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Humboldt County District Attorney Stacey Eads appeared before the Board of Supervisors today, metaphorical hat in hand, to report that her office overspent its Fiscal Year 2025–26 budget by $1,298,694 and to ask for that deficit to be covered with money from the county’s dwindling general fund contingency reserves. (The current balance in that rainy day fund is $5,183,345, according to a staff report, so Eads’s request would amount to more than a quarter of the total.)

What ensued over the following two-plus hours was an awkward, convoluted, and often emotional deliberation, with supervisors grilling Eads about her office’s overspending and arguing among themselves about how to handle it.

Eventually, after two motions failed to garner the four-fifths support required for budget transfers, the board opted to simply let the financial loose end hang in the wind for the time being. They denied Eads’s budget request, in other words.

Right before they took the roll-call vote, Auditor-Controller Mychal Evenson said the county might still balance its annual budget if other departments managed to underspend by enough to cover the overage from the DA’s Office.

The hearing began with Eads offering a nearly 30-minute explanation for going so far over budget. The biggest problem was that her office was expecting to bring in $945,733 in grant funding that never materialized. That included $858,163 from California’s Board of State and Community Corrections (BSCC) Organized Retail Theft Vertical Prosecution Grant Program.

Eads said her office was simply too short-staffed to bill enough time to qualify for the grants. Prosecutors and investigators in her office were repeatedly diverted to mandated, non-grant work, including serious and violent crime, coverage for colleagues on leave and general caseloads.

“Also, what it looks like to prosecute crime within the courts has really evolved over the years … as demonstrated by the mental health diversion process, which is a really litigious process and very complicated,” Eads said. “And it applies to a significant amount of our caseload.”

Furthermore, she explained, the general fund allocation for the DA’s Office had remained flat since 2019 (though it was increased for the current fiscal year), and the supervisors last year approved across-the-board bumps for salaries, benefits and bonuses, which added more than $300,000 to the shortfall.

Eads also cited declining state and local revenue streams, reduced fine and fee collections and her office’s longstanding practice of not billing the Public Defender’s Office for discovery reproduction costs.

Second District Supervisor Michelle Bushnell was arguably the toughest interlocutor on the dais. She told Eads that if every department head overspent like this, the budget deficit would swell to $23 million or more, and she asked why Eads didn’t bring the issue to the board before going so far over budget.

Eads said the person who tracks the numbers has been overloaded with other tasks.

“She’s still doing the task of the person that’s literally pulling the files for the office — it’s, it’s unbelievable,” Eads said. “And so I have staff that [have] been with the office for years that are there Friday nights. They’re there first thing in the morning. They’re there in the evenings, and they’re doing the jobs of five people. And so it’s — that’s just the reality of it. Is it ideal? It’s so far from ideal it’s not even funny.”

Looking a bit shaken, Eads said, “Frankly, yes, these numbers did not get totaled in the timely manner that they should have. I absolutely own that, and here I am.”

Fourth District Supervisor Natalie Arroyo zeroed in on whether the DA’s budget model is structurally sound and realistic. She questioned the long-term viability of grant-driven programs like organized retail theft and human trafficking prosecution given staffing limits, and emphasized the need for stronger safeguards and coordination with the County Administrative Office so other departments, which are already cutting back, don’t see this as preferential treatment for the DA’s Office.

First District Supervisor Rex Bohn expressed a similar concern, saying, “I appreciate the job you’re doing. I love your staff. I’m just having a hard time with this because I am going to get inundated with [the question from other department heads], ‘Where’s mine?’” Bohn said he didn’t hear any indication that this problem would be resolved in future years.

Bushnell, noting the county’s current structural deficit, again voiced frustration with the sequence of events.

“The money’s already been spent,” she said. “You’re coming to us after realizing that your checkbook is empty.”

Eads occasionally pushed back against the criticism. She said she hoped that the county would use its contingency funds “to cover mandated essential services, which is what this is.” Bushnell replied that the Sheriff’s Office is in the same boat.

Later, when it became clear that the board might not grant Eads’s budget request, the DA said such a decision would impact public safety. She said her office is “mandated to prosecute crime and ensure public safety” and added, “it’s a matter of, you know, perhaps priorities for this board.”

Bushnell pushed back, saying the board’s priority is overall fiscal solvency. Turning to County Administrator Elishia Hayes, Bushnell said the county appears to be dealing with “a budgetary nightmare.”

Third District Supervisor and Board Chair Mike Wilson acknowledged the supervisors’ discomfort with this type of confrontation and asked Hayes for ideas on solutions. Over the course of its hearing, the board debated a number of potential remedies and new safeguards for the DA’s Office, including required quarterly financial reports, a hiring freeze and reductions to the department’s general fund allocations going forward. 

Zooming and driving: Madrone

Fifth District Supervisor Steve Madrone was almost entirely absent from the discussion. It was announced at the top of the meeting that he would be appearing remotely via Zoom because he had a contagious illness. Some sort of audio malfunction prevented him from commenting on an earlier item. At one point during this hearing, he appeared on video while behind the wheel of a moving vehicle. (In California, it’s illegal to hold, touch or operate a handheld cell phone for any reason while driving.) 

Arroyo wound up making a motion to adopt staff’s recommendation (that is, to use contingency funds to cover the overage), with an understanding of increased communication from Eads in the coming fiscal year. Because the motion called for a budget allocation, a four-fifths vote was required. Madrone, having not participated in the discussion, voted no. Bohn followed suit, as did Bushnell. Motion failed.

Bushnell then attempted to craft a motion of her own. She suggested approving staff recommendations but also directing the DA’s Office to work with the CAO on a plan to repay the $1.3 million to the general fund over time. The conversation was starting to unravel at this point. “This is getting too crazy,” Arroyo said. She suggested returning to the matter at a later date, after everyone had a bit more time to prepare. 

But Wilson forged ahead, seconding Bushnell’s motion. Amid some pushback and confusion, she later modified that motion a bit, changing the language to “investigate” a repayment mechanism, not strictly mandate it. 

Before the vote, Wilson urged his colleagues not to leave the big budget shortfall unresolved. “Just as a reminder,” he said, “we have a responsibility to, I believe, the state constitution to balance this budget.”

Nonetheless, this motion likewise failed via a 3-2 vote, with Bohn and Madrone voting against it.

Arroyo then tried to resolve the impasse with a motion to simply receive the staff report without taking the recommended actions and to require Eads to work with the CAO’s Office on quarterly financial reporting. Those reports must be brought back to the board as departmental agenda items.

“I just want to say: I don’t even love my own motion,” Arroyo said with a wry chuckle, “but I will keep going with this just to get it done.”

The motion passed unanimously.

“Amazing,” Wilson deadpanned.

Come back to the Outpost tomorrow for a rundown of other highlights from Tuesday’s meeting.