Op-Ed: County Cuts $2.6 Million, But Does Anyone Care?

In what can be described as one of the most bizarre county budget hearings in the last 35 years, the Marin County Board of Supervisors last week reduced the county budget by $2.6 million.

What made the budget talks bizarre is that only three members of the public testified during the nine-hour process. What made the hearings more striking is that in the entire nine hours of discussion, not one of the county department heads made a request for deferral or argued with the county administrator's recommendations that were finally adopted, with Supervisor Judy Arnold of Novato actually halfway out the door to another meeting.

The supervisors' actions, and the lack of departmental concern, leaves the question of how much more can be cut in the future with no one noticing it! Granted that most of the cut positions were vacant, paperwork procedures were adjusted, and more work will be brought back in-house. Still there was something missing: either this bodes well for Marin, or the supervisors are not getting the whole story.

The process might best be described as a small academy rewards ceremony. After a short introduction by County Administrator Matthew Hymel, each department head came forward to be welcomed by the board, sometimes with levity. Each was given 10 minutes (board Chair Susan Adams operated an hourglass) to read from a script that had been outlined for them that seemed to describe all the good that had occurred in their department, and finished up with how they expect to deal with any cuts that come down. If there was a PowerPoint presentation, Hymel controlled the clicker.

One of the most striking presentations was made by county health services chief Larry Meredith, who spoke at great length about how his staff is successfully transferring the county’s OB-GYN clinic to the Marin Community Clinic, because the Community Clinic is qualified for federal funding. (This funding opportunity has been available for more than a decade.) Staff will be transferred over with the clinic. There was no mention of any county benefits that might also be transferred. Curiously enough, Meredith made no mention of increasing child abuse referrals, possible reductions to the wages paid to in-home support workers, devolution of child welfare programs to the county, or the state of mental health crises services.

Meredith’s presentation was not unlike all the other presentations by county department heads. All were full of accolades to their staff, most often singling out their assistants or other staff members who were in the audience to support their director’s presentations. When it came time for the supervisors to drill down with questions regarding the $400 million budget, softballs were lobed to the staff and they were loudly praised for being a part of the team and the county family. 

The most stinging interaction came in the afternoon when Supervisor Steve Kinsey wondered aloud if the community development staff  and the commission were taking way too much time and energy in reviewing planning applications. (Apparently this concern came from numerous project applicants, who have complained over the lengthy processes that deal with insignificant issues.) The much-missed former Supervisor Charles McGlashan, in one of his last board meetings, agreed with Kinsey’s comment, but that was the end of the matter. The lovefest went on for the next two days.

The most interesting and productive event of the three days was the appearance of Supervisor Hal Brown, who has been absent due to illness since January. On Tuesday, a regular meeting day, Brown appeared and spoke on the matter of the Planning Commission nominations before the board. He railed against the amount of time and energy that applicants have to expend when working toward a building permit from the county. The board re-appointed two incumbents, Katie Crecelius and Mark Ginalski, to the commission, but the matter had been openly surfaced by the board. 

Wednesday’s budget meeting was essentially a repeat of Monday’s softball game. While everybody was happy, there was some twinge of regret expressed over the departure of Joan Brown in June, who heads up the county’s volunteer program, which provides $10 million each year in valuable volunteer service to many county departments. When asked how that energy and time would be replaced, the head of human resources stated that the work would fall to her supervisor. No further probing took place.

Perhaps the orchestration of the meetings really demonstrates that Marin is indeed on top of all situations at the state level and everything is under control. If so, we are indeed lucky here in the county. The major gap in the whole process is the clear lack of public interest and concern on the part of Marin’s 250,000 residents, who did not raise their questions or their voices. If they speak up when it is too late, then, well, it's too late.