Date 7/12/2009

Honorable Supervisors
700 H Street, Suite 2450
Sacramento, CA 95814

Dear Supervisors,

I am a hard working tax paying citizen. Since I was 15 years old, I have never gone without one to three jobs. I work, commute, shop, invest, and socialize in Sacramento County. I am a member of several community groups, and I have even walked door to door in one of your political campaigns to help get one of you elected. I am active in the community and although I do not live in Sacramento County, I have influence with copious voters who do. After educating myself on the Sacramento County budget of $5.3 Billion for 2008-09, and the deficit in the 2009-10 budget, I am appalled that any one of you think and say that you put public safety first on your priority list, because your actions do not support your words.

The entire budget for Law and Order in Sacramento County is a mere 16%, including all courts, probation, sheriff, jails, etc. Without proper law and order, a strong economic community can not survive and prosper. It is no coincidence that so many major retailers have flourished in surrounding Placer County, Roseville specifically, with a much smaller population base. Those retailers specifically skipped the larger customer base of Sacramento County due to public safety. Sacramento County residents commute out of Sacramento to shop in other counties for these reasons. I see it first hand, every day.

The fact that Sacramento County can not contend with a 4% budget deficit without laying off 1000 employees and such harsh cuts to fundamental county services is disheartening. The reality that you cut retiree health payments to former employees who spent their lives working in and for Sacramento County, yet hand out $385 million in welfare payments each year is appalling. Cutting employee benefits while spending $120+ Million on mental health (pages 10-12; Non-71J) contracts is appalling. Spending $8.6 Million for narcotic replacement therapy contracts (page 12; Non-71J) while laying-off an additional 70 deputies is absurd. Sacramento County Spent $900 Million for airport projects only to have major airline carriers pull out of Sacramento International. That you spend one penny on golf courses while cutting criminal justice programs is appalling. That we are the capital of the 8th largest economy (California) in the world yet can not provide a safe community is appalling. We should be the model for the US, and therefore the world, yet we are far from it.

Sacramento County should have the best trained, most professional, highest paid and most sought after law enforcement officers in the world. Instead we are losing officers due to fiscal mismanagement, lack of career development and training, and of course, your budget cuts. The thought of taking 32% of the deficit, $57 Million from the sheriff’s department alone is absurd. Cutting from the probation department forcing them to close juvenile detention facilities and release convicts is a failure on your part. That act alone released 45 convicted burglars, robbers, and gangsters back on the streets; and they will re-offend.

Make cuts across the board, stop exceeding welfare mandates, cut social programs and hold the public responsible for their own futures which they can control. Failing to plan is planning to fail. Stop enabling people to fail by enabling them to slide through life without work, on the dime of the working taxpayers. You can lead them to water, stop drinking for them. Your number one function is to provide a SAFE community where people can live free from crime and oppression. Providing the public with a safe community means funding your law and order resources as your top funding priority, always! The DA’s office should never have to chose whether to prosecute a crime or not due to their budget cuts. Enable them to prosecute all crimes. The sheriff’s department should never have to chose which crimes to investigate or not due to their budget cuts. Enable them to investigate all crimes.

Trust me, I’ll sacrifice with a few potholes in the road. I’m ok with someone being required to work for a living. I’m ok with tent city jails and giving them bologna sandwiches, pink underwear, and making them pay for their healthcare. I’m ok with a 6-month limit on welfare and any aid program. That’s what non-profit community groups are for, to give aid where the government can not. Any good non-profit operates with a 15% or less administrative overhead. The United Way operates with less than a 12% administrative budget. The American Red Cross operates with a 10% administrative budget. How come the Sacramento County Human Assistance Administration costs 41% of their staggering $656 Million budget? ($270 Million in Admin, with 2,156 employees, $385 Million in Aid payments; Page 7, 2008-09 Budget Overview)

Fundamental government services do NOT include paying anyone to sit at home all day. It does not include paying someone to take care of their own family member (IHSS - $63 Million; Page 7, 2008-09 Budget Overview). That is their family’s and their local community’s responsibility, not the government’s. Roll back the calendar 100 years and see what services the government provided. Can we do better than that? Of course. Is that our primary function? No. 100 years ago there was a county sheriff to round up the criminals, hold and present him for trial before a magistrate, and hang him in the streets if ordered by the magistrate. There was a military to provide national security; little else was required of the government. There was no In-Home Support Services, no county welfare, and no social programs enabling people to take from their neighbors without working their share. It was up to local communities, individuals, and churches to distribute aid and it worked. It didn’t foster generations of people who take and give nothing back. It didn’t foster generations of people who vote based on how many government handouts would be approved.

Sacramento County Chief Executive Officer, Terry Schutten, has done you no favors in his recommendations for budget approvals. Cutting public safety, the district attorney, probation, and the sheriff’s department specifically will have tragic consequences on public safety, and ultimately also on your political careers. If you cut the sheriff’s budget by a staggering 30+ percent of the budget deficit, forcing the layoff of deputies, I will work tirelessly to inform your voting public of your choice to put their safety in jeopardy, and encourage others to do the same. I’m sure there is a community member out there who would like your job. I will work tirelessly to ensure you are not elected to ANY public office, because you have lost the public trust granted to you by your elected office. Every bit of the budget process is a political choice at the state, federal and local level. What choice will you make? Thank You.

Sincerely,

Andrew Croley