COUNTY OF SAN MATEO

SHERIFF’S OFFICE

Inter-Departmental Correspondence

DATE:

January 3, 2006

BOARD MEETING DATE:

January 24, 2006

SPECIAL NOTICE/HEARING:

None

VOTE REQUIRED:

4/5

TO:

Honorable Board of Supervisors

FROM:

Sheriff Don Horsley

SUBJECT:

Office of Emergency Services - Appropriation Transfer Request to Re-Allocate $1,462,000 of Existing Grant Funds into Appropriate Budgetary Accounts (Capital Equipment and Fixed Assets Sub-Accounts 6743 & 7311)

Recommendation

Approve an Appropriation Transfer Request (ATR) re-distributing $1,462,000 in budgeted funds within the same budget unit, to allow the Sheriff’s Office Of Emergency Services to purchase capital equipment and fixed asset items from Homeland Security Grant funds.

Vision Alignment

This aligns with Vision 2010 Commitment No. 7 – protect and enhance the public safety of all residents and visitors; as well as Commitment Nos. 20 and 22, related to effective decision-making and multi-jurisdictional strategic approaches to critical issues affecting the entire County.

Background

In the Sheriff’s Office 2005/06 Budget, an appropriation was included for the FY 05 Homeland Security Grant. The department had been notified of the award and the dollar amount, but it was a brand new grant at that point. The federal Department of Homeland Security has established a process for the countywide allocation of homeland security grant funds, which includes a five-member voting authority of local first-responder agency officials, who allocate the grant funds based on needs in various emergency service functions. The voting authority is comprised of the Sheriff; the County Public Health Officer (Dr. Morrow); one Fire Chief from a City Fire Department; the County Fire Chief (CDF), and a City Police Chief. Typically, the funds allocation process takes several meetings of the voting authority across a 3-4 month period, due to the need to involve all county first responder agencies, as well as time for fairly extensive product research by OES and other agency staff.

Since this was a brand new grant at the time of budget preparation, the voting authority had not allocated any funds at that point. Therefore, the majority of grant funds (approximately $2.6m of the $2.8m awarded) were budgeted under one line item: sub-account 5925 - Emergency Assistance Expenditures, with the understanding it would be re-distributed by ATR later, after the voting authority had approved the allocation of funds.

Discussion

The County designates single-item expenditures of $5,000 or more in unit cost, to be “fixed assets”, which must be budgeted within a specific budget sub-account - 7311. The nature of many expenses financed through homeland security funds is such that the cost falls within the fixed asset category – complex diagnostic or detoxification equipment; specialized response vehicles; emergency equipment; etc. The voting authority has now allocated the grant funds, and a portion of the approved purchases – approximately $1.111 Million – fall within the fixed asset category and $350, 000 into capital equipment purchases. The ATR request is to move this amount of existing grant funds budgeted in Org No. 30548: OES – Homeland Security Grants from sub-account 5925 to sub-accounts 6743 – Capital Equipments and 7311 – Fixed Assets, to accommodate the purchase of the approved equipments.

Fiscal Impact

There is no impact on net County cost for this action to re-allocate existing funds. The grant appropriation and revenue is already included within the Sheriff’s Office 2005/06 Adopted Budget.