The SLO County Board of Supervisors met on June 9 for a special session budget hearing. The hearing was scheduled to last up to three days, but all the details were covered and approved after just the first day. As important and detailed as the proceedings were, very few changes were made to the proposed budget. Most of the heavy lifting was done in the months leading up to the June 3 introduction.

Over those months, County Administrative Officer Matthew Pontes worked with each department to review their individual department budget proposal, eliminating redundancies and inefficiencies in what was described as a “rebalancing and resilience Initiative”.

This effort led to a reported $38 million budget reduction over what it would have otherwise been. Still, the budget grew over last year by $78 million or almost 9% for a total proposed budget of a little more than $950,000,000 and when all is said and done, will probably crest $1 billion.

That is if the California State Budget, set to be released on June 15, doesn’t result in major cuts to county programs funding. At this point, the California May Revise budget forecast identified a $12 billion shortfall. Currently, the SLO County budget relies on 42% of its budget coming from intergovernmental sources - primarily state and federal funding.

In Monday’s hearing, very few adjustments were made. Some funding to be used as “gap funding” for local non-profit service providers was earmarked, amounting to somewhere between $1.3 million to over $3 million, depending on how much is actually allocated. These funds will be drawn from reserves.

Support for the budget as proposed was unanimous, as was support for the first “gap funding proposal of about $1.2 million. However, Supervisors Peshong and Moreno declined to support any further expenditure of reserve funding, citing budget uncertainties about state funds.

The Board of Supervisors and county staff should be commended for their professional approach to the budget. It’s a pity that the complete lack of responsible fiscal management by our Governor and the State Legislature could blow up the efforts of our county to finally be accountable and transparent.

The much-anticipated KPMG audit of the County Health Agency is ready for presentation to the Board of Supervisors at the June 17 meeting. While the audit is extremely detailed, a summary follows in the charts below. It is highly recommended that anyone with an interest in the technical findings of the audit look at the 225 page analysis in detail via the following link: https://agenda.slocounty.ca.gov/iip/sanluisobispo/file/getfile/170470

The Health Agency is divided into six categories. The audit provides detail in each department, including observations and recommendations.

A key component of funding comes from state and federal sources, many of which are at risk of being cut. Below is a chart comparing SLO Health Agency Data to neighboring counties.

The following summaries relate to the biggest cost centers of the Health Agency.

It should be noted that many of the cost savings identified involve the use of AI technologies to improve performance and reduce overhead. Other savings are found in personnel reprioritizations. Some of the savings may be more practical to implement than others due to staffing contracts and/or technological abilities. However, the audit provides an excellent basis for internal evaluations designed to make the agency more effective and efficient in both services provided and operating costs. The BoS will hear a report from KPMG om June 17 and decide how to proceed after that.

The San Luis Obispo County Pension Trust has apparently held an election, and a report of that election will be presented at the June 17 BoS meeting. It’s a bit of a yawn actually. Trustee Geoff O’Quest was the only candidate to file and was therefore declared the winner by default to be reelected.

With a pension deficit of over $1 billion, it’s perhaps unsurprising that nobody else desired to serve on the seven member Board of Trustees. They are responsible for overseeing a staff of about 8 people who serve over 7,000 active, retired and deferred employees, and pay out roughly $135 million annually to nearly 3,400 retirees.

The Trust does have a plan in place to pay down the deficit to zero by 2041. However, that plan is highly dependent on factors such as investment performance and employee salaries.

One notable aspect of this “election” is that it was overseen by SLO County Clerk/Recorder Elaina Canto. So, while an election for a pension fund trustee gets official county oversite, the Prop. 218 vote for the Paso Water Basin JPA involves no official ballots, a P.O. box, some water district staff and a restriction that excludes many voters from participating.

In San Luis Obispo County one could easily get the impression that election inconsistencies are just about the only constancy….

The Air Pollution Control District of SLO County meets on June 18. It will present its annual budget of $7,346,095 and offer up its annual report which reads in part:

South County air quality continues to be impacted by dust from the Oceano Dunes State Vehicle Recreation Area (ODSVRA), but the situation continues to improve. While the federal PM10 standard was not exceeded anywhere in 2024, the more stringent state standard was exceeded on 20 days, with most due to windblown dust. This is the fewest annual exceedances since daily monitoring began. For the first time all sites in San Luis Obispo County had an annual average under the State annual standard. In addition, the Rule 1001 performance standard was violated 10 times during 2024—an improvement from the 11 violations in 2023.

There were no exceedances of the standards for nitrogen dioxide or sulfur dioxide at any stations this year.

Looks like generally great news. What the report doesn’t say is how much of the south county dust originates from sources other than the Oceano Dunes State Recreational Area. This is important information as many environmental groups, and even a state agency, seek to close the dunes for off road recreation and overnight camping, Their main argument is that those activities generate too much dust which gets blown into residential areas inland of the dunes. Many, however, argue that the dust comes from several sources beyond just off road recreation.