More Foes of Funding Law Emerge

After years of silence, many Ventura County government managers are condemning a public safety funding law as unworkable and potentially financially ruinous.

The 8-year-old ordinance steers all the proceeds of a special half-cent sales tax to four public safety departments -- sheriff, district attorney, public defender and probation. In addition, the four departments receive inflationary increases paid out of the county’s general fund.

Though supervisors had good intentions, said critics, the law has resulted in a lopsided government.

On one side is a gold-plated law enforcement empire that, until recently, got virtually whatever it asked for, they said. On the other are two dozen county agencies trying to carry out vital government duties on shrinking budgets.

“It is bad public policy to give any automatic increases to any public agency,” said Thomas Berg, director of the Resource Management Agency, which issues building permits, monitors ocean and air pollution and inspects restaurants for cleanliness. “It is unsustainable in the long run.”

County Clerk-Recorder Philip Schmit said while he could see both the benefits and problems associated with the funding law, it was time for the county to decide once and for all whether it would continue to abide by it.

“It needs to get settled,” said Schmit, who ordered an earlier closing time for the office’s operations this year due to budget cuts. “The longer it remains over our head, the more discord there is in the county family. We can’t just keep on taking cuts and doing more with less.”

County managers now have a potent ally on their side: the Board of Supervisors. The county board is seeking to repeal Ordinance No. 4088. Although supervisors approved the law on a 3-2 vote in 1995, they are now unanimous in wanting it rescinded.

In court papers, the board contends that the ordinance interferes with its budget-setting authority and places the county’s financial future “in grave danger.” The law’s funding formula calls for an ever greater portion of the general fund to go to public safety departments, creating a risk that the county will one day be unable to provide other essential services, supervisors allege.

The board filed the lawsuit in response to a filing by Sheriff Bob Brooks and Dist. Atty. Greg Totten. In their lawsuit, Brooks and Totten contend that supervisors illegally reduced their funding two years ago.

As a result, the two officials say, they have been forced to trim their work forces and cut nonessential services. Brooks has already closed the women’s Honor Farm near Ojai and is threatening to close the East County booking facility. Totten has eliminated two dozen positions within his office.

While acknowledging some hard feelings over the funding law, Undersheriff Craig Husband said that most county managers have seen the ordinance as beneficial to the county.

“Without that revenue, public safety would have suffered greatly and it would have taken other revenues away from other county departments,” Husband said. “It has relieved some of the financial pressures for some of those other agencies.”

Supervisors in 1995 agreed to enact the ordinance after law enforcement leaders gathered 50,000 signatures to place it on a ballot. Disagreement over the ordinance has been brewing at the Ventura County Government Center ever since.

Two former county chiefs and the 2000 grand jury had publicly criticized the law and recommended that it be scrapped. But, until recently, managers from other agencies had stayed out of the fray.

Auditor-Controller Christine Cohen said she was happy that the controversy may finally be settled by the courts. While public safety budgets rapidly expanded over the past 10 years, she lost five auditors.

“There is some belt-tightening that goes on every year to the point where we are now screaming. It is painful,” Cohen said. “The prioritization has been that public safety gets what they request and the rest of us have to take cuts.”

What is frustrating, Cohen said, is that the public is demanding more financial accountability from government at the same time she is losing staff.

“I got five additional auditors under [former county administrator] Harry Hufford,” she said. “Well, they are all gone. And if you don’t have auditors, you get fewer audits.”

Steve Riley, operations manager for the Resource Management Agency, said he commended the board and County Executive Officer Johnny Johnston for being willing to confront Brooks and Totten.

For years, law enforcement leaders have been viewed as untouchable in a county that puts a premium on its reputation as a safe place to live. That is beginning to change, Riley said.

“[The ordinance] was something that everyone outside of law enforcement felt was a cynical power and money grab. And they got away with it for many years,” Riley said. “But there is a day of reckoning and we have reached it.”