Fresno County approves $5.3 billion budget in new hearing process

Amid the uncertainty of federal funding cuts, the Fresno County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved on Monday a $5.3 billion budget for the next fiscal year.

There were no amendments made during Monday’s budget hearings. 

The tone of the budget was “uncertainty,” as County Administrative Officer Paul Nerland put it in his budget document, as projected federal funding cuts and shifting state policies made balancing the budget a challenge this year. 

The county penciled down a loss of about $14.5 million in federal funding, a 2% decrease from last year’s contribution. A large sum of that contribution is in limbo in an ongoing court challenge.  

Those losses were compounded by stagnating revenues at the local level, which county leaders say are not doing enough to keep up with rising costs — like a $3 million contribution toward the county’s Animal Control Service and $8 million toward a recently agreed-to contract for the county’s roughly 25,000 In-Home Supportive Services workers.

The county’s property tax revenue did increase. However, that was negated with the flattening of other reliable sources of income, like their sales tax returns. The county has not seen an increase in Proposition 172 sales tax revenues since the 2023 fiscal year. 

The fiscal climate led to decreased expenses from the county’s departments in this budget, and even led to the use of some one-time money reserves — like American Rescue Plan Act funding. Nerland said that departments, on average, cut their expenses by 5% this year. He said there were no practical ways to get more funding. 

“As I talked to departments leading up to these hearings, I emphasized one thing…” Nerland said, “the only place that we have to get it from is another department or more one-time dollars.”

Despite passing a balanced budget this year, Nerland warned county staff and leadership that estimates based on current projections from the federal and state government could lead to fiscal losses of one trillion over the next 10 years, “when it comes to services that we may need to be involved in giving.”

Despite efforts to increase public engagement with the county budget process, no members of the public commented on the budget at Monday’s hearing from the county’s constituency of over 1.1 million.

District Attorney’s office concerned about retention

Steve Wright, an assistant district attorney at the DA’s office, said that the department has faced issues with increased case load and attrition. They currently have 13 vacancies. 

“We have an all hands on deck situation in the office where each of the chief deputy DAs, assistant DAs and the elected DA, Ms. Smittcamp — all of which have been traditionally administrative-only positions — are now carrying caseloads and covering more calendars,” Wright said. 

Wright said the situation has led to a lower quality of administrative work, and in some cases, a total stoppage of managerial duties. 

He added that the wages at the district attorney office are not adequate to attract and keep workers. Four district attorneys left the office to work for the Fresno City Attorney’s office — a move that led them to get raises ranging from $30,000-to-$50,000, according to Wright. 

Supervisor Garry Bredefeld said at the hearing that he hopes the DA’s office could start engaging in an “honest dialogue” with the county about how much money and resources they would need to plug up the attrition issues. He also recommended staff look at the salaries of comparably-sized counties as a starting point.

The district attorney’s office was one of eight departments that presented their budget plans on Monday, a departure from their usual hearing procedure. 

The Fresno County Sheriff’s budget grew by $40 million for the next fiscal year. Most of that money will be going toward covering overtime and extra help pay. 

Fresno County Sheriff John Zanoni acknowledged the high cost of these services, but said that the amount was “realistic” given the rigors of the work. As an example, Zanoni said how the Salt Fire and Garnet Fire are separated by about 150 miles, yet his officers are expected to assist in both.

“I know the overtime number is a high number,” Zanoni said. “But what I was told by many of you and everybody is we wanted to have a realistic number based on where we’re at from last year, and I believe that is a realistic number.”

Fresno County Behavioral Health director Susan Holt, whose department has the most funding in this year’s budget, said this next year would be one of “deep preparation,” as state policies force them to start planning for many new services. 

The department will need to start implementing changes for the Behavioral Health Services Act by July 2026. The CAO is expected to approve a plan by next March, with the board expected to see the plan in June.

Holt said their department is also seeing the effects of “industry-wide” hiring issues, in spite of their pay being “at, or near, best in the Valley.”

While some of those issues could be solved with Proposition 1 funding, control of that money has been transferred from the counties to the state, leading to uncertainty.

The department most affected by federal funding cuts was the Department of Social Services, which shared a timeline detailing the many expected changes coming to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

Many of those changes, however, are not expected to kick in until next year at the earliest, adding to countywide uncertainty. 

The new budget process is ‘a win for the public,’  says one supervisor

The eight scheduled presentations took about two-and-a-half hours to complete. The $5.3 billion fiscal plan was approved in about eight minutes following the end of presentations. 

The supervisors made no motions on Monday to change Nerland’s plan, published last month.

The eight scheduled department presentations on Monday were chosen based on relative importance, including those in justice services, human services and land use and development. 

That move, along with the promise of an extension to the county’s traditionally rigid public comment period, were done as a way to increase transparency and entice more county residents to participate in the budget hearing process.

Those moves also came largely from freshman supervisor Bredefeld, who during his campaign last year and in some of the board’s open sessions has called for these additions to the budget process.

He told Fresnoland on Monday that he thought the process went “very well” and that he was “appreciative” to see the department presentations added to the budget hearings. 

Many department presentations did not go over 20 minutes in time, but Bredefeld said that many discussions on the budget happened with Nerland during his crafting of the fiscal plan. He also noted that one supervisor could not ask questions on Monday.

Supervisor Brian Pacheco was not in attendance for the hearing, following an announcement at last week’s board meeting that he would be busy with a “family obligation.” 

Bredefeld said that he thinks most residents are used to showing up to the Fresno City Council’s budget hearings, a learned behavior that hasn’t translated to this year’s county hearing. 

He said, “I think more people are used to coming to the City of Fresno’s council meetings than they are to the county budget, and that’s understandable because I think for people within the city, a lot of the needs are met and approved with the city budget, as opposed to the county budget.” 

He added, “but I look forward to having more people coming to the county in the future.”

Only one member of the public spoke during public comment — on a matter unrelated to the county budget. 

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported that the Sheriff’s office would be receiving money to cover last year’s overtime expenses. The money will be used to cover overtime costs in the coming fiscal year. This story has been corrected.