plan by Oct. 2.

“The reality is there is not that much money,” District 3 Supervisor Mike Sullivan said.  “It’s going to be felt all across the county.”