Valerie shares County's new strategy

District 1 Supervisor Valerie Brown held a town hall meeting Tuesday evening. About 40 people attended the event in Andrews Hall at the Sonoma Community Center.
Accompanied by County Administrator Bob Deis, Brown made a short presentation on the draft strategic plan adopted by the Board of Supervisors lat month. “With 1400 miles of roads, one million acres and a half million people… it’s an awesome responsibility to look at the county as a whole,” Brown said. “Everyone’s needs are so different.”
This is the first such plan the county has undertaken, beginning the process in 2005. Meetings of this type are being held in other parts of the county. Fiscal pressures are largely responsible for the effort. The county’s population has grown over the last few decades and its demographics have changed. The growth in county services has exceeded the growth in revenues available to fund those services.
Deis told the audience that, even with its $1.2 billion budget and some 5,000 employees, the county is still seemingly “an invisible form of government.” He said, “Most people don’t know what we do. We’re the largest employer in the county.” Reportedly, half of the county’s budget is dedicated to Health and Human Services, with one out of every nine residents receiving some form of economic assistance.
Another 20 percent of the county’s budget is spent on roads, parks, sheriffs, elections and the collection of property taxes, while the remaining 30 percent is allocated for the criminal justice department, including but not limited to the district attorneys, public defenders, jails and probation departments. The county makes about 20,000 criminal booking each year, representing one out of every 24 residents. (The ratio for the city of Sonoma was slightly better, at one booking for every 28 residents.)
Deis said that county revenue comes from just 27 cents of each dollar of property tax paid by county residents. He challenged the audience to find out where the remaining 73 cents of the property taxes go, after they are collected by the state. The county’s Web site gives that breakdown: 53 cents to the public schools, 11 percent to incorporated cities, and 9 percent to special districts (fire, recreation, etc).
A number of questions from the audience were fielded, although even listening to all the questions would have taken the meeting well past its 9 p.m. ending time. The questions that were asked generally pertained to issues of most concern in Sonoma Valley, including health care, crime prevention, affordable housing, water and waste, senior services, and Springs improvements.
Brown is standing for re-election this fall. Her challenger, David Reber, was in attendance but did not speak.