Countywide : Supervisors Vote to Help Victim-Witness Project

The Board of Supervisors has unanimously approved a plan to provide financial assistance to the county’s Victim-Witness Assistance Program that will allow it to continue helping victims of domestic abuse obtain court orders against their attackers.

The board’s action Tuesday allows the program to continue the service for at least another six months. The board also established an 11-member committee that will seek permanent private-sector funding for the service.

Barbara Phillips, director of the nonprofit, state-financed program, said it needs about $50,000 to continue operations for six months. The Board of Supervisors directed the county administrative staff to identify that amount of available money in the county’s budget.

The Victim-Witness Program’s board of directors had decided to end a program under which it helped applicants get court orders at the end of this month after determining it could no longer afford to absorb its increasing costs.

Phillips noted that state funding for the Victim-Witness Program has not included money for the program under which court orders are sought. She said that in recent years applications for court orders have skyrocketed, from 313 in 1982 to almost 2,000 during the last fiscal year.

The increase, she said, is primarily the result of new laws that require police and other agencies to provide referrals to domestic abuse victims in cases in which no police action can be taken.