By Dawn Rowe
3rd District Supervisor
San Bernardino County
As stewards of public funds, county leaders face a fundamental challenge each year: How to meet growing community needs without compromising fiscal responsibility. This year’s budget strikes that balance.
Last month, my colleagues and I on the board of supervisors unanimously passed a balanced budget, which strengthens key essential services while continuing to build a healthy reserve fund to weather times of economic uncertainty. This ensures both immediate impact and long-term stability for our residents.
In recent years, we’ve seen an increasing demand for county services. Whether it’s ensuring rapid emergency response times, supporting mental health and addiction recovery programs, maintaining safe roads and bridges or investing in youth and senior services, the needs are real and growing.
Despite these challenges, the budget we’ve passed does not raise taxes. Instead, it reflects a disciplined, prudent and value-driven approach to budgeting.
I’d like to highlight a few of the priorities from this year’s budget.
The Office of Emergency Services (OES) is enhancing preparedness by reorganizing volunteers and strengthening emergency communication systems. By improving training, we ensure that local communities are better prepared for future disasters. The county is also updating emergency communications to ensure reliability and ensure prompt and useful notifications.
Secondly, this budget prioritizes funding for public safety. We’ve provided funding to strengthen the implementation of body-worn cameras by the sheriff’s department. By equipping deputies with cameras to record interactions with the public, we increase accountability and transparency and assist in evidence collection.
The budget also provides essential funding for targeted crime suppression operations through “Operation Consequences.” This strategic law enforcement program reduces violent crime, drug trafficking and gang-related activity across our county. Since this program began in November 2022, more than 1,400 search warrants have been issued, leading to nearly 2,000 arrests. Additionally, law enforcement has seized thousands of illegal weapons, dangerous narcotics and fentanyl.
Lastly, it’s crucial to mention the importance of maintaining a healthy reserve. Reserves aren’t just numbers on a balance sheet. They keep our county resilient in the face of emergencies and economic downturns. Wildfires, floods and health crises have shown us how quickly circumstances can change. A well-funded reserve enables us to respond without delay, without borrowing and without compromising the services people depend on.
This year’s budget is a promise kept to our community: That we will govern responsibly, invest wisely and protect the future while serving the present. As your supervisor, I’ll continue to stay focused on the priorities important to upholding our county vision. From our valleys, across our mountains and into our deserts, we envision a county that is a destination for visitors and a home for anyone seeking a sense of community and the best life has to offer.
Thank you for the opportunity to continue to serve.
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