To: Board of Supervisors/Directors/Commissioners
Department or Agency Name(s): County Administrator’s Office
Staff Name and Phone Number: Peter Bruland, 707-565-2431
Vote Requirement: Informational Only
Supervisorial District(s): Countywide
Title:
Title
Fiscal Year 2025-26 Budget Workshops
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Recommended Action:
Recommended action
Receive the Fiscal Year 2025-26 Department Budget Presentations
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Executive Summary:
Each year the County holds budget workshops in April. The purpose of these workshops is to provide the Board and the public with information about the Preliminary Budget for the upcoming fiscal year, and to offer an opportunity for deeper understanding of the County’s programs and services to assist the Board before deliberation and adoption of the next fiscal year’s budget at the conclusion of the June Budget Hearings. Budget decisions for Fiscal Year 2025-26 will not be made at this workshop.
The FY 2025-26 Preliminary budget includes $2.6 billion in operating expenditures funded by $2.3 billion in revenue and $306 million in use of available balances. Each department/agency will present an overview of their FY 2025-26 Preliminary Budget. After staff review, the FY 2025-26 Recommended Budget will be available online on May 12, 2025. The FY 2025-26 budget Hearings will be held beginning on June 10, 2025. At the June Budget Hearings, the Board will deliberate on adjustments to the Recommended Budget and will officially adopt the Budget for FY 2025-26.
Discussion:
Each year California counties are required to adopt balanced budgets for the fiscal year, which runs from July 1 through June 30. While budgets may be adopted up to 90 days following the start of a fiscal year, Sonoma County endeavors to adopt a budget in June, prior to the beginning of the new fiscal year. In order to ensure that the Board has the information they need to deliberate on and adopt a budget, the County has held spring budget workshops in which each department presents their budgets in advance of budget hearings since 2018.
Generally, these workshops are held in April, with Budget Hearings and adoption occurring in June. The budgets included here are referred to as the “Preliminary Budget”.
Budget Overview
The FY 2025-26 Preliminary Budget includes $2.6 billion in expenditures which is a 6.3% increase from the FY 2024-25 Adopted budget. More than two thirds of this increase is related to inclusion of funds from the Measure H Fire Services sales tax and the Measure I Childcare sales tax. These taxes are collected by the County and passed through to other entities for implementation, and do not increase discretionary funds. Individual presentations, attached to this item, cover the Preliminary Budgets for each operational department/agency.
As part of this item, the Board will hear a presentation from the Sonoma County Employee Retirement Association related to the history of past retiree ad-hoc cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) as well as a discussion of what statutes have been utilized by the County to implement ad-hoc COLAs in the past. The presentation also includes costing on scenarios that demonstrate potential fiscal impacts should cost of living adjustments be put in place for current retirees. The purpose of the presentation is to educate the Board and public regarding the County’s ad-hoc pension COLA program, to encourage discussion amongst Board members, and to gauge the Board’s interest in implementing a COLA in the future. Staff will be seeking direction from the Board regarding next steps. Should the Board direct staff to continue exploring COLA implementation, staff would need to research whether implementing potential COLA scenarios would be allowable under existing County Employment Retirement Law (CERL) and Public Employee Pension Reform Act (PEPRA) statutes and may need to pursue legislative changes at the state level. Staff would also work with SCERA’s actuary to obtain updated cost estimates, as needed. The Board will not be asked to take any action at Budget Workshops.
There are no formal budget actions associated with this item; the Board is expected to adopt the Budget, which will be made up of the Recommended Budget plus any modifications considered during budget hearings deliberations based on departmental Add-Backs, departmental Program Change Requests, Board Budget Requests, and or any other Actions at the conclusion of the June Budget Hearings.
Strategic Plan:
N/A
Racial Equity:
Was this item identified as an opportunity to apply the Racial Equity Toolkit?
No
Prior Board Actions:
June 14, 2024. Resolution 24-0255: Concurrent Resolution Of The Board Of Supervisors Of The County Of Sonoma, State Of California, and all Public Entities for which the Board Of Supervisors Acts as the Board Of Directors or Commissioners; Adopting the Fiscal Year 2024-25 Budget for all Governmental Entities within its Jurisdiction.
Fiscal Summary
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Expenditures |
FY24-25 Adopted |
FY25-26 Projected |
FY26-27 Projected |
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Additional Appropriation Requested |
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Fees/Other |
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General Fund Contingencies |
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Narrative Explanation of Fiscal Impacts:
There is no direct fiscal impact associated with the item. The Board will make final determination and adopt the FY 2025-26 Budget during the June Budget Hearings.
Staffing Impacts:
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Position Title (Payroll Classification) |
Monthly Salary Range (A-I Step) |
Additions (Number) |
Deletions (Number) |
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Narrative Explanation of Staffing Impacts (If Required):
None
Attachments:
Attachment 1 - Budget Workshop Schedule
Attachment 2 - Board Information Request Form
Attachment 3 - Preliminary Summary of Budget Change Requests
Attachment 4 - Overview Presentation
Department Presentations
Related Items “On File” with the Clerk of the Board:
None.