Supes grant partial bail out for deficit plagued department

BY COLBY FRAZIER
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

With the weight of a $7 million budget deficit on the shoulders of the Santa Barbara County Department of Alcohol Drug & Mental Health Services, the Board of Supervisors approved an incremental bailout yesterday that began immediately with a $2.3 million infusion of cash into the struggling department’s bank account.
While three supervisors said they were prepared to allocate the entire amount, the decision required four favorable votes, and the only way Fourth District Supervisor Joni Gray would give her nod of approval was if the department returns to the board next month with potential solutions to their budget woes. If that happens, the board said they might provide additional money.


But many saw the incremental amount as a considerable victory that will buy enough time for ADMHS, community based organizations and other mental health care contractors to attempt to reorganize their priorities and balance the budget without cutting programs.
“I think it’s a huge victory,” said Mike Foley, executive director of Casa Esperanza. “Things are going to have to be discussed. I think it’s better than we hoped for.”
The bailout came just a month after the board voted unanimously to do the same for the County Sheriff’s Department to the tune of $3.4 million – an amount that was said to have been born out of last summer’s Zaca Fire and other emergency events.
The two bailouts are a nagging reminder for the board that budget shortfalls within county departments are growing, while revenue from the state and other sources is shrinking.
Nobody drummed on this reality more than Third District Supervisor Brooks Firestone, who argued no amount of money should be given to ADMHS until they propose some form of budgetary cuts.
“It would feel very good to continue this department as it is,” Firestone said. But “we are broke.”
Firestone said he was disappointed that the dozens of “eloquent” public speakers addressed the importance to fully fund the department, but didn’t present any solutions to the widening budget deficit.
“We’re sending a signal to every other department that they can do the same thing and we simply cannot afford it,” he said. “To ask us to continue this deficit spending is impossible.”
Supervisor’s Salud Carbajal, Janet Wolf and Joe Centeno all were in favor of bringing ADMHS out of the red by granting the approval of the entire $7 million.
When Gray expressed resistance however, Carbajal said he would go along in order to get her vote and stop the bleeding within the department.
Even with the $2.3 million band-aid, and even if ADMHS receives several million more in funding before June when the ’08-’09 budget will be drawn up, all of the supervisors warned that cuts at some level are imminent.
“Everybody needs to know that cuts need to be made,” Gray said.
The supervisors made their decision after hearing from droves of public speakers, many of whom work for ADMHS and some of whom benefit from its services, spelled out as clearly as they could that the human costs of cutting programs will far exceed any short-term fiscal benefits.
“Our clients are the most vulnerable in this county and if you vote for option B, they’re going to be left in the streets,” said Luis Jose Stephens, who works for Phoenix House of Santa Barbara.
Option B was a proposal by county staff that would have given $5.57 million to ADMHS and in return forces the department to cut $1.4 million from its budget.
Many of those who spoke during public comment noted that it will be cheaper in the long run to provide preventative services than allowing mentally and physically disabled people to slip through the cracks and end up in hospitals and psychiatrist wards.
The public’s statements seemed to resonate with Centeno, Carbajal and Wolf, all of whom admitted the department needs to change, but simply stripping ADMHS of funding could cause harm to the county’s most vulnerable population.
“We need to take care of the folks, that’s what we’re all about,” Centeno said. “I think we bear the responsibility to make sure their situation isn’t worse by this fiscal debacle we’re in now.
“I tend to support the human side of the issue.”
Not all public comment was in favor of the bailout.
Andy Caldwell, executive director of The Coalition of Labor, Agriculture & Business, asked the county if they “planned to punt again?”
“Are you going to keep taking money out of your quote unquote savings account that doesn’t really exist?” Caldwell said, making reference to the county’s $29 million reserve, which projections show could be consumed in the near future by a number of unexpected expenditures.
Wolf said she didn’t think it was fair to not fund ADMHS and turn it over to its newly hired director, Dr. Ann Detrick, in the midst of an even more severe crisis than it’s currently facing.
Funding ADMHS “Just clears off the deck from one year and gives her the chance to focus on this critical phase,” Wolf said.
Detrick told the board that the budget shortfall will continue if changes aren’t made and she intends to do just that.
“The reality is… We can’t do business as we have done,” Detrick said. “It probably means we’re going to have to reduce services.”
Since Nov. 30, ADMHS, its contractors, clients and others have held meetings as part of a Reorganization Committee. Foley said the committee has met only three times due to cancellations by ADMHS, which he said could not put concrete numbers on the table for discussion.
Foley said a meeting scheduled for today will be attended by community-based organizations, but not by ADMHS.
But with the $2.3 million, Foley said all sides will now be able to sit down and discuss how best to move forward.
“The good news is within the next week we’re going to be at the table talking,” he said.
The board will discuss the remainder of the ADMHS budget deficit again on March 11.