They have no business letting the district attorney continue to increase his budget. And they have no business threatening Service Employees International Union members with layoffs when they do not address all of the unions in the county.

Supervisor Jeff Stone is willing to risk county-funded services except for those provided by the sheriff and the district attorney.

When your children attend school this fall with children who could not get immunized, and your elderly relatives cannot get care or services, and your foreclosed neighbor's pool fills your yard with West Nile-bearing mosquitoes, remember that Stone made sure the Riverside County sheriff's staff got pay raises -- and that 1,000 workers from other departments may have been let go to pay for them.

When more houses enter foreclosure because of fired county staff, be sure to thank him. And at election time, make sure you join the Riverside Sheriffs' Association in voting for him, because that's how it got to keep its pay raises while so many others lost their jobs, benefits and homes, and you lost access to services.

Undersheriff Valerie Hill is wrong to describe that as "equitable." Equitable would be all of the unions being asked to share the load. Tuesday's meeting was about one union taking all of the financial load off the county for the benefit of the sheriff's association.

How many private sector folks are getting pay raises in businesses with multimillion-dollar deficits? We are giving pay raises to some of the sheriff's staff while laying off providers of vital health and protective services. It's criminal.

Way to go Riverside County Board of Supervisors. Show the sheriff and district attorney who is in charge!