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After two days of public testimony during a budget workshop, the San Benito County Board of Supervisors on Sept. 29 adopted the amended 2026-27 final budget.
The $263.1 million budget across all funds is supported by $231.3 million in estimated revenue, and $31.8 million in planned use of fund balance. As part of the resolution, the board also adopted a list of authorized staff positions.
The workshop’s second day was necessary because the supervisors had so many questions about the 466-page budget for CEO Esperanza Colio Warren. On the second day, Colio Warren reminded the board that budgets are not perfect, and there are mistakes because the departments must make projections about what may happen in the future.
“Sometimes we don’t catch all those mistakes,” she said, “and having the short staff that we have, we must be realistic. A budget is a living document that can be changed through budget amendments.”
At its June 16 budget workshop, according to the agenda packet, the board reviewed departmental requests and directed staff to develop balancing options, including review of staffing, reserves, unfunded mandates and potential revenue. On June 30, the board tentatively approved Colio Warren’s recommended 2026-27 budget with $239.7 million in appropriations, $211 million in estimated revenues, and $28.7 million in budgeted use of fund balance.
The lion’s share of the approved budget, or 51%, goes to Public Safety, which includes the Sheriff’s Office, countywide fire protection, emergency management, probation, and the District Attorney’s Office.
About 21 percent is slated for the General Government, including 8% for Planning & Public Works, 6% for capital projects, and 3% for roads.
From her opening statement on Sept. 29, Colio Warren said she wanted the board to understand that “the books have not been closed.” She said that normally the books would have closed by September.
“Unfortunately, that’s not the case,” she said. “There were some mistakes during the final submittal that will require us to do budget amendments now.”
After Supervisors Angela Curro and Mindy Sotelo posed extensive questions to Colio Warren and department heads on various aspects of the budget, Supervisor Kollin Kosmicki told the CEO that while he appreciated her efforts, including bringing in a temporary consultant, he wanted to re-emphasize the need for a full-time budget officer.
“It needs to be a priority, and we need to increase the pay for that position,” Kosmicki said. “We need to get somebody in place right now. If we go another year doing this without a budget officer, it’s going to be unacceptable to me. This is causing most of our problems at this point. Just based on what I’m seeing here and the lack of certainty and talk about books not being closed, it’s got to happen.”
Colio Warren told Kosmicki that the county had tried four times without success to hire someone for the role. He told her the county needed to raise the salary range, which is currently $$148,624 to $199,175, according to the California State Association of Counties. Kosmicki asked Colio Warren to explain to the public why the books were not closed. She said that while she wasn’t pointing fingers at anybody, she noted that, “some departments do not understand the responsibility that they need to close the books.”
She said the problem has existed for years and that some departments “don’t have the level of understanding on budgets,” and that because of high turnover “some employees were promoted just because they were sitting there for a long time and they [did not have] the education. I’m not against the idea of promoting someone as long as that person has the knowledge and the training to be able to prepare a budget.”
High on the list of concerns, particularly for Curro, were roads and bridges in her district that she said have been ignored for years, including $4.6 million for a culvert and a portion of New Idria Road that was washed out in 2021, and $2.5 million for Panoche Road Bridge. Roads of concern in other districts are Wright Road, from Buena Vista Road to San Felipe Road, at $3 million, Fairview Road at Fallon Road for $1.2 million, and the Rosa Marada Bridge at $3 million.
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