By Khalida Sarwari
The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors today took steps toward approving the 2012 recommended budget for a number of public safety departments, including the offices of the district attorney, public defender, and sheriff.
Santa Clara County Executive Jeff Smith has recommended a $4 billion budget that addresses a $219.6 million deficit in the county’s general fund through program and service cuts, use of one-time revenue and layoffs.
The budget will be finalized on Friday, but the board has been holding hearings all week to receive input from all groups that are being affected one way or another.
At today’s hearing, the board voted unanimously to approve the budget for the district attorney’s office, but a proposal by Supervisor George Shirakawa to restore $331,808 for the office’s uniform discovery project failed by a 3-2 vote. The supervisors who voted against the proposal were Liz Kniss, Ken Yeager, and Mike Wasserman.
The board voted 5-0, however, to restore $291,353 for the office’s cold case unit.
“I feel particularly strongly that the cold case unit makes a difference in the lives of the survivors,” Kniss said. “This one I support with a great deal of vigor and certainty.”
The unit just last week helped secure the conviction of Charles Grant for the murder of Kristi Harris, a 21-year-old hairstylist who was found stabbed to death in her San Jose apartment on Aug. 29, 1988.
Today, Harris’ then-boyfriend Mark Naillon, addressed the board to express how much of a difference the unit has made in the lives of Harris’ loved ones.
“I used to walk around wondering who and why, and now those questions have been answered,” he said.
The board voted 3-2 to restore $175,586 for the conviction integrity unit. Kniss and Yeager voted against the proposal.
A proposal to provide funding to the district attorney’s office for a program to infractmisdemeanor traffic offenses passed on a vote of 3-2, with Shirakawa and board President Dave Cortese dissenting.
District Attorney Jeff Rosen in March launched a pilot version of the program in San Jose and asked the board for funding to implement it throughout the county, saying it would save the county hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The board unanimously approved the budgets for the public defender’s, pretrial services, and sheriff offices.
They unanimously passed a proposal by Wasserman to restore ongoing funding for two full-time deputy sheriff positions in the rural crimes unit.
The board also unanimously approved a proposal by Kniss to restore funding for two full-time deputy sheriff patrol positions in the West Valley area as well as a proposal by Yeager to restore one full-time deputy sheriff position in the special operations unit.
The recommended budget for the medical examiner’s office, the department of correction, and the probation department was passed 5-0.
The board gave unanimous approval to restore two full-time correctional officer positions in the inmate program for $253,512.
They also unanimously approved a recommendation to reduce revenue and expenditures in the probation department by $947,744, but voted for a proposal to increase revenues in the department by $236,444 for informal juvenile and traffic court services.
A recommendation by Yeager to restore nine full-time probation community worker positions passed 4-1, with Kniss dissenting.