Board Tentatively OKs Incomplete County Budget

The Board of Supervisors on Wednesday tentatively adopted a $2.9-billion budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. The vote was the first in a budget process that will continue into August.

The budget anticipates a $24-million deficit, which county officials hope can be erased with the distribution of state funds now being debated in Sacramento.

John Sibley, associate county administrative officer in charge of the budget, said the county hopes to learn this week whether the state Legislature will approve a block grant that could give Orange County more than $19 million.

County officials have warned about the possibility, if the grant is not approved, of drastic program cuts that could include hundreds of layoffs.

Wednesday’s vote, taken without debate, was actually a legal technicality to satisfy a law that requires the county to adopt a balanced budget by June 30, even though the county is still waiting to learn how much money it will receive from the state.

The budget adopted Wednesday--which does not fully fund all departments for the complete year--will allow the county to operate during the first weeks of the new fiscal year until a final version of the budget can be passed.

The supervisors are scheduled to hold hearings during the last week of July on the budget for the 1989-90 fiscal year. The budget must be adopted in its final form by Aug. 30.

The awkward budget schedule--in which the hearings are held after the fiscal year begins--is a frustration forced on the county because it is so dependent on state funds. The Legislature has not adopted its budget, so the county can only estimate parts of its budget.

The County Administrative Office released the proposed budget last week. The board’s vote was unanimous, with Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez absent.

In other action Wednesday, the supervisors:

- Approved new contracts with two of the county’s employee bargaining units representing about 1,100 technicians, heavy machinery operators, maintenance employees and welfare eligibility workers. Both two-year contracts, which have been ratified by the union memberships, call for a 4.3% salary increase starting Friday and another increase on June 29, 1990, that will range between 3.5% and 5% depending on the previous year’s consumer price index. In addition, the county increased its contribution to the unions’ funds for disability and life insurance.

Both contracts were scheduled to expire Friday. The contracts for two other unions--the 9,000-member Orange County Employees Assn. and the county firefighters--are also scheduled to expire Friday. Russ Patton, the county’s personnel director, would not comment on those negotiations. There are about 12,000 union employees in the county government and almost all of the contracts are scheduled to expire this year.

- Adopted a fee of $362 for a massage therapy license after the Sheriff’s Department proposed last October that the cost be raised to $939. Several massage therapists told the supervisors Wednesday, however, that the rate is still too high.

The sheriff’s proposed increase reflected the county’s new cost-recovery policy intended to prevent taxpayers from subsidizing special industries or individuals. Last October, the supervisors asked for a study of the sheriff’s proposed rate increase when dozens of Orange County massage therapists protested the rate hike in a meeting. The county auditor subsequently reviewed the actual cost for background checks and license preparations and recommended the fee be set at $362 for new permits and $218 for renewals.