Page 36 - Sonoma County Gazette Juy 2019

In mid-June, after a week of deliberation, my colleagues and I adopted
a $1.78 billion budget for Fiscal Year 2019-2020. Our deliberations were thoughtful and thorough, but the task was difficult. The Board was faced with prioritizing and aligning requests to revenues in order to adopt a structurally balanced budget in the face of recent natural disasters, increasing expenditures, and declining revenue sources. This year’s budget presented
a $14 million gap between available ongoing revenues and departmental requests for ongoing funding.
$129,000 For Small Business Flood Relief
The budget book and supplemental materials are difficult documents
for our staff to produce, and also time-consuming to read. As your elected representative, it’s critical for me to thoroughly review and absorb these documents. The nitty-gritty details provide the foundation for critical decisions on funding issues. The Board heard extensive public comments about the cuts to mental health that were proposed, and we found a path to providing gap funding through diligent research on available funding sources.
Almost immediately after the waters receded, a team came together to help small businesses get back up and running with the help of donors and local organizations.
The Board of Supervisors was faced with saving much-needed behavioral and mental health services; addressing crumbling, aged infrastructure; paying down our pension liabilities; and ensuring the County is in a fiscally safe
spot so that our local government can successfully maneuver the economic downtown that many economists fear is coming.
“Many businesses throughout the region have taken on significant economic losses due to physical damage and lack of visitors coming up post- flood. We appreciate the support from so many generous donors to help local businesses, the backbone of our economy, get back on their feet,” said Lynda Hopkins, Supervisor, Sonoma County. “And just in time for a beautiful summer season.”
The adopted 2019-2010 Fiscal Year Budget includes:
● Allocating $2.5 million in one-time funding to continue providing Peer Counseling and Family Services for the next two years;
Top donors include:
● Securing more than $3.8 million to maintain Adult Services, including residential care facilities and outpatient case management programs, which support some of the most vulnerable populations in our community;
West County Community Services, Sonoma Clean Power, Katherine Jackson, Kendall Jackson Winery, Sonoma County Vintners Foundation, and many others. Grant recipients were able to pay their lease, get new inventory, remodel and get basic needs met due to the grants.
● Enhancing public safety in partnership with the Sheriff through the funding of a $300,000 security contract for the downtown Guerneville area;
“I wish extend my deepest gratitude to all who have come forward with donations to help us small business owners here in the Lower Russian River after our flood event on 2/27/19. Your love, support and generosity is very much appreciated. This helped me pay my PGE, my phone, my water, and helped me to purchase some paper supplies to reopen Guerneville Graphics and Printing. I Thank YOU!! “ DeeDee Rydberg
● Enhancing the newly formed Department of Emergency Management with more than $3 million to invest in the creation of a comprehensive community and alert warning system;
● Supporting fire service agencies with more than $8 million, including an investment on a countywide fuels reduction campaign, and funding for cover REDCOM dispatch fees for our fire agencies; and
Village Bakery in Sebastopol, another grant recipient, told the team at the Small Business Flood Relief Fund “Pat and I are so touched and grateful to you, the Chamber and all kind-hearted donors that contributed to the grant relief fund We are truly touched and our gift will certainly help to lift us up.”
● Allocating $450,000 to repair and manage the recreational sports fishing dock at Porto Bodega.
● Earmarking $200,000 for a first payment on a lower Russian River Specific Area Plan to work with our towns to envision their future.
“The Lower Russian River and the Barlow in Sebastopol are open for business,” said Elise Van Dyne, Executive Director of the Russian River Chamber of Commerce. “Our committee has been creating awareness that the River is open across social media with the #bettertogether campaign, working with journalists that are writing stories about how quickly we’ve bounced back, and are running a TV campaign with nonprofit NorCal Public Media.
I am extremely grateful for the support, in letters, emails, public comment and more, from Fifth District constituents before and during budget hearings. Public engagement drives action and change; the more involved our pocket
of Sonoma County can be, the more we can effect change in the Fifth District. Thank you to everyone who participated in the budgeting process. We would not be where we are without every voice that chimed in.
With so much to see and do here in West County, we are encouraging visitors and locals alike to come back and enjoy the arts, activities, food, wine, and natural beauty of our rejuvenated communities.”
Public input, for example, helped shape the fee structures recently approved by the Santa Rosa Plain Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA).
In other words, we’re picking up the tab for any rural groundwater user in the Santa Rosa Plain, for the next three years.
Summer is in full swing, as is the new 2019-2020 Fiscal Year.
The approved fees, which will be assessed starting in 2022, are $19.90 per acre-foot for large groundwater users like vineyards; $1.99 per year
for urban well users and $9.95 per year for rural residential landowners. During the three planning years, the GSA will reevaluate the average water usage to ensure equity in the rate structure once fees are assigned in 2022. For more information about the Santa Rosa Plain GSA, please visit santarosaplaingroundwater.org.
Sebastopol, Russian River, Santa Rosa Chambers of Commerce, Supervisor Lynda Hopkins, & the Economic Development Board are the team created the Small Business Flood Relief Fund to help 53 Russian River and Sebastopol businesses get back on their feet after floods.
Key fundraising partners have included Rodger’s Playhaus and the Lazy Bear Fund bringing in more than $30,000 over four days of Flood Aid events. Events hosted by Kendall Jackson Winery, the Sebastopol Center for the Arts, and the Horse and Plow tasting room also drew in significant donations.
The Santa Rosa Plain GSA is a relatively new governmental agency, created in response to a state mandate ordering the county to manage water use in the Santa Rosa Plain groundwater basin. The GSA has a responsibility to make sure that clean groundwater is available to the thousands of people, farms and businesses relying on it today and in the future. To do this, the GSA needs a small, stable funding source.
Throughout the past year and a half, the GSA board has weighed many options, including a tax measure and imposing fees to fulfill state-mandated groundwater management requirements. In June, the GSA board approved a methodology that charges all groundwater users in the Santa Rosa Plan a fee based on actual or estimated groundwater use. Those fees won’t kick in for three years, however, as the County of Sonoma and Sonoma Water have both contributed money to fund the GSA through the planning process.
36 - www.sonomacountygazette.com - 7/19
Winter 2019 Monte Rio under water © Paul Miller