County finishing 2010 budgets

Wahkiakum County commissioners hope to wrap up work on the county's 2010 budgets today (Thursday).

The commission recessed its meeting Tuesday afternoon and planned to reconvene this morning at 9:30 a.m. to wrap up their budget process.

The commission opened the budget process Monday with a public hearing. Only one person, Fred Johnson, appeared. They continued work Tuesday morning, with Lisa Marsyla leading commissioners and representatives of departments on a line-by-line analysis of the Current Expense Fund, which funds most courthouse offices.

Officials said the fund started the process with a $260,000 deficit, and the commissioners' goal was to keep spending at 2009 levels as close as possible.

Officials finished work Tuesday with a deficit of $206,000.

To meet the deficit, commissioners intend to shift money from the County Road Fund levy; they were spending Wednesday studying how to make the shift and how much they'd be able to transfer, if not all.

Marsyla brought a new dimension to the budgeting process. She spent the past week inputing figures from the past nine years of budgets, including past years' actual expenses, the proposed and year-to-date numbers for 2009, and the department heads' requests for 2010.

She used the numbers to show spending trends and average expenditures over the past few years. The numbers should show line items where departments have budgeted funds but don't use them, she said.

Marsyla said that early next year she would meet individually with department heads to go over budgets line by line to get a more precise picture than she and the other officials were able to develop this week.

Marsyla and fellow Commissioners Dan Cothren and Blair Brady tried to keep a tight grip on expenditures.

Even though the sheriff's department proposed 2010 budget was lower than budgeted for 2009, they lowered a couple of lines that Sheriff Dan Bardsley had increased back to their 2009 levels.

They also resisted pleas from Assessor Sulema Zerr, Treasurer Paula Holloway and Auditor Diane Tischer to restore funding to staff positions that had been cut in 2008.

They did agree to put $3,000 in the treasurer's budget to cover vacations, but Holloway said that would be used by the end of February because of the demands of preparing and sending tax bills.

The board spent time going over the Community Outreach budget, which funds a specialist in charge of placing people in need in a variety of assistance programs such as emergency housing, rental assistance, and so on.

Health and Human Services representatives Chris Holmes and Chris Weiler noted Community Outreach would have $18,000 in new grant revenue to cover expenses; commissioners said they would allow that increase because the revenue covered the expenditure.

In the public hearing, Fred Johnson, retired county prosecuting attorney and now a deacon at St. Catherine Catholic Church, urged the commissioners to increase funding for housing and other programs that would aid poor and vulnerable citizens.

Since 2006, Johnson said, the commission has cut the Current Expense Fund contribution to Mental Health budget from $20,000 to $3,416. They've completely cut funding for the Developmental Disabilities program, and they cut Community Outreach funding.

Johnson challenged the commissioners to fund programs for the poor and vulnerable at 1 percent of the Current Expense budget; that would have been $48,858.69 in 2009. The commission could find the money in a variety of ways, he said, such as reducing fair premiums, funding some sheriff's department repair and maintenance expenses from the County Properties reserve, increasing solid waste user fees, and so on.

"You've always been a great advocate for the poor and vulnerable," said Commissioner Brady. "The governor has told us there's a $2.6 million dollar deficit. You're going to see a lot more homeless people. We need to prepare for what's coming.