Santa Barbara County Faces Unknown State Funds and a Criminal Investigation

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) - Santa Barbara County is working on a financial plan that still has some uncertainties for the current year.

A balanced budget was approved for the fiscal year starting July 1.

Along the way there were tense moments with potential losses of workers in several departments due to state and federal funding cuts or unfulfilled funding sources.

Some of those positions including 15 in the County Health Department were restored after they were eliminaed.

The county is going at this year's budget with its best assumptions on what state and federal funding will be coming in, along with local tax dollars.

Some of the money issues came from what is now a criminal investigation.

The County Sheriff's Department has had to do an internal investigation to find overtime cost issues at a time when the county's overall finances were struggling.

Overtime costs were criticized and went up significantly. Within the scrutiny of the department's finances, two instances were found where time cards were reportedly padded with overtime. Both of the employees now face criminal charges. Along the way, all of the overtime costs were given a closer look to verify that the work was done.

Undersheriff Brad Welch told the Board of Supervisors, "we had our administrative investigators, our criminal investigators, putting everything on hold reviewing 688 time cards. That's when this behavior was flagged it was investigated and that's when we subsequently arrested one of our own. "

He says they will be prosecuting the employee through the District Attorney's office.

Since the budget hearings earlier this year, the county has restored some funds in areas where there were cuts.

That includes health care, Medi-Cal and Cal-Fresh programs.

There is also funding for child protective services and some homeless and housing programs.

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