10:00 PM PDT on Monday, September 20, 2010
By DUANE W. GANG
The Press-Enterprise
A San Bernardino County grand jury mischaracterized many of the budget numbers used in a June report detailing the growth in Board of Supervisors staff, according to the county's official response released last week.
The 2009-2010 grand jury reported that the supervisors' staffs have grown significantly in recent years and three-quarters of the money from the board's priority needs budget has gone toward salaries and not special projects.
The county is required by law to provide an official response to the annual grand jury report. In comments approved last week, the county disagreed with half of the grand jury's 12 findings on the board's discretionary budget.
"I think there was probably some disappointment that there was some misunderstanding on the grand jury's part," county spokesman David Wert said Monday.
Most of the findings the county disagreed with were because of how the grand jury characterized budget numbers, Wert said.
For example, the grand jury found that the board transferred $2.67 million from their priority needs budgets to fund additional staffing.
The priority needs budgets are accounts that individual supervisors -- with board approval -- can tap for projects within their respective districts.
But the county partially disagreed, saying that was the total budgeted for a transfer and not the actual amount spent on salaries. The actual amount was 11 percent less, the county said in its response.
"This was the result of salary savings attributable to positions that the Board left vacant in order to reduce costs," the county said.
The grand jury recommended transferring the remaining balance from the board's priority needs budget to the general fund to help offset a financial shortfall. In its response, the county said that the money was transferred prior to the release of the final grand jury report.
In another finding, the grand jury said the number of staff for the supervisors increased 63.5 percent between fiscal 2003-2004 and 2009-2010.
The county said the board's staff did increase but only by 40 percent.
Reach Duane W. Gang at 951-368-9547 or dgang@PE.com
http://www.pe.com/localnews/politics/stories/PE_News_Local_D_ngrand21.2e5ddba.html
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