Russ Steele
The quote of the days so far is by Supervisor John Spencer, "We actually do stuff here" following a review of the County Staff accomplishments in 2007. With hand outs this year, so I will have more later. We are now in the budget discussions. We will provide details in future posts.
UPDATE: The Fiscal Report to the BOS by Joe Christoffel, the County CFO, indicates that County expenditures are not exceeding revenues as has been suggested in other media outlets. According to the CFO presentation revenue has exceeded expenditures over the last 3 years. Planning for expected and unexpected events has reduced the roller coaster effect seen in other County and State Budgets, by putting funds aside for rainy day events. The State mandated budget reductions of 10% will present some challenges, but nothing that cannot be handled according to the County CFO. It will mainly impact state funded programs in the Health Department.
The morning session had six visitors. Two reporters, one from YubaNet and one from The Union, plus four citizen observers, including two bloggers. As one of the bloggers, I will post more highlight when I have had time to study my notes and listen to my iPod recording. This afternoon the reporters are gone and only two citizens remain to observe the development of budget priorities for the coming budget year of FY 08/09. Be sure and read the YubaNet and The Union reports on events this morning.
UPDATE #2: In reference to renting the DA a new office. It turns out that the County charges LAFCO $1.55 dollars a square foot. This kind of puts the "high end rent" for the DA new office in perspective, with the below market increase of 2% reported to be about $1.53 sq foot.
