Citizens Advisory Committee backs Measure Z Option 1, prioritizing fire and school resource officer funding

The Humboldt County Citizens Advisory Committee voted to adopt the ad hoc committees recommended Measure Z three-year spending plan (Option 1), a proposal that reassigns $400,000 in public-works funding and shifts more recurring support toward county public-safety departments while reducing the application pool available to community partners.

County staff presented three options for how to treat the $400,000 that had been part of a public-works allocation. Under Option 1, $200,000 would be allocated to Fortuna to fund a school resource officer (SRO) and related drug-task-force support, an additional $500,000 in one-time funding would be staged to bring automatic fire funding toward a $1,500,000 goal, and several county departments would receive adjusted automatic allocations (staff cited district attorney $1,680,000; probation $625,000; DHHS $937,000). Staff said these recommended adjustments would start the plan around an 82% county / 18% community partners split (projected to change when one-time money is factored in), short of the committees 70/30 preference.

Committee members debated trade-offs between guaranteeing historically funded positions and preserving application opportunities for other community partners. Speaker 9 warned against elevating past priorities into new permanent commitments amid volatile revenue and inflation; the sheriff urged caution, saying "we're gonna have deputy sheriffs be cut because this committee decided" to freeze county lines and estimating the sheriff's office could lose about $350,000 and 41 Measure Z–funded positions if budgets are reduced.

Public commenters included Ryan Zamora, CEO of Kamau Medical Center, who said long drive times and high maintenance costs make ambulance service to Willow Creek expensive, and Russ Brown, Fortuna fire chief and president of the Humboldt County Fire Chiefs Association, who asked for clearer, guaranteed numbers for fire funding rather than contingent allocations.

After public comment and staff clarifications that the base fire allocation (about $1,006,000) would not change, committee member (speaker 6) moved to adopt Recommendation 1; member (speaker 4) seconded. The committee conducted a roll-call voice vote with these recorded positions: Mr. Cole No; Miss Miller No; Miss Campbell Yes; Miss Trent Yes; Mr. Furrabin Yes; Chief Pate Yes; Sheriff Yes; Miss Long Yes. The motion passed and will be transmitted to the Board of Supervisors, which holds final appropriation authority.

The committee noted staff assumptions — a flat revenue projection, a $864,000 reserve, and that any additional automatic transfers to fire would occur only as revenues materialize — and directed staff to proceed with the recommended plan for consideration by the Board of Supervisors.