EDITORIAL: Good, bad in county budget EDITORIAL: Good, bad in county budget (October 06, 2004)

The good news about San Mateo County's $1.34 billion budget is that it's better than it appeared in June, when it faced a $56 million deficit.

The bad news is that the budget still reflects some $26 million of cuts in staffing and services -- many in law enforcement, medical care, and services to the county's poorest.

When the county took stock of its finances July 1, it found an extra $29 million. On top of that, the state yanked only $6 million instead of the $23 million officials had feared they would lose.

Last week the supervisors reinstated $11 million of projects that had been axed, and added $17.5 million to reserves. Projects that will go forward now will help strengthen the county's beleaguered Child Welfare Services; reopen a unit at Camp Glenwood for youthful offenders; expand public health efforts to deal with communicable diseases; beef up anti-gang activities in East Palo Alto and throughout the county; and establish a new center for day laborers in North Fair Oaks.

In response to public pressure, the supervisors took two other popular actions.

The county will continue providing two sheriff's deputies to participate with Redwood City police on the team fighting gang violence and drugs in North Fair Oaks. With gang violence increasing throughout the county, this is welcome news.

And four parks -- Edgewood, Junipero Serra, San Bruno Mountain, and San Pedro Valley -- will be open every day once again, thanks in part to pressure from the Committee for Green Foothills and more than 100 letters.

This is also welcome news. Gated parks are more subject to arson and vandalism, as Supervisor Jerry Hill said. When parks are open, benefits follow. School kids can participate in educational programs; there's a ropes course for at-risk youth in Junipero Serra Park. And hundreds of hard-working volunteers can work at weeding and restoration. Not to mention the ability of the public to enjoy lands it owns.

Last week's budget hearing also revealed problems that need work.

The county's newest clinic, the Ravenswood Family Health Center in East Palo Alto, needs to develop some kind of sustainable funding relationship with the county.

The clinic, which opened just three years ago to provide medical care for vulnerable populations in East Palo Alto and Menlo Park's Belle Haven neighborhood, was established with county help to replace the defunct Drew Medical Center.

It became an independent nonprofit with a $1million federal grant and the responsibility to raise the rest of its budget from other public and private sources, according to Director Luisa Buada.

Three years later, the clinic serves 24,000 people a year, many of them indigent and uninsured, with a budget of $4 million -- and a big shortfall.

The supervisors appeared surprised when Ms. Buada appeared asking for $250,000. By treating people in South County, the clinic saves the county money, she argued, noting that patients would otherwise go to emergency rooms or other clinics, at far greater expense to the county.

The supervisors were sympathetic but cautious. District 4 Supervisor Rose Jacobs Gibson recognizes the importance of maintaining the clinic and its services in East Palo Alto, but wants to work out a sustainable relationship carefully.

We hope the clinic's problems are just the growing pains of a new agency and board. The Ravenswood Family Health Center is off to a good start, but it needs county help to work out a financing relationship that will allow it to raise enough money to meet the community's needs into the future.

This clinic is critical for the health of some of our most vulnerable people. There should be a solution; keep trying.

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