After three grueling days of hearings and deliberations last week, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors passed a budget for fiscal year 2010-11. Facing a $40 million budget shortfall, it was inevitable that the proverbial belt had to be tightened, but even the most dire cuts appear to have been mitigated somewhat by a last-minute series of adjustments.

“We had more money than we thought we had,” 2nd District Supervisor Janet Wolf, the board chairwoman, said Friday. She pointed out that the recent adjustments had unearthed another $5.1 million to add to the county’s strategic reserves.

The Sheriff’s Department received $1.3 million to keep its North County jail open, a move no doubt much appreciated by the myriad of law enforcement officers and members of the public who had commented on the issue at hearings over the past month. Many had expressed concern that closing the jail would in effect keep police off the streets in the North County because of the long transport times from there to the main jail on the South Coast.

Having faced significant cuts, the Department of Drug, Alcohol and Mental Health Services still felt the sting of reductions to its budget for treatment of indigent clients. The board had originally requested $700,000 for that purpose, but was only able to authorize $300,000.

“The county is the last line of defense for these people, but it costs a lot of money,” said Wolf, adding that many of the patients who don’t have Medi-Cal are put into inpatient care, which costs much more money. Apparently, the department will make more of an effort to use nonresidential treatment options.

Other departments that received reductions were the County Counsel’s Office, the Film Commission and the Agricultural Commissioner’s 4-H program, which received no funding.

Wolf said she was particularly happy that funding for the library remained at status quo.

“It kind of went under the radar,” she said, “but I think it’s important for people to know that the library didn’t receive any cuts.”

— Noozhawk staff writer Ben Preston can be reached at bpreston@noozhawk.com.