Mendocino supervisors move CEO—s proposed FY2025-26 budget forward, warned of $16 million deficit next year

The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously June 3 to move the CEO—s proposed fiscal year 2025-26 budget and associated recommendations forward for the next steps in adoption, after a day-long hearing that included department-by-department presentations and questions from supervisors.

County CEO Darcy Antle said the proposed package reflects an intensive effort to balance operating needs against a multiyear structural shortfall that the county is only beginning to address. "We—ve probably been in a structural deficit at least a decade," Antle told the board; she added the county faces a projected shortfall of about "$16,000,000" going into fiscal year 2026-27.

The CEO—s proposal reduces departmental requests, uses one-time funds to balance the 2025-26 budget, and asks the board to direct staff to return with formal adoption materials. Under the proposal, general-fund departments would have a combined Net County Cost of roughly $90,100,000, against about $84,000,000 in non-departmental revenue; the $6.1 million gap would be covered by one-time reserves and carryforward. Antle and budget staff also presented an illustrative "plus-one" outlook showing an estimated $16 million gap for 2026-27 if current trends hold.

Why it matters: the board—s vote lets staff finalize documents required for formal adoption, but supervisors and department heads warned the work to close the longer-term gap will need policy decisions and continued collaboration. Several department heads urged careful prioritization so mandated public-safety and social-service obligations are not unintentionally weakened.

What the plan uses and leaves for later - One-time funds proposed to balance 2025-26 include a retirement/Pension Obligation Bond contribution of about $3.29 million, $1 million from 2023-24 carryforward, a $1 million mental-health audit reserve used toward landfill closure backfill, $533,610 in PG&E Emergency Operations funds, $325,844 in a TETR reserve and other smaller items. Budget staff said most one-time funds are tied to one-time expenses and will not be used for ongoing costs. - Countywide vacancy/turnover assumptions: budget staff applied a countywide 6% turnover-savings assumption (presented as about $6.36 million) to department salary budgets. Departments and elected officials warned that applying that uniformly produces uneven impacts because some units cannot safely absorb continued cuts without service losses.

Department heads pressed specific risks - District Attorney David Eister warned against sweeping cuts to prosecutorial resources. "If the district attorney doesn—t have the bandwidth and the resources to finish the fight, then that—s wasted money," Eister said, arguing that his office historically runs very close to budget and that cutting prosecution capacity would reduce public-safety results and victim services. - Chief Probation Officer Eisen Locatelli told the board his juvenile hall budget as proposed is lower than last year by roughly 5.3% and asked the board not to impose additional across-the-board reductions on juvenile services. "I am requesting not to go down," Locatelli said, describing mandated staffing and the high cost to send youths out of county. - Sheriff Matt Kendall said the department faces a near-term need to hire roughly 10 positions for a behavioral-health wing in the county jail and cautioned that the hiring freeze and cuts could complicate staffing that must be in place when the unit opens.

Other budget items, briefed in the hearing - Transportation and roads: the Department of Transportation briefed the board on long-range capital commitments that rely on outside grants and local matches; staff said roughly $15 million in local matches is already committed against multi-year projects and that a proposed unincorporated 1-cent sales tax estimate ranges in the ballpark of $90 million over 30 years (with a roughly 40% reduction applied if major annexations do not occur). - Health services: Dr. Janine Miller (Health Services Agency) reviewed the county—s reliance on realignment, Medi-Cal and grants, and highlighted risks from federal/state changes that could increase demand or reduce match funding. Behavioral health staff flagged possible higher costs if state conservatorship rules expand and noted investments in electronic health records and CalAIM billing that are intended to increase federal revenue over time. - Disaster recovery and FEMA: disaster-staff reported a fiscal-year-23-24 fund balance of roughly $8.6 million across multiple grants and settlement accounts but emphasized many large FEMA projects remain open and that only a modest portion of funds is immediately available for unanticipated needs.

Board direction and next steps The board voted to "move the recommended action" on the CEO—s proposed fiscal year 2025-26 budget; the motion (agenda item 4e) was moved by Supervisor Mulhern, seconded by Supervisor Klein and carried unanimously (5-0). The approved recommendations capture multiple actions: approving the department adjustments outlined in the CEO—s package; directing the auditor-controller to prepare required documents for formal adoption; asking HR to return with a revised position-allocation table; and approving specified one-time appropriations (retirement reserve, carryforward, TETR and PG&E funds) tied to one-time needs.

The board also formed an implementation ad hoc committee (Supervisors Klein and Williams) to work with the CEO—s office on near-term steps including public-safety priorities, Prop. 172 allocations and the strategic hiring process.

Ending note: the vote sends a balanced 2025-26 proposal on for formal adoption steps, but supervisors, elected officials and department heads told the board that deeper structural remedies will be needed next year to avoid cuts to core services and public safety.