By Duane W. Gang
The Press Enterprise
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Riverside County is considering shutting three fire stations and laying off firefighters in unincorporated areas to help overcome a $6 million shortfall in the Fire Department’s budget.
The shortfall is part a $46.7 million gap from five county departments projected by the end of the current fiscal year on June 30.
Supervisors will consider the closure plan Tuesday, along with a host of other budget fixes, as part of a first-quarter financial review.
“We realize times are tough,” Fire Chief John Hawkins said Friday. “We don’t want to recommend closing fire stations, but we have a budget gap.”
The projected shortfall comes in the wake of the county’s current budget, which supervisors approved in August and balanced with $71 million in cuts and $62 million in reserves.
Hawkins said he has not identified which stations might be closed.
The county contracts with Cal Fire for fire protection and has negotiated about $2.2 million in savings from the state agency. But half of that will be passed on to contract cities, leaving a $4.9 million gap for the county.
In his report to supervisors, county Executive Officer Bill Luna said the budget “cannot be balanced without reducing programs.”
If supervisors approve the plan Tuesday, the county will proceed with shutting down three of the 39 fire station located in unincorporated areas, Hawkins said.
He said he developed criteria to help decide which stations to close. The criteria include workload, proximity to other stations, level of service at each and the ability of volunteer companies to meet an area’s needs.
‘Difficult To Stomach’
Supervisors have long said they are reluctant to close fire stations.
Supervisor Bob Buster said Thursday he hopes the county can avoid the closures. But he said the current fiscal situation is dire.
“That is a sign we are entering the worst part of our multiyear budgetary crisis,” Buster said. “We are dealing with unenviable choices. … We should not treat any department as sacred cows.”
Supervisor John Benoit said the county will have to find ways to work through the tough times.
“It’s going to be absolutely difficult to stomach,” he said of the prospect of closing stations.
The closures could have been worse, according Luna’s report.
“Even though a projected $6 million shortfall would equate financially to closing seven stations, the fire chief committed to find ways to avoid that more drastic cut,” Luna said.
In a letter to Luna, Hawkins said closing seven stations would have resulted in 56 layoffs. He said he understands from supervisors that they don’t want to close fire stations, “although each member has also clearly told me how dire is the budget situation.
“Over the last three years, the Riverside County Fire Department has cut the budget through administrative cost containment and reduction efforts to avoid closing any fire stations,” he said. “We have done our best to keep fire stations open. We have instituted an extremely hard personnel hiring and purchasing freeze.”
Other Departments
The recent budget woes come on top of steep cutbacks supervisors instituted when they approved the current budget in August.
The county’s public-safety departments took, on average, 4 percent cuts while other departments have endured 19 percent reductions.
“Most department heads report they will end the fiscal year in balance, but several notable exceptions raise concerns because the expected overages are both significant and ongoing,” Luna wrote.
“Further, dipping even deeper into reserves runs contrary to the Board’s adopted budget objective for structural balance in two years.”
In addition, Luna said, raiding reserves is likely to be frowned upon by the county’s credit-rating agencies.
He said overcoming the shortfalls through cuts elsewhere would require other county departments to reduce their net-county costs by an additional 17 percent.
“Under such a scenario, current year departmental cuts would reach 36 percent, and continue next year,” Luna said. “The result would seriously challenge basic services.”
Among the other departments facing shortfalls are the sheriff, district attorney, public social services and the registrar of voters.
The Sheriff’s Department is expected to come up short by $17 million at the end of the fiscal year in June.
Sheriff Stan Sniff said in a letter to Luna that additional cuts could lower response times in unincorporated areas and result in no net increase in jail beds from the expansion of the Larry Smith Correctional Facility.
Still, Sniff said, “We plan to work very closely with your office and the Board of Supervisors to reduce this deficit by the end of the fiscal year.”
The first-quarter budget report projects a $9.1 million shortfall in the district attorney’s office.
“To date, there is no evidence the department has a concrete cost savings plan in place,” Luna wrote.
The district attorney’s office disagrees. In comments included in the report, the office reported that based on three months of data, it is projected to end the year under budget.
It’s unknown what actions the office might take based on Luna’s financial assumptions, since a new district attorney will oversee the last six months of the current budget and all of fiscal year 2011-12, the district attorney’s office reported.
The office said based on current data, no layoffs are needed this year and any reductions can be accomplished through attrition.
District Attorney-elect Paul Zellerbach takes office in January.
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