The Legislative Analyst’s Office has released its annual fiscal outlook for the 2026-27 state budget, warning of a difficult financial environment and limited ability to manage spending shortfalls, with Medi-Cal costs projected to rise significantly and counties warning of potential service cuts.
Yolo County Officials Urge Federal Lawmakers to Protect Critical Funding Amid White House Budget Freeze WOODLAND,…
By Melanie Johnson DAVIS, CA – On Tuesday morning, the Yolo County Board of…
By David M. Greenwald For the second time this weekend, Supervisor Don Saylor raised the issue of…
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By Layla Mustafa WOODLAND – Everything—surprisingly—was coming up roses Tuesday when the Yolo County Board of Supervisors…
By David M. Greenwald In early July, Supervisor Don Saylor submitted a number of questions to DA…
By David M. Greenwald Last week, Supervisor Don Saylor sounded the alarm that the County is proposing…
By Don Saylor Budgets are tangible expressions of our values. I believe we need to invest in…
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Last night after brief discussion the Davis City Council voted 5-0 to approve the agreed to tax-sharing…
According to a recent Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) study, Yolo County has an unauthorized immigrant population of 12,000 which represents roughly 6.2% of the population.
Overall in Yolo County, Latinos represent, according to Yolo County’s website, 26% with Whites accounting for 58% of the population, Asians 10%, and Blacks 2%.
Some of my greatest memories from living in this area are probably the days of going to the Graduate in the early part of the decade when the Kings were going strong and feeling the energy of the packed audience living and dying with every shot the Kings took.
There was that fateful series against the Lakers when, but for a fortuitous bounce of the ball and a clutch three in game four and a foul-filled game 7 that we later found out was due to a referee intentionally throwing the game, the Kings might have won the Western Conference and ultimately the NBA Championship.
Earlier this week, we reported on the layoff of ten sheriff’s deputies from Yolo County. The question that emerged from that article was based on an earlier editorial by the Sacramento Bee.
The Bee wrote, “Budget-strapped Yolo County approved the most generous retirement enhancements of any jurisdiction locally, almost doubling benefits for sheriff’s deputies in 2008 and giving non-safety workers a 25 percent pension boost. And those benefits were approved retroactively, meaning that the new, richer formulas were applied to employees’ prior years worked, not just future years – an extraordinary windfall for those workers near retirement age.”
In the end, Supervisor Matt Rexroad was the lone dissenting vote on a motion that would phase out the county’s obligations to pay extra Judicial Benefits within two years. The board voted 4-1 to implement a termination in 2012 as an alternative to the other options already on the table. On the other hand, without Mr. Rexroad’s dogged advocacy on this issue, it is likely that his colleagues would not have gone even this far.
The compromise solution, if you will, arose out of the staff report’s alternative view which would “provide notice of termination now and to extend the actual termination date to the next election cycle in 2012.”
The California Judges Association has entered a fray between some members of the County Board of Supervisors and Judge David Rosenberg regarding supplemental fees paid by the county to Yolo County Judges, despite the fact that they are state employees rather than county employees.
In a July 14 letter from Michael P. Vicencia, President of the California Judges Association, he wrote, “The California Judges Association wishes to express its concern regarding a June 30,2010 letter sent by your staff to the Judges of the Yolo Superior Court and to the Administrative Office of the Courts, regarding the County’s intention to terminate the payment of county-funded judicial benefits.”
This morning the Woodland Daily Democrat is reporting that Yolo County Judge David Rosenberg is disputing whether a letter from County Administrator Patrick Blacklock to William Vickrey that the county believed would preserve the county’s ability to terminate supplemental judicial benefits by filing just before the 180 period expired, in fact constitutes notice under the pertinent California Government Code section.
The notice was sent out at 4:59 pm Wednesday, just before the deadline to deadline to terminate county-funded benefits for four judges whose terms expire Jan. 1, 2011.
This morning the Woodland Daily Democrat had to backtrack off reports that Judges’ benefit would remain in place for another two years. The Democrat reported on Thursday that it is a done deal and that the county will have to continue to pay the benefit for the next two years. “By not acting before today, the Yolo County Board of Supervisors has committed taxpayers to providing $80,324 in additional benefits to Yolo Superior Court judges over the next two years.”
However, the Vanguard learned just before publication that in fact that report was premature. The Vanguard received a letter from County Administrator Patrick Blacklock to William Vickrey which would preserve the county’s ability to terminate supplemental judicial benefits by filing just before the 180 period expired.
Why is Yolo County Paying Judges 40K Per Year in Benefits?A controversy that has been brewing for some time between the County and Yolo County Judges may be exploding as a deadline approaches as to whether the county, strapped for cash, will have to continue to pay judges, ostensibly under state and not county control over 40 thousand dollars per year in benefits that Supervisor Matt Rexroad has likened to a “slushfund.”
This morning, the Woodland Daily Democrat is reporting that it is a done deal and that the county will have to continue to pay the benefit for the next two years. “By not acting before today, the Yolo County Board of Supervisors has committed taxpayers to providing $80,324 in additional benefits to Yolo Superior Court judges over the next two years.”
The County Board of Supervisors this week discussed a proposal that would ask Yolo County voters to approve a measure that would raise the sales tax by half a percent to generate somewhere between five and seven million to alleviate struggles at the County level that have produced a twenty million dollar deficit for the coming fiscal year and will lead to a widespread cutback in services ranging from health and mental health to law enforcement.
The Vanguard is certainly sympathetic to the county’s plight particularly in light of the devastating cuts to health care services that will put all county residents at a great health risk. However, the Vanguard does not believe that this is a feasible plan.