Are supervisors asking the DA to revise his budget?

Is the Yolo County Board of Supervisors prepared to ask the DA’s Office to revise its budget?

The request to the Board to approve a 31% increase to the District Attorney’s budget does not go unnoticed. The article by Margherita Beale, (Sept. 5, Daily Democrat) makes it clear that Supervisor Saylor is not all alone in questioning the DA’s Office budget.

Add to the reasonable request, to have the DA explain the budget increase, that all of our law enforcement institutions are under examination for multilayered institutional racism, it can put our men and women who apply the law on the defensive. Let it be said that we all share the obligation of racial remedy and that the county has the obligation to do so in a fiscally responsible manner.

As the spokesperson for the

DA’s Office, Matt De Moura, and his 32 DA office employees point out, in a Sept. 11 Daily Democrat op-ed, the budget review “should be measured, dispassionate, circumspect and fair to due process.” De Moura’s point being mainly that the inquiry into the DA budget is unfair and politically motivated.

I read the DA budget response. There is plenty to be proud of in the 29-page response. I also found very little in the way of basic budgetary analysis and I was confused by the responses rational as to why there is a need to consider actual and plan estimates in past years with the present budget request.

Two-thirds of the budget is spent on criminal prosecution, but there is no line item expense breakdown for this largest part of the budget. Perhaps such detail is offered to the supervisors directly.

So as not to diminish the good progress made by the DA’s Office from investments in the six-plus programs that provide victim support, neighborhood and collaborative courts, environmental enforcement, implicit racial bias education and reduce recidivism.

I believe our DA’s Office deserves credit for taking action to address society’s error of attempting to insulate ourselves from harder – and in many cases — more immediately expensive interventional and humane solutions.

The harder part (necessary and far less flamboyant part) of this negotiation must also address the rationalization of pay raises and the overall size of the budget when the public coffers are tapped.

With the above complexities in mind, the Board has an obligation to negotiate and agree with the DA’s Office on a budget schedule that is in line with the anticipated lower budgets for all other county offices.

— Scott Steward Ragsdale,

Davis