Stanislaus County proposes to increase workforce, park staffing in final budget

Stanislaus County leaders have a budget plan to increase staffing, restore public safety positions and bolster staffing for parks.

The $1.13 billion final budget for the 2016-17 fiscal year could be approved after a public hearing Tuesday. It authorizes 43 additional staff positions, pushing the county’s total potential workforce to 4,315.

The budget recommends 23 positions for the Community Services Agency supported by state and federal funding to improve foster care services. It also would convert 16 county parks positions from 30 hours per week to full time, and push forward a public safety restoration plan, allowing the Sheriff’s Department to hire eight deputies in January instead of waiting until July.

The other additions are four grant-funded positions for the District Attorney’s Office.

County Assistant Executive Officer Jody Hayes said county parks are supported by part-time employees, and the public should see better park services with full-time staffing.

Top officials said the additional hiring is justified by the county’s strong financial numbers, which continue to improve.

“We continue to focus on the restoration of critical public safety services, careful spending and long-term sustainability,” said Chief Executive Officer Stan Risen, in releasing the final budget this month.

Besides rebuilding the Sheriff’s Department and restoring other positions in recent years, Risen said, the improved economy has allowed the county to retire debt early and fatten its reserves.

If the additional staffing is approved in the final budget, the county workforce will still be 6 percent smaller than in 2007-08, when there were 4,600 allocated positions.

Hayes said hiring in future years will entirely depend on resources and the programs administered by the county. With national health care reform and California’s public safety realignment, the county operates more programs today than in 2007-08 with fewer employees, Hayes said.

Recommendations for the final budget include $1.1 million in funding over a 10-year period for the new Stanislaus Veterans Center at Coffee Road and Sylvan Avenue in Modesto.

The county continues to work on a plan for $6 million in annual savings from the “negative bailout” remedy. Last year, state legislation was approved to correct a decades-old tax inequity that had taken about $70 million from Stanislaus County since the early 1980s.

A million dollars from the negative bailout fix will be used to speed up public safety restoration, and $876,000 will back-fill a June budget decision, which committed contingency funds to leverage federal grants for road and bridge projects. Other savings from the negative bailout remedy could be spent on one-time community investments under a plan that will be brought to the Board of Supervisors.

Roads are a serious problem area in the county budget with the loss of $3 million in state gasoline-tax revenue, which is the primary source of funding for resurfacing county roads. The revenue has been depleted by lower gasoline prices for consumers, leading the county to fall behind on road repairs.

Officials will closely watch the results of the countywide transportation tax measure on the November ballot. If the sales-tax measure receives two-thirds approval, money for fixing roads will be available to the county and its cities starting with the fiscal year that begins next July.

The county’s final budget has $14.2 million in increased spending over the preliminary budget approved in June and $8.9 million in additional revenue. The county expects to have an extra $4 million in “discretionary” funds to work with.

Property and sales taxes are major sources of discretionary revenue and can be used for public safety, parks and other types of services.

This story was originally published August 29, 2016 at 7:51 PM with the headline "Stanislaus County proposes to increase workforce, park staffing in final budget."