SAN JOSE
– The Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department could lose 81
deputies if forced to make the budget reductions that have been
requested – and South County will be hit the hardest, according to
Sheriff Laurie Smith.
SAN JOSE – The Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department could lose 81 deputies if forced to make the budget reductions that have been requested – and South County will be hit the hardest, according to Sheriff Laurie Smith.
“South County would be hit substantially,” Smith said in an interview Wednesday.
County departments were asked to submit plans to administrators by Monday that identified potential cutbacks to help close the county’s budget shortfall, which could exceed $160 million.
The Sheriff’s Department has been asked to identify where it could trim up to $8 million from its $83 million budget. Roughly half of the budget comes through contracts with cities.
Wednesday, Smith said losing that much revenue would mean the loss of 81 deputies. The department has roughly 550 badged officers.
Specific impacts for South County would include reduced patrol and the loss of fish and game Warden Henry Coletto, a deputy stationed at Mt. Hamilton, rural crime enforcement and two South County special enforcement teams that specialize in prevention and liaison with other agencies.
The Sheriff will also basically have to eliminate all specialized functions, Smith said, ranging from domestic violence programs to the SCOPE program.
“South County will be hit the hardest because that’s where we’ve been able to add (resources),” Smith said. “It will mean slower response times. What residents will really not see is the specialized enforcement and the prevention efforts we do.”
The cuts would take effect in the new fiscal year July 1.
“I’m doing everything I can to convince supervisors the importance of law enforcement,” Smith said. “It’s devastating, it’s going to be very visible, and I hope we can continue our basic level of services.”
John Gibbs, chief of staff to District 1 County Supervisor Don Gage, said Wednesday that he had not yet seen Smith’s proposal, but cautioned that it comes relatively early in the budget process.
The county executive is currently working with individual county departments to prepare a proposed budget for supervisors, who will then consider it in several committee hearings and workshops over coming months before formal adoption hearings expected in June.
“It’s pretty early in the process to know what’s going to shake out,” he said.
Gage has consistently made public safety his top priority, Gibbs said, and has added deputies in South County to reduce response times here, Gibbs said.
However, the Sheriff’s department is also just one component of public safety, he said, and the reduction targets requested of that office are not out of context with those asked of other departments.
“There’s no way to pretend the cuts will be a fun process, but we’ll have to take a look at the whole package – not only from the Sheriff, but from everyone else,” Gibbs said. “Don is going to fight long and hard to make sure the gains we’ve made in response times in unincorporated areas of South County aren’t whittled away.”
County officials say direct service cuts and layoffs are certainties as a result of this year’s budget gap, which is already approaching $160 million and could be tens of millions worse depending on how the state deals with its own $30-plus billion shortfall.
Locally, tax revenues have continued to slump due to the slow economy, while employee health-care and retirement costs are on the rise.
Meanwhile, Gov. Gray Davis’ plan to balance the budget includes a proposal to strip local governments of payments that help cover the revenues they lost when the state lowered vehicle license fees.
Davis has also proposed a massive shift of state health and welfare programs to local governments that is supposed to be funded by higher taxes. But county officials and the state’s budget analyst have expressed doubt that counties would receive the amount of money they need to fully cover related expenses.
