LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Board of Supervisors on Wednesday unanimously accepted a new fiscal year budget meant to maintain service levels to the community while, at the same time, providing the basis for the next phase of recovery in the wake of the Valley fire and other wildland fires.

The final budget the board approved on Wednesday afternoon totaled approximately $219,631,575, up nearly $16 million from last year thanks to one-time funding for Valley fire recovery projects, along with state and federal funding for the county's Social Services and Behavioral Health, according to County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson.

The budget includes salaries and benefits totaling $78,646,226 and $82,842,838 in services and other supplies. The general fund appropriation is $55 million, down from $60 million the previous year.

Based on a review of county documents, the 2016-17 budget appears to be the largest in Lake County’s history.

The budget documents as presented for Wednesday's meeting can be found at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Boards/Board_of_Supervisors/calendar.htm .

The Board of Supervisors spent much of Wednesday in hearings on the 2016-17 final recommended budget, with the nearly six-and-a-half-hour meeting wrapping up mid-afternoon.

During the course of the hearings they reviewed all of the county departments' proposed budgets, which county administrative staff and department heads have worked to refine over the last several months.

In addition to approving the resolution that adopted the new fiscal year budget, the board also unanimously accepted resolutions establishing position allocations for fiscal year 2016-17 and continuing a general hiring freeze, delegating to Huchingson the authority to waive the freeze when she deems it appropriate.

Huchingson said the budget includes approximately 1,010.25 full-time equivalent positions, an increase of 10 full-time equivalents over last year's budget. At the same time, the number of jobs supported by the general fund dropped by 13.5 full-time equivalents.

The change in job numbers is primarily related to disaster response and recovery, said Huchingson, and includes a new Office of Emergency Services assistant and essential positions at Community Development to support the rebuilding effort in the burn areas.

This was Huchingson's first time preparing the countywide budget, having taken over the county administrative officer job in April.

She gave credit to department heads for their willingness to make tough decisions about their budgets, many of which underwent serious cuts between the June acceptance by the board of the recommended budget and the final document approved on Wednesday.

Huchingson had important help from another source as well in the form of one of her predecessors, Kelly Cox.

Cox retired from the county administrative officer post in 2012 after holding the job for more than three decades. He volunteered his time and brought his institutional memory to assist Huchingson in planning for what she has said she believes will be one of the most challenging budget years in the county's history because of the impact of the wildland fires, in particular, the Valley fire.

Balancing recovery, ongoing responsibilities

The Valley fire is a key consideration in the budget document, with its impacts felt across the county departments. At the same time, county staffers are being asked to maintain service levels while facing less funding.

Huchingson said that in meeting with department heads during the process to finalize the budget, she had to tell them that even though the impacts of the county's wildland fires could have been worse, “they are still worse than we thought they were in June,” when the recommended budget was presented to the board.

As Huchingson and her staff prepared the final budget document, they went back to the department heads seeking further cuts.

At the same time, she said county administrative staff focused on the board's short- and long-term priorities, on maintaining existing service levels, and stabilization of the county workforce and economy, which are tied together.

Still to be fully understood are the impacts of August's Clayton fire, which Huchingson anticipated will be far less overall than the Valley fire. She said the recovery process for the Clayton fire isn't yet fully budgeted, and she expects midyear budget adjustments will be needed to address that.

During Wednesday's hearings, Huchingson asked Assessor-Record Richard Ford to offer his thoughts on possible property value changes that may result from the Clayton fire. Ford, however, said he wasn't yet prepared to get into numbers, as it will be several months before he and his staff can compile the change in property values, which in turn will affect property tax revenue.

Huchingson said county staff recently submitted a detailed plea to the state of California asking for additional assistance to address the wildland fire recovery. “No other small county has been impacted the way Lake County has due to the recent disasters.”

She said that, so far, the discussions with the state have been positive, although it appears that the extent of state aid in the case of the Clayton fire will be limited to the debris cleanup.

As for the property tax changes due to the Valley fire, Huchingson's chief deputy county administrative officer, Jeff Rein, said that the county lost $1.7 million out of the $20.6 million in property tax it collects annually, which constitutes an 8.75-percent drop. The county lost another $300,000 in property tax for reasons unrelated to the Valley fire.

Also taking a hit was the county's transient occupancy tax – or bed tax – as a result of the destruction of Harbin Hot Springs in the fire. Huchingson said the resort now has its permits and is preparing to rebuild.

Huchingson said TOT estimates are up and down because of the surge of first responders staying in hotels after the fire. The county also is making an effort to collect from individuals renting rooms or homes through services like Airbnb.

Earlier this year, Lake County's representatives in the state Legislature, Assemblyman Bill Dodd and Sen. Mike McGuire, secured $1.3 million to cover lost property, sales and bed tax revenue for Lake County because of the Valley fire. Gov. Jerry Brown included it in his final budget.

Huchingson said the county will need to claim all of that backfill money. “It's a lifesaver.”

Impacts on Special Districts, parks

There are a broad range of other Valley fire-related concerns county departments are facing in the coming year.

For Lake County Special Districts, the work is moving forward on a sewer system project to allow rebuilding in the Anderson Springs community, where 90 percent of the nearly 200 homes were destroyed.

“The homes in Anderson Springs cannot be built without that system,” said Special Districts Administrator Jan Coppinger.

Coppinger's department also oversees the Starview water system, much of which was lost in the fire. She said that system now has 23 customers, down from 148. Rebuilding the system is estimated to cost $1.9 million, much of which will be funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

A rate increase also is needed for Special Districts customers in Middletown, and one had been planned before the Valley fire. Coppinger said that they've held off because of the fire, which has reduced the customer base and significantly impacted revenue.

In the Public Services Department, Director Lars Ewing said his staff is working on a master plan for replanting and restoring Middletown Trailside Park.

The 107-acre park, which sits along Highway 175, is not the same park as it was, said Ewing. That's because it has lost almost all of its trees, which were burned in the Valley fire and now are being cut down.

He said that until the master plan is completed, there won't be a dollar value estimate for restoring the park.

Both Huchingson and Cathy Saderlund, the county’s auditor-clerk-controller, told Lake County News following the meeting that Valley fire-related issues, and the costs to the county, are still being determined.

“They're still so rough and they will be for years to come,” Saderlund said of the budget numbers relating to recovery.

Huchingson said that, early on, debris cleanup seemed like the biggest issue, but as it's evolving, that has been supplanted by the need to have Community Development ready and able to meet the needs of fire area residents seeking permits to rebuild. That department is now in the process of filling two additional positions that were allocated to it last year.

Rebuilding roads in the Valley fire also will be a substantial project, but Huchingson said it's premature to pursue that aspect of recovery just yet, with the situation likely to become clearer in another year.

“It's beginning to take more accurate shape,” she said of the fire's overall, long-term impact.

Looking ahead, Huchingson told the board during Wednesday's hearings that that she wants to consider doing the budget process in a different way, one that would give department heads the opportunity to have an exchange with the board about priorities.

She told Lake County News that her reason for wanting to explore a different approach is that it would be good for department heads to get policy direction on certain issues from the board.

Huchingson said she's looking at how other counties conduct their hearings and considering how to work more strategic planning into the process.

The board and Huchingson on Wednesday were unanimous in their praise for county staffers and how they have responded to the fires of the past year.

Board Chair Rob Brown and fellow board members took time during the hearings to personally thank the department heads and to single out for particular mention staff they felt had gone well beyond the expectations of their jobs in the fire response and the recovery process that's now taking place.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.