Fiscal Responsibility

By David Rabbitt

When I entered office, county budgets were out of balance with year over year deficits, now 3 1/2 years later, budgets are balanced and we are forecasting 5 years of surpluses because difficult but prudent and timely decisions were made by the Board of Supervisors.

The Board of Supervisors made difficult but prudent and timely decisions in order to recover as quickly as possible.

Now, in my fourth year in office, through fiscal discipline and the commitment to live within our means and by adopting responsible budgets, the great recession is behind us. We have gone from year over year deficits to forecasting surpluses into the future.

I have been a strong voice and advocate for implementing policies such as:

Debt Policy- believe it or not, the County never had one. This policy ensures the County will only incur debt within certain parameters and conditions and sets limits. This policy makes us financially stronger.

Reserve Policy- again, never had one on paper but this policy addresses what level of reserves should be held in several restricted and unrestricted accounts. This policy makes us financially stronger.

Internal Audit Committee- formed in conjunction with our Auditor-Controller-Treasurer-Tax Collector to ensure proper use and protection of taxpayer funds throughout the County's 26 departments. This action made us financially stronger.

Compilation of Fund Balances was requested by the Board for the first time in memory to account for carry-over balances within each department. This action made us financially stronger.

The Board of Supervisors adopted and implemented a Jobs Plan which focused on getting Sonoma County residents back to work and as a result, Sonoma County led the State of California in job growth.

Through my leadership, the County adopted and implemented the Pension Reform Plan I co-authored. The plan, to date, will yield $170 million in cumulative pension savings over the next ten years and shift more costs to employees. In addition, we adopted a new tier of lower benefits which now covers over 11% of the workforce (in only a little over a year of implementation). Because of these reforms, Sonoma County's annual pension contribution will decrease by $4.5 million and our funding ratio on a Market Value increased over 9 percentage points to a 90% funded ratio. During my tenure as a Trustee for the Sonoma County Employee Retirement Association we lowered the assumed earnings rate from 8% to 7 1/2% and reduced risk within the system overall.

Through my leadership as Chair, the County of Sonoma successfully negotiated compensation reductions and signed agreements with all of our labor groups. Concession bargaining is difficult and I know of no other county that has successfully accomplished such a task without ending up in impasse. While our employees played a big role in that, it was because the Board was transparent and clear about the fiscal condition of the county and pointed to where we needed to go.

Now, with the recession behind us, and job growth continuing and our revenue increasing, we need to remain disciplined and smart in how we go about our business and how we provide services to Sonoma County residents.

At a time when many jurisdictions are still feeling the financial effects of the recession, the County of Sonoma's bond rating was upgraded by Standard & Poor's. A clear indication that the financial world appreciated the leadership and hard work of the county getting its finances in order. Standard & Poor's noted the county's strong economy; stable valuations; strong budgetary performance; General Fund reserves at 23% of Operating Expenditures; General Fund posting surpluses (fund carryover) for the last 3 years; very strong liquidity; strong cash flow to cover debt service and expenditures; very strong management conditions with strong financial policies, procedures; strong debt & contingent liabilities profile with no additional debt plans.

I am proud to say that my leadership in all of these areas was recognized by the Sonoma County Taxpayer's Association with the 2013 Spencer Flournoy Good Governance Award.