There's an Elephant in the Room

For the last two weeks at the Monday briefings our county commissioners have been discussing the guidance for the 2011 budget.

As I mentioned last week, Tim wants to start out with a goal of $22.9M which is $.5M less than budgeted in 2010. Tim's reasoning is that union contracts still must be settled and they've got to figure out how to fund within a flat revenue stream. Lynda wants to do a zero based budget and scrutinize every expenditure thereby finding savings. Tim and Lynda reiterated their positions again yesterday at the briefings. Saying as little as possible, Ross appears to be going along with Lynda on this specific budget issue.

Here's what I see as a reality that must be dealt with head on in the Mason County 2011 budget development process.

Let me paint the picture. Currently for the County General Fund we spend 73% of our total funding for personnel salaries and benefits. But that's not enough for the current staffing of about 350 employees. There are three problems that I see which need some fix'n starting with the 2011 budget if we are to hold the line on critical services. These three problems are Accrued Leave Fund, retirement contributions, and union contract settlements.

As I've mentioned many times in this blog our BOCC has ignored the Accrued Leave Fund. There's a shortfall there of at least $1M. This fund pays for the unpaid leave days that eligible employees receive when they leave the county. Not only is it underfunded but in 2009 the BOCC actually borrowed from it and then forgave the loan. (Honest, I couldn't make this stuff up.)

Now comes the news that we have a "brewing pension problem" in Olympia which will be pushed down to the local jurisdictions. A recent Municipal Research and Services Center of Washington paper says that we can expect employer contribution rates for some employee pension plans to nearly triple over the next several years. This will most definitely put a strain on the Mason County budget. While it's true that we cannot dictate the contribution rates- in fact, the state will tell us what they are going to be. We must have a plan to absorb these rate increases not just in 2011 but for the following years as the rates continue to increase.

We know from BOCC proceedings that the Jail and Corrections Staff settlement will cost the county an additional $200K in 2011. This covers about 40 employees. There are another approximately 260 or so union employees still under negotiation. At this time of course, we don't know how much that will cost in additional salaries and benefits. But just going by what happened with the Jail and Corrections Staff, we can expect to see more than the modest $500K that Tim Sheldon has proposed to cover known or expected future liabilities.

The challenge for the county commissioners is to balance the budget while holding the line on critical services. The elephant in the room is absorbing 73% of the General Fund and that's not enough given current staffing levels and the realities that are looming ahead of us.

Ross Is In Trouble

Ross has been bugging everyone about his signs that are being stolen. That's the least of his trouble. Here's my view on how things look this Memorial Day weekend.

Let's not forget what body is the most powerful legislative authority in Mason County. That would be our Board of County Commissioners chaired this year by Commissioner Ross Gallagher. In this election year he is giving real material to those who have announced that they want his job. I'll just list a few of the more obvious recent reasons why we should be taking a serious look at those who would like to replace Ross.

1. Note the minutes of May 11 said nothing about the fact that Ross didn't allow Annette McGee to speak. See my blog posting (BOCC Meeting - May 11) for a more complete summary of the meeting where Ross refused to hear a former county commissioner to speak. Here's a link to the "official BOCC approved" minutes from that meeting: http://www.co.mason.wa.us/commissioners/Minutes_2010/2010-05-11.REG.pdf.

Why would the commissioners omit this from the minutes? Why would Ross, as chair of the board, go along with approving these minutes with this serious omission?

2. Let me answer that question. For the same reason the Board under his chairmanship needs to obfuscate the fact that Lynda and Tim are getting a 3 percent pay raise in 2011. The wording of this consent agenda item from the May 25 meeting was totally twisted to confuse us. Didn't work. We see right through what they are up to. Tim moved and Ross seconded to raise Lynda and Tim's salaries in 2011. Ross salary will stay the same at $76,083 in 2011. Why didn't Ross refuse to second?

What a deal for Lynda Ring Erickson. While she's off vacationing in Rome, she gets a pay raise but doesn't have to spend any political capital on the dirty deed.

Resolution 85-01 sets a salary increase of 3% per year for the commissioners. At this rate by 2020 we'll be paying them $102K each per year. See my blog posting "Staff Driven" from January 2010 for more on what we are getting for the salary we pay this our most powerful legislative authority.

Mason County, we need to demand a salary commission.

3. Only some resolutions in place are strictly adhered to as in the case of increasing their salaries. For the Accrued Leave Fund Resolution 62-03 set targets for funding what Lynda described as a fund to provide "a golden handshake" to county employees. It's not that golden for the taxpayers. April 2010 month end reports show the Accrued Leave Fund with a balance of $232K with an unfunded liability of $1.5M as of Dec 2008. Ross voted to adopt the 2010 budget knowing full well that this unfunded liability existed. I know this for sure because I and many others attempted to convince the BOCC to deal with this problem. Let's hope the upcoming sale of surplus property nets enough to fully fund the liability and that the commissioners deposit this in the Accrued Leave Fund.

4. And yet another reason Ross should be unelected is: We still don't have a union contract with the Sheriff's Deputies Guild and the one signed contract with the jail employees was a mess. The Board approved it without knowing what the budget impact would be. I couldn't make this stuff up.

5. Where does Ross stand on ADAGE coming to Mason County? Does anyone know? That's a question that many of us want to hear answered.

Stop looking for those signs, Ross. The signs aren't what's going to get you reelected.

Briefings - May 3

Here's a quick run down on what happened at the county commissioners' briefings. All three commissioners were in attendance. There was no media coverage.

1. Union Contracts. Recall on April 6 the commissioners voted to approve the settlement of the contract with the jail and corrections facility staff. At that time I asked what the 2010 budget impact would be. I got a vague answer from Monty Cobb (who just happens to be an attorney working in the Prosecutor's Office and, oh by the way, is running for Prosecutor this election coming up). He said that there was no specific dollar amount at that time. He expected a 1% to 6.5% increase and for each percent we could expect to see a $15K increase in salaries. He surmised somewhere around $65K after the salary survey had been completed.

Well today the Auditor came in to break the news on what the real deal is. In 2010 it's going to cost the county an additional $95K in salaries and benefits but for 2011 it will be over $200K plus an expected increase in pension costs. This is for 42 employees. The county still must settle with the other unions - another 300 or so employees.

Today the commissioners decided to send a memo to the Sheriff telling him to absorb the salary and benefit increases which the commissioners had approved.

This is almost like a kabuki dance.

The real problem rests squarely in the commissioners' laps. I asked were they surprised at how much of an increase they'd approved for this one bargaining unit and both Lynda and Tim said they were surprised. I didn't ask Ross because he's admitted he signs stuff without reading. He's on record the fall of 2009 stating that he signed without reading the settlement to the Unfair Labor Practice with the Deputies. Honestly, if you gave the Board a ham sandwich on some days I believe they'd sign it.

2. Noise Control. Tomorrow there's a public hearing to revise the Mason County Code, Title 9, Section 9.36. Barbara Adkins advised the commissioners that tomorrow the folks opposed to a race track coming to Mason County would likely show up. She went on to say that this could be a challenge for the Board and that they should emphasize to the public that the purpose for revising this code was merely to allow the county to have more "flexibility".

3. School Impact Fees. The Planning Advisory Commission (PAC) asked the Board to schedule more public meetings on the topic of impact fees as proposed by several local school superintendents. Lynda said, "We delegate to the PAC. They don't delegate to the Board." So there, PAC, go deal with it. The Board wants to see an up or down vote by the PAC. But why would the PAC do that when both Tim and Ross say it's a dead issue? There will be no public meetings or public hearings on impact fees. I'll bet the supervisors are surprised since they thought both Lynda and Ross were going to support the impact fees. Ross could afford to support this initiative when he was running unopposed. New day in Mason County for Ross Gallagher - some one else is after his job.

4. Storm Water Task Force. I'll bet you thought 29 people was a large enough committee to study storm water but you and I would have thought wrong. Today the commissioners deliberated bringing another member aboard, Gary Yando. Gary, if you're reading this you might want to listen to the tape of today's briefings prior to joining up. I didn't get the impression you'd be welcome. One who shall remain nameless has a problem with your management style while two commissioners have "reservations" about bringing you in to the taskforce. Egads. Enough said.

5. Sale of Surplus Property and Accrued Leave Fund. On tomorrow's BOCC agenda we find that the county is holding a public hearing to declare 28 parcels as surplus which should bring in to the county coffers over $1M. After paying off any delinquent property tax obligations and reimbursing the Road Fund for their expenses, the remaining dollars will be placed in the Accrued Leave Fund per county Resolution 70.04. Public Works came to the commissioners today to make sure they wanted to put this money into the Accrued Leave Fund or did they want to change the resolution so the dollars could go elsewhere? Tim says we have to put it into the Accrued Leave Fund because there's this one retired budget analyst who has expressed continued concern about this unfunded liability. Thanks a bunch, Tim.

Why aren't there more of us tearing into these meetings? If for nothing more than the entertainment value, they are worth the price of admission.

That's all, Mason County.

BOCC Meeting - April 13

All three commissioners were in attendance. Just one issue to cover this week from the Board meeting.

Accrued Leave Fund: Our county commissioners are treating this fund the same way the Federal government balances its budget: pushing what's owed to the future. I refer to this as the "Scarlett O'Hara approach" to public policy.

On yesterday's agenda the commissioners approved the revision of the county personnel policy by discontinuing the payment of unused sick leave for employees who are going off the rolls. This policy change will not apply to current employees but will apply to non-union employees hired after April 13. At this time non-union employees account for less than 25% of total county staffing. The cows are out of the barn and our commissioners are swatting at flies by just revising the county's personnel policy.

Lynda Ring Erickson did not want to allow my questions about how the BOCC is ignoring Mason County Resolution 70-04 which established a target schedule for fully funding this liability which for Dec 31, 2009 came to $3.3M of which $2.3M is for Current Expense or General Fund employees. Since Dec 2008 this unfunded liability has increased by $800K. We're heading in the wrong direction.

The target schedule which the commissioners continue to ignore requires 2010 Accrued Leave Fund to be funded at 75% of what we owed employees at the end of 2008. Instead of the mere $355K provided by the commissioners in the 2010 budget, the target schedule would have this account funded at $1.2M. Quite a difference there.

At the end of March with one fourth of the year lapsed, we'd already spent more than one third of the money set aside for 2010. It appears that just looking at this on a straight line basis, the $355K amount budgeted will not be enough to cover money owed to terminated employees for this year.

It's not hard to figure out why Lynda Ring Erickson didn't want to talk about this problem yesterday. That's what Scarlett O'Hara would have done also.

One Citizen's Priority List for 2010

As we start this new year, there is some unfinished business that I'd like to see resolved by our county legislative authority.

1. Settling the contracts with 10 of 11 bargaining units must be given a top priority. The commissioners may not like working with unions but they are a fact of life in the county and must be dealt with.

2. Holding a budget workshop that focuses on the Belfair Waste Water Treatment Facitlity. This one project constitutes more than one third of the county's total 2010 budget. And the citizens and taxpayers were not provided detailed information on this project prior to the Dec 7, 2009 budget hearing. Now we need to hear the plan for how they are going to spend this money.

3. Developing and adopting comprehensive procedures for the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee is important because there is a loss of public trust associated with this fund. Standard procedures must be adopted that will eliminate any appearance of a conflict of interest and include clear criteria for accepting or rejecting proposals to enhance tourism in the county.

4. Selecting and purchasing a replacement for the obsolete financial software currently being used by the Auditor's office would go a long way toward increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of how our tax dollars are received and spent. The commissioners' have given Public Works the green light to purchase new financial software for their use. It sure appears to me they have the cart before the horse. Let's get the overall county system in place first or do both Public Works and the Auditor's office all at the same time.

5. Returning the $200K taken from the Mental Health Fund in 2009 in order to run the day to day business of the county. The transfer of this money continues to be scrutinized by the State Auditor's office. These dollars were set aside to help those who have nearly no advocates in this county. The same authority to put the revenue into the Mental Health Fund is the same authority used for collecting revenue for the Veteran's Fund - a fund with outspoken advocates. No one would propose taking precious funding from Veterans.

6. Fixing the Accrued Leave Balance Fund so that it is sustainable. Mason County citizens have an unfunded bill hanging over our heads in excess of $2M. This has been allowed to occur by our commissioners even while they violated a county resolution that requires them to be on track to get this 100% funded.

This is my short list of priorities for the Board of County Commissioners. When you see the commissioners, ask them what their plans are for the new year.