What is public safety?

Is it more deputies, more correctional officers, better roads, more social service workers and programs for mental health services and drug use recovery, better ambulance and fire services, or all of the above?

Is it feeling safe in our homes and in our community? Whose responsibility is it? I believe it is up to all of us to make a better and safer comnity.

To be sure, it is a complicated issue. It is an issue that involves more than budgets and services. It involves all of us in our homes and neighborhoods and our communities. It involves tolerance for differing points of view. It is an issue that requires all to respect our differences and try to find the common ground of teaching our children the values of respect and compromise. There is no perfect world, just us trying to raise our children and being a part of a healthy community.

As many of you know, we have a large budget deficit of over $17 million in this years county budget. Over the next 3 years it is supposed to get worse. So what do we do… just keep spending, or begin to tighten our belts and double down on working to control costs?

Are there things we can do to be more efficient… yes and we are working on that. Paying our staff a fair wage is part of building morale and increasing productivity. We got that done last year and I am very proud to have been one of the supervisors that pushed for that. We realized we were wasting money on low wages that led to low recruitment of new employees, low retention, and low morale, and constant new training of personnel.

One way we are trying to balance the budget is through a hiring freeze for all departments. We have gotten good cooperation from most departments on that effort and mostly we have been able to manage this through attrition. As folks leave we leave that position open to balance the budget. If we keep filing these empty positions, then we will likely have to lay folks off in the coming years. That would be harsh.

Every department could make an argument for more staff, which then puts the Board of Supervisors in an uncomfortable position. Members of the public not responsible for the county budget and only looking at one issue can tend to blame a supervisor for trying to hold the budget line.

Measure Z Has helped us staff up and for awhile it also had funds for ambulance and fire services. As sales tax has decreased this has become more difficult and yet the need for these services continues. In the fall, we will have a roads measure on the ballot and if the voters support that, we will have more revenue for road repairs and maintenance.

Just like our budgets at home, we have to make tough decisions. Please consider this when evaluating decisions about funding public safety.