SACRAMENTO COUNTY, CA - The County Board of Supervisors approved a $3.5 billion budget Thursday afternoon.
It calls for cutting $90 million in spending and that will force at least 300 positions cut, many of them layoffs.
But those numbers do not mean layoffs for the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department, right now.
Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones said he remains committed to no layoffs. The department has looked internally and absorbed millions of dollars worth of cuts.
The initial deficit was $26.7 million. But Jones reduced that budget shortfall to $9.5 million.
On Monday, he asked for $9.5 million to be reinstated by the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors. Thursday, the sheriff got his answer.
"In the last day or two, through some very difficult decisions, the board of supervisors restored $5.2 million to our budget," Jones said. "We are very grateful. However, that does leave us with a $4.3 million bridge to gap that we cannot reasonably anticipate making up over the next fiscal year."
Again, Jones said his highest priority is not to layoff a single person. But, there's a strong likelihood that certain programs will be cut or restructured.
The president of the Sacramento County Deputy Sheriff's Association said the first to be hit might be the aero unit or the gang unit.
During deep budget cuts in 2009, the department's helicopter was grounded.
Meanwhile, the gang unit was cut in half that year said Detective Danny McAuliffe.
"It all but decimated what we knew as the gang unit," McAuliffe said.
McAuliffe was reassigned to work at the county jail. He was eventually transferred back to the gang unit.
McAuliffe said fewer gang detectives means more gang violence, I.E. the December 2010 barber shop shooting in South Sacramento that killed a single mother shielding her son from gang gunfire.
"They know that if there's no gang task force coupled with the fact that patrol officers are already overwhelmed with calls for service and their responsibilities, these guys have free reign over the county," McAuliffe said.
By Suzanne Phan, sphan@news10.net
Twitter:@suzanenphan
News10/KXTV