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Posted by: mturnipseed on 07/20/2009 05:57
Updated by: mturnipseed on 07/20/2009 05:57
Expires: 01/01/2014 12:00
2010 County Budget Issues
Comments to the Kern County Board of Supervisors
2010 County Budget Issues
By Michael Turnipseed
Executive Director
July 20, 2009
Chairman McQuiston, Members of the Board. I am Michael Turnipseed, representing the Kern County Taxpayers Association. KERNTAX is a member-supported, non-profit corporation whose purpose is to bring about, through cooperative effort and communication, greater economy, efficiency and effectiveness in government agencies in Kern County, basing its recommendations upon the analysis of facts obtained through research.
We want to thank you for providing KERNTAX and the general public this opportunity to comment on the new county budget. KERNTAX also wants to thank the County CAO, Mr. Nilon, his staff, and the many department heads for all of the time and consideration they provided KERNTAX in understanding this budget and its finer points.
It has been quite a year: major mid-year budget adjustments, a new CAO, several new department heads, a new budget being adopted this week and a dysfunctional state government in Sacramento.
It is reasonable to assume that the State of California will remain dysfunctional for some time. The national recession is also not likely to end soon. Thus, the County of Kern will face tough financial times for the foreseeable future.
Comments to the Kern County Board of Supervisors
2010 County Budget Issues
By Michael Turnipseed
Executive Director
July 20, 2009
Chairman McQuiston, Members of the Board. I am Michael Turnipseed, representing the Kern County Taxpayers Association. KERNTAX is a member-supported, non-profit corporation whose purpose is to bring about, through cooperative effort and communication, greater economy, efficiency and effectiveness in government agencies in Kern County, basing its recommendations upon the analysis of facts obtained through research.
We want to thank you for providing KERNTAX and the general public this opportunity to comment on the new county budget. KERNTAX also wants to thank the County CAO, Mr. Nilon, his staff, and the many department heads for all of the time and consideration they provided KERNTAX in understanding this budget and its finer points.
It has been quite a year: major mid-year budget adjustments, a new CAO, several new department heads, a new budget being adopted this week and a dysfunctional state government in Sacramento.
It is reasonable to assume that the State of California will remain dysfunctional for some time. The national recession is also not likely to end soon. Thus, the County of Kern will face tough financial times for the foreseeable future.
THE TIME TO REINVENT.
Kern County must spend the next year reinventing itself to address the challenges it faces. KERNTAX believes this must happen for the future well-being of the county. This starts with a “can do” attitude.
The Board and new CAO must seize control of the future. Accept the reality of fiscal limitations – but refuse to accept limitations of the mind. Our new CAO needs to “break the mold’ and choose a response to circumstances that identifies opportunities for a better future – and demands engagement by all stakeholders, internal and external, in its pursuit.
OUTSIDE THE BOX THINKING
“Reinvention” is hard. Some services will have to be eliminated – and others delivered differently. But there are tremendous opportunities to re-think how to deliver services in more effective, productive ways.
This process will take more than one year to bare substantial fruit. But, it can be jump-started in a variety of ways.
First, the tired old “step down” departmentally based, incremental budget model, used to prepare the 2010 budget, must be scrapped.
We need to look comprehensively at the various delivery “systems” (criminal justice system, health and human services system, land use and facilities system, etc.) of the County if we are to gain efficiencies.
There are a variety of models that can be used to force systemic analysis. A relatively easy and quick option might be the creation of “block grants’ for each system.
In this model, the Board would set a “block” of expenses for each system in future budgets. The initial amounts can be set based on the recent work to set relative priorities during the “step down” process used for mid-year adjustments and the 2010 budget. Individual departments within each system would understand that the total amount of funds for the system is fixed – no exceptions – for the budget year. “Plug” salary savings can be used to balance individual budgets in the short term.
Then the real work would begin. Led by the CAO’s staff, each system must evaluate opportunities for more effective service delivery – with quarterly implementation reports to the Board. Initially, “turf” will reign supreme, but as time passes, the pressure will mount for solutions to be developed to improve efficiency across departments – or salary savings will have to be taken.
This process will not be smooth – and must be skillfully led – but a process like this “changes the game” to force critical examination of options – not just incremental damage control.
In some systems, there will be relatively easy opportunities for restructuring and streamlining. In others, the elected leaders of those departments will be prone to challenge any change. If they choose to do so, the Board at least has a framework within which to hold the line on overall expenditures (as the departments will choose to cooperate or not) – rather than being overwhelmed by individual “exception” requests that are not easily denied.
While this particular model may not be the best – but the central idea is sound. The County must move away from a department-centric, survival model to one of fundamental focus on the customers of each service system – not internal institutional needs/desires -- if the county is going to have any hope of delivering quality services to our community in the long term.
RESOLVE
The CAO needs to have the ability to surround himself with a quality key staff that shares the vision…
But no CAO can succeed with out a clear, consistent commitment from your Board to a new order of business. The Board must be resolved to take a multi-year approach – and to make tough decisions along the way.
The toughest decisions will not be fiscal.
The toughest decisions will involve people. There will be senior managers who simply cannot take the long view, that cannot “give in order to get along”, and who will refuse to change. They will be sincere, nice people. But if the Board does not ultimately show the resolve to hold everyone accountable, then no one will be accountable. The CAO’s efforts will just be talk – and the cynics will win.
This year, KERNTAX would like to focus on four areas of concern.
PUT THE PUBLIC’S SAFETY FIRST
First some staggering statistics for the State of California:
• Prison Population: 25,000 in the early 1990’s; today 175,000
• Parole: In 2008, 125,000 prisoners were paroled; 75,000 were returned to jail for “technical violations”, not commitment of a new crime.
• Total State Budget for 2010: $85 billion
• 2010 State Budget for Prisons: $10 billion for 175,000 inmates ($57,000)
• 2010 Higher Education Budget: $12.4 Billion for 1.7M students ($6,600)
o 198,000 University of California Students
o 343,000 California State University Students
o 2,700,000 (1.2 M FTEs) Community College Students
Now let’s focus on Kern County. Using the County’s antiquated step-down budgeting methods; let’s look at what we will be doing tomorrow:
• More money for jails, sounds like the state.
• Less money for proven intervention and prevention programs, sounds like the state.
• Less money for libraries, parks, and human needs, sounds like the state.
• Replacing lower-cost detention officers, with higher-cost deputy sheriffs, I could not find an example of this anywhere.
As many governmental bodies have already done, Kern County must reinvent its public safety/criminal justice system. The County must create a sustainable system, based on what works and is the most cost affective, not only for the County, but the taxpayers. For this “global change” to occur, your Board, the Sheriff, the DA, the Public Defender and Chief of Probation must work together to eliminate antiquated practices currently used and develop a new system based on best practices, using an evidence-based risk/needs assessment program. Many cost effective Community Correction programs, a blend of evidence-based principles, organizational development, collaboration with partnering agencies, and a quality over quantity approach, are already in place and need to be expanded not curtailed:
• Aggression Replacement Training. $1 today produces $20.56 in future savings.
• Strengthening Families Program. $1 today produces $7.82 in future savings.
• Service-supported Diversion Programs. $1 today produces $5.58 in future savings.
The question is quite clear: Do we continue to spend money in an archaic criminal justice system or do we invest in a system of community corrections, with intervention and prevention that produces positive results for the future of our citizens?
TECHNOLOGY
As our county’s service delivery systems change and evolve, technology must keep pace. As the county downsizes to meet reduced fiscal resources, it must invest in technology to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of this smaller, but smarter workforce.
KERNTAX believes the county needs to focus first on three areas technologically:
1. The foundation of the county’s communication infrastructure is its Wide Area Network (WAN). Without proper expansion of this network, growth in communication infrastructure will be limited. The foundation of the county’s communication system must be have high-speed, be resilient and have adequate backup to address the growing needs of a county with a reduced workforce and the technological demands that smaller workforce will require.
2. The issues of centralized or decentralized information technology systems or some combination must be analyzed and decisions made based on data accumulated. Your Board must accept the data acquired and move in the required direction to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of Kern County government.
3. The county must embrace internal research and development of information technology systems. The county could reinvest the savings from a streamlined, coordinated information technology system into a newly formed group of “Techno Gurus”. This think tank of existing employees could evaluate emerging technologies and large scale system applications. Membership in this “Think Tank” would be a reward for the county’s best and brightest minds and membership would rotate on a regular basis to insure freshness, focus and vision.
To reduce analysis/paralysis, this group would have the authority to make recommendations directly to your board on all technological issues. With this comes the responsibility to deliver results. This would eliminate the need for costly consultants that do not have the county’s best interests at heart. This is truly employee empowerment.
CIVIL SERVICE
As the county enters into negotiations to address the growing troubles of the existing MOU’s, the topic of civil service must be addressed. We certainly understand that modernizing civil service requires a vote of the people to change the antiquated Kern County Civil Service Ordinance of 1956. It is in the long term interests of all parties, that the Civil Service process be updated to work in the 21st century workplace. The burdens and unneeded costs of this outdated system must be addressed for the county to operate in an efficient, effective manner. KERNTAX urges your Board to negotiate with the various bargaining units reforms for the Civil Service Ordinance and place it on the next available ballot for the voters to update this obsolete ordinance.
The Kern County Taxpayers Association is grateful for this opportunity to address the board and looks forward to working with you and your staff to promote greater economy, efficiency and effectiveness in Kern County government.
Thank you for your time and consideration of our comments.
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