DeLuz VFD apparatus, Wilderness Gardens Preserve addition among midyear budget adjustments

The duties of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors include the approval of midyear adjustments to the county's annual budget, and the first-quarter adjustments to the 2015-16 budget include funding for apparatus to be based at the DeLuz fire station and additional acreage for Wilderness Gardens Preserve in Pala.

The quarterly budget adjustments were based on an extra $108.2 million available from the county's general fund. General purpose revenue exceeded the budgeted amount by $18.8 million primarily due to additional property tax revenue from assessed value increases, savings from personnel turnover was a significant factor in $45.9 million of reduced operations costs, and unspent contingency and management reserves accounted for $43.5 million of the additional available funding. A 5-0 Board of Supervisors vote Dec. 15 approved the budget changes based on the additional available revenue.

Appropriations of $850,700 to the San Diego County Regional Fire Authority were obtained from a fund balance from fiscal year 2014-15. In addition to apparatus for the DeLuz fire station, the money will also fund apparatus for the Mount Laguna fire station, provide a temporary San Pasqual fire station, and purchase vehicles for San Diego County Regional Fire Authority fire prevention inspections.

Developers can purchase mitigation credits from another qualifying location to fulfill their own projects' off-site mitigation requirements. Board of Supervisors policy I-138 addresses the use of county-owned land for mitigation credits and stipulates that revenue obtained from the sale of mitigation credits will be used to purchase additional lands within the county which meet the criteria of the county's mitigation policy. Unanticipated mitigation credit sales revenue of $354,562 allowed the county to purchase an additional 3.38 acres of habitat mitigation at Wilderness Gardens Preserve and add 8.04 acres to the Lawrence and Barbara Daley Preserve in Jamul.

A 2014-15 balance in the Land Use and Environment Group general fund will provide $300,000 to the county's Department of Parks and Recreation for consultant services. The funding will cover $200,000 for a parks master plan and $100,000 for an Americans with Disabilities Act transition plan.

The parks master plan will identify and evaluate existing deficiencies in park and recreation areas, assess placement potential for additional parks, provide standards for park amenities, integrate best management practices into park construction and operations, provide a model for developers to use when proposing new development projects including parks, and prepare criteria for future park siting, design, construction, maintenance, operation, management, and financing.

The Americans with Disabilities Act transition plan will prioritize the removal of existing barriers to access for the disabled.

San Diego Gas & Electric provides an annual franchise fee payment of approximately $5 million for the utility's use of public roadway. The annual payment received in April 2015 was $5,690,850, which exceeded the 2014-15 budgeted expectation by $690,850. The additional revenue will be used for road maintenance work.

The county's Airport Enterprise Fund utilizes revenue from leases on County Airports land. The supervisors previously budgeted $3,030,116 in the Airport Enterprise Fund spending plan for the Fallbrook Airpark Runway Safety Area Improvements project. County Airports has been working with the Federal Aviation Administration on the future runway safety improvements, and the FAA feedback has led to a revised project scope and environmental needs and has also modified the schedule for the Fallbrook Community Airpark work.

The schedule change eliminated the necessity of using $677,500 of the budgeted amount during fiscal year 2015-16. The Jacumba Airport runway rehabilitation project will receive $523,500 of that money and the Agua Caliente Springs Airport runway rehabilitation project will be given $154,000. The remaining budgeted amount for Fallbrook Community Airpark will be sufficient to complete the design and environmental review phases, and after the Federal Aviation Administration gives its approval for the final design the Board of Supervisors will likely approve the appropriations to fund any design modifications as well as the construction itself.