County Social Agencies to Compete for Funds

San Diego County supervisors on Tuesday moved forward with their plans to cut as much as $3 million from the budgets of more than 60 private agencies that provide health and social services to the county’s poor.

Over the strenuous objections of the agencies’ spokesmen and their clients, the Board of Supervisors voted to reaffirm an earlier decision dramatically changing the way the groups are funded.

The board voted 3-2, Supervisors Paul Eckert and Leon Williams dissenting, to keep the agencies’ funding separate from the issue of revenue sharing, a federal program slated to be trimmed this year and eliminated in 1986.

From now on, the county’s community clinics, youth counseling and senior citizens’ programs will not be guaranteed a certain percentage of the revenue-sharing money, even if the federal program is extended beyond its expected elimination date next year.

Instead, the services will compete for funding with other county programs--from law enforcement to animal control--that are paid for from general county revenue.

The effects of that competition became clear for the first time Tuesday, when the board approved Chief Administrative Officer Clifford Graves’ recommendation to fund at current levels only those services ranked among the county’s highest priorities.

Such services include programs to aid victims of child abuse and spousal assault, counseling for troubled youths, aid to the elderly and “primary care” services at community clinics.

Altogether, services that received about $7 million in county funds last fiscal year will get about $5.65 million in the current fiscal year (which began July 1) and about $3.9 million the next year.

Faced with pressure from the agencies and their clients, Supervisors Eckert and Williams argued that the county should continue to fund the services with revenue sharing until the federal government eliminates the program.

“When it’s not available to us, then we’ll make the decision, not today when it’s possible the money will be available,” Eckert said.

Williams added: “It seems kind of hard-hearted. To say we’re going to put it (the money) in a bag and shut it off kind of bothers me.”

But Supervisors George Bailey, Brian Bilbray and Susan Golding, all elected last year, maintained their stand in favor of separating the fortunes of health and social services from those of federal revenue sharing.

“This board has inherited a lot of problems because our predecessors have said, ‘Well, we’ll do this for a couple of years, and we’ll keep it going and keep it going and keep it going,’ ” Bilbray said. “The trouble is, everybody wants to go one more year and not address what’s going to happen five years, six years or even two years down the road.”