Board directs staff to draft balanced FY 2025–26 budget; options include hiring freeze and targeted cuts

The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors on April 8 directed county staff to draft a balanced fiscal year 2025–26 budget that starts from a baseline that does not rely on one‑time funds, and to return with specific options to close a projected $17 million shortfall.

Acting Assistant CEO Sarah Pierce told the board the county is currently projecting a roughly $17,000,000 deficit for FY 2025–26, after accounting for revenue estimates and operating transfers out. Pierce also told supervisors the county learned this week that the federal Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program — for which the county had a multiyear application and a Phase 1 award — has been canceled at the federal level. Pierce said the county has incurred about $77,000 in BRIC project costs to date and is working with state partners to determine whether any federal funds can still be recovered.

Why it matters: Supervisors and staff framed the shortfall as structural — recurring personnel and service costs outpacing flat non‑departmental revenues — and said postponing action by relying on one‑time reserves would only delay harder choices. The board asked staff to show explicitly what a budget would look like if it were balanced without one‑time funds, and to present a set of concrete options that could reasonably be…