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Previously:

• Masten's Request for a More Public Budget Process Pits Her and Starkey Against Hemmingsen and Howard

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Del Norte County supervisors veered off Tuesday’s agenda for nearly 45 minutes and dredged up a seven-month old argument about transparency during the budget process.

District 1 Supervisor Darrin Short, the Board’s new chairman, called for public presentations from managers whose departments are represented in the county’s general fund. He praised similar meetings held last year at the request of District 2 representative Valerie Starkey and then-District 5 Supervisor Susan Masten, but said he wanted to start that process early in the calendar year.

“I would like to ask that our general fund department heads would participate in presentations in the first part of the calendar year as we move toward our draft budget that we usually get in June,” Short said, praising the department managers and elected officials who participated last year.

“I think us having that better education about what their department needs are — their accolades, their shortfalls, what they would do if they didn’t have budget constraints — those kinds of questions and getting into their budget and answering our questions for us prior to the budget coming to a vote at the end of the summer, I just feel really strongly that I gained a lot of insight from those.”

Short’s colleague, District 3 Chris Howard reiterated the opposition he expressed in September when Starkey and Masten made a similar request. On Tuesday, Howard argued that the public has an opportunity to comment on a draft version of the county budget before supervisors adopt it. He questioned whether “getting down into the weeds” was the best use of the Board’s time.

The Board’s newest supervisors, Joey Borges and Dean Wilson agreed with Howard. Both said they would want to interact with department heads one-on-one.

Though he suggested holding long-term strategic planning sessions, Wilson, who replaced Masten as District 5 representative and was sheriff for about 12 years, said he had never discussed his budget with any member of the Board of Supervisor as sheriff.

“I don’t care what it is you want to do, it’s all about money,” he said. “If you want to put a deputy out there, it’s about dollars. If you want to get a car out there, it’s dollars. If you want to fix the boat ramp, it’s dollars. If you want to address a community issue of homelessness, it comes down to dollars. If you don’t understand how government works and how we do things and where we can get our funds from, then you’re not going to have that understanding in a public meeting.”

Short made his request as part of his bi-weekly report to the overall Board. He noted that there’s currently no mechanism for him and his colleagues to determine how much of a workload each department is burdened with. He also asked staff to compile a list of their tasks sorted both by priority and by the date the Board of Supervisors assigned them.

Initially Short said he was asking for an organizational tool that he’d like to see in an open meeting so it would give the Board a better idea of how all the departments are running before planning for the next fiscal year’s budget.

Howard questioned the usefulness of that organizational tool other than helping the Board understand each department’s workload. He said he liked Wilson’s idea for a “forward-thinking strategic planning type exercise,” but a discussion about workloads could take several months.

Howard also pointed out that though in September, the public stated they’d be willing to participate in a budget workshop, few actually showed up.

“We as supervisors are elected to be representing our constituents in these processes and our constituents, once we have that position, give us that faith to move forward and… how to best allocate those funds,” Howard said. “I put a lot of faith and today a lot of folks realize our department heads do an incredible job of putting together those budgets and bringing them to us. They know their budgets better than anybody else. I’m not entirely sure how that’s the best use of our time to figure out if we’re going to change, potentially, those priorities.”

Starkey argued that public hearings are held when County Administrative Officer Neal Lopez introduces the budget and they’re 10 minutes. The public is never encouraged to spend hours diving deep into the budget.

“It’s available, but it’s never been more than 10 minutes on the agenda for a discussion to occur,” she said.

In September, both Starkey and Masten argued that while county supervisors can speak with department heads one on one about their budget requests, the public isn’t privy to those discussions.

On Tuesday, in response to Howard’s comment about the process that allows wrestling over the budget to take place, Starkey said it’d be beneficial if that “robust discussion” were more public.

“If Community Development needs this program in order to streamline their services to the public, but we have to tell them ‘No, because we do have a limited amount of funds,’ that’s information the public should be aware of,” she said.

Ultimately, Short didn’t get the consensus he sought and County Counsel Joel Campbell-Blair suggested putting the item on a future agenda with more concrete options from staff.

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