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HomeMy WebLinkAbout8.8.22 Oppositions Letter AB 1608 - County officers_ consolidation of officesFrom:Hatcher, Casey To:BOS Subject:Oppositions Letter AB 1608 - County officers: consolidation of offices Date:Sunday, August 7, 2022 5:08:04 PM Attachments:AB1608OpposeLetter-Butte-080622Final.pdf 1659741189178.pdf Good afternoon Board Members Last week we learned AB 1608 would be heard by the Senate Appropriations Committee tomorrow morning. The bill prevents the Board from consolidating the Sheriff and Coroner function and could cost the County significant general fund annually to move this function or create an independent office. The Board sent an opposition letter when it was being considered in the Assembly earlier this year. Attached is a letter I submitted this afternoon to the Senate Appropriations Committee opposing the bill and providing some additional details about the fiscal impacts should the bill pass. Also attached is the opposition letter from CSAC and RCRC. I hope to have additional details about the bill during my update to the Board on Tuesday. Please contact me directly with questions. Thank you. Casey Casey Hatcher Deputy Chief Administrative Officer Butte County Administration 25 County Center Drive, Suite 200, O Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | Pinterest Butte County Administration Andy Pickett Chief Administrative Officer 25 County Center Drive, Suite 200 T: 530.552.3300 Oroville, California 95965 F: 530.538.7120 Members of the Board Bill Connelly | Debra Lucero | Tami Ritter | Tod Kimmelshue | Doug Teeter buttecounty.net/administration August 6, 2022 Honorable Senator Anthony J. Portantino Chair Senate Committee on Appropriations State Capitol, Room 412 Sacramento, CA 95814 Re: Assembly Bill 1608 (Gipson) – County officers: consolidation of offices. As amended June 30, 2022 – OPPOSE Set to be heard August 8, 2022 – Senate Appropriations Committee Dear Senator Portantino, On behalf of Butte County, I write to express opposition to AB 1608, which seeks to remove county authority to combine the duties of the Sheriff with the duties of the Coroner. The Butte County Board of Supervisors sent a letter opposing AB 1608 to State Assembly committees in May of this year. As it now stands, a county Board of Supervisors has the ability to consolidate the offices of Sheriff and Coroner into a single elected office, which is administratively efficient. The consolidation of these offices is codified in Butte County’s Charter. AB 1608 strikes the authority of Boards of Supervisors to combine the duties of the county office of the Sheriff and Coroner by way of ordinance. The proposed change would create significant costs for Butte County while removing the existing authority of this elected body. Butte County estimates adding a separate office would cost nearly $1,500,000 annually, which would divert this critical funding from other vital public services. One significant challenge for Butte County would be recruiting, hiring, and training additional full-time staff, including forensic pathologists, particularly given the acute nationwide shortage. Butte County is experiencing a 20 percent staff vacancy rate, which is the highest staff vacancy rate ever recorded for Butte County. As is the case with most county Sheriff-Coroner models, the morgue and administrative infrastructure are highly intertwined with the Sheriff’s office. Under the Sheriff-Coroner model, morgue staff, investigators, and deputy coroners also serve standard law enforcement responsibilities. Thus, by prohibiting Sheriff-Coroner consolidation, AB 1608 – once implemented – will impose significant and ongoing costs to fulfill duties formerly handled by sheriff employees assuming the positions can even be filled. The offices that AB 1608 seeks to change are already servicing the needs of the community and the County as they are established. Instead of adding confusion, by limiting a Board of Supervisors ability to consolidate the offices of Sheriff and Coroner, the decision should be left to the Board of Supervisors. This is because Butte County’s elected Board of Supervisors is the most appropriate body to evaluate the operational impacts regarding the offices of Sheriff and Coroner. For the reasons above, Butte County must respectfully oppose AB 1608 and request you vote no. Sincerely, Casey Hatcher Casey Hatcher Deputy Chief Administrative Officer Butte County cc: Members, Butte County Board of Supervisors Members and Consultant, Senate Committee on Appropriations Honorable Mike A. Gipson, California State Assembly Honorable Dr. Akilah Weber, MD, California State Assembly Honorable James Gallagher, California State Assembly Honorable Megan Dahle, California State Assembly Honorable James Nielsen, California State Senate Paul Yoder, Shaw, Yoder, Antwih, Schmelzer & Lange Inc. Rural County Representatives of California (RCRC) California State Association of Counties (CSAC) August 3, 2022 The Honorable Anthony Portantino Chair, Senate Committee on Appropriations State Capitol, Room 412 Sacramento, CA 95814 RE: Assembly Bill 1608 (Gipson) – County officers: consolidation of offices. As amended June 30, 2022 – OPPOSE Set to be heard August 8, 2022 – Senate Appropriations Committee Dear Senator Portantino, The California State Association of Counties (CSAC) and Rural County Representatives of California (RCRC) respectfully write in opposition of Assembly Bill 1608 by Assembly Member Mike Gipson. This bill would create unavoidable, significant costs to counties, while removing the existing authority of our 58 elected county boards of supervisors. AB 1608 strikes the authority of all county boards of supervisors to combine the duties of the county office of the Sheriff and Coroner by way of ordinance. Currently, 48 of the 58 counties in our state consolidate the duties of the county-elected Sheriff and the Coroner into a single office, which includes 38 of the 39 member counties of RCRC. The remaining 10 counties in California have established an independent Office of the Medical Examiner or a coroner’s office that is independent of the Sheriff’s. While AB 1608 does not expressly require counties to create an independent Office of the Medical Examiner, suburban and urban counties may do so depending on the volume of deaths reviewed by their coroner. If this action is taken, projected costs to create and sustain operations of a medical examiner’s office would be millions of dollars annually. On the other hand, for most rural counties, current coroner caseloads would simply not justify the creation of an independent medical examiner’s office or stand-alone coroner’s office. Based on a preliminary survey of counties, a few even indicated the need to explore partnering with neighboring counties and consider a regional model, as their county budget would not be able to support a full-time coroner and staff, nor could they operationally justify a standalone office given the limited number of cases their coroner oversees. Irrespective of county size, immediate one-time costs to deconsolidate the sheriff-coroner office will exist for all 48 counties that currently combine sheriff and coroner duties. We estimate that these impacts range from roughly $100,000 to upwards of $350,000. Costs include, but are not limited to, purchasing vehicles, computers, furniture, and other necessary equipment and supplies; as well as conducting impact studies, recruiting and contracting with a Chief Medical Examiner, hiring new staff (administrative assistants, investigators, deputies, forensic pathologists); and the acquisition of new property and potential information technology infrastructure updates if existing county office space is unavailable. On top of the one-time transition costs, nearly all counties will experience additional ongoing costs to sustain coroner services within another county department or as a stand-alone coroner or medical examiner’s office. Below is a conservative estimate of costs by county population based on existing expenses and potential fiscal impacts associated with a transition to a standalone office. These projections may vary drastically by county based on many factors, including the volume of death investigations. • County Population below 20,000: $150,000-$200,000 annually • County Population between 20,000-100,000: $200,000-$1,000,000 annually • County Population between 100,000-500,000: $500,000-$2,500,000 annually • County Population above 500,000: $2,500,000 plus, annually (varies in the millions based on population/death investigation volume) While it is difficult to assess how each county would organizationally adapt to the provisions of AB 1608 if it were enacted, our rough estimate suggests that new, ongoing, and unfunded statewide costs would be in the low tens of millions of dollars annually. As highlighted previously, one of the biggest challenges for counties would be recruiting, hiring, and training additional full-time staff, including forensic pathologists, particularly given the acute nationwide shortage. Within most county sheriff-coroner models, the morgue and administrative infrastructure are highly intertwined with the Sheriff’s office. Under the sheriff-coroner model, morgue staff, investigators, and deputy coroners are typically sheriff deputies who also handle their standard law enforcement responsibilities. Thus, by prohibiting sheriff-coroner consolidation, AB 1608 – once implemented – will impose significant and ongoing costs to fulfill duties formerly handled by sheriff employees. Ultimately, counties are uncertain as to how they would be able to transform county operations if AB 1608 were signed into law. Not only is it unclear how the administrative, medical, and investigative functions of the coroner would be combined with another office, more notably, it would require – at a minimum – an upheaval in most counties with burdensome changes to staffing, resources, and security. While CSAC and RCRC acknowledge the intent of this legislation and are deeply sensitive to concerns from the community, the bill in print does not effectively address the purported goal of the legislation to increase law enforcement accountability and transparency. As proposed in Senate Governance and Finance Committee, a more effective solution would be to require a fully independent medical examination for all officer-involved deaths, by which the cause and manner of death is determined entirely outside the purview of a sheriff-coroner office and county. Instead, AB 1608 provides a blanket prohibition that would be disruptive and costly for 48 counties across California, while stripping county boards of supervisors of their fundamental duty to make sound fiscal decisions on behalf of their constituents who elected them to office. It is for these reasons that CSAC and RCRC regretfully oppose AB 1608 and respectfully request your NO vote. Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at rmorimune@counties.org or sdukett@rcrcnet.org. Sincerely, Ryan Morimune Sarah Dukett Legislative Representative Policy Advocate California State Association of Counties Rural County Representatives of California rmorimune@counties.org sdukett@rcrcnet.org cc: Members and Consultant, Senate Appropriations Committee The Honorable Mike Gipson, California State Assembly