Taxes, Budget Cuts Both Draw Protests : Finances: Supervisors seeking to pare a projected deficit hear opposition to a business levy and warnings on reduced law enforcement.

It was standing room only at the Ventura County Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday when the board was lambasted on the one hand for raising taxes and on the other for considering deep budget cuts.

The protests came from business owners opposed to a new business license tax and county firefighters and law enforcement representatives opposed to budget cuts.

Also in attendance was the 1990-91 Ventura County grand jury, whose foreman criticized supervisors and law enforcement officials for failing to solve the county’s budget woes.

“Everyone I’ve heard here has said, ‘We want more,’ ” said Lyle Wray, grand jury foreman. “Nobody has said, ‘Here is how we can save some money.’ ”

The supervisors’ meeting room, which accommodates about 150 people, was filled to capacity, with people lining the walls and spilling out into the lobby.

Supervisors took no action on either issue, but after about a dozen speakers testified, three supervisors suggested money-saving measures for future consideration.

Several of the estimated 80 residents and business owners who protested the business license tax carried picket signs and handmade buttons with such slogans as “Taxation is Out of Control” and “No New Taxes.” They urged the supervisors to rescind a tax on businesses in the county’s unincorporated area that was adopted in March.

The tax, which is expected to raise at least $500,000 annually, takes effect Monday. Supervisor Maria VanderKolk was the only board member who opposed the tax.

The protesters were led by Ray Russum, a local anti-tax activist who dressed in desert camouflage and dubbed himself “The California Crusader General.” He and other residents have formed a group to protest the tax, called Citizens Opposing New Taxes, Read Our Lips, or CONTROL.

Russum said the group hopes to collect 10,000 signatures on petitions against the tax by November.

Meanwhile, about 100 county firefighters and law enforcement officials--some in uniform--told the supervisors that budget cuts would jeopardize public safety.

“We urge you to keep public safety first and foremost in your mind,” said Gary White, president of the Ventura County Deputy Sheriffs Assn.

Like all county departments, the law enforcement agencies have been asked to come up with two plans, one assuming a 5% cut in next year’s budget and the other based on a 10% reduction.

The cuts, which will be considered by the supervisors in August, are suggested to offset a projected $16-million deficit next year.

Ventura County Sheriff John V. Gillespie has said he will be forced to lay off 59 deputies and 36 other workers if county officials impose the 10% cuts.

Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury has said a 10% cut would force him to lay off his entire misdemeanor prosecution staff of 18 lawyers. In a memo to Chief Administrative Officer Richard Wittenberg, he said he can replace the staff with seven lawyers from a unit that prosecutes child-support cases.

In an interview Tuesday, Deputy Fire Chief Bob Holoway said he would not be forced to lay off any workers if a 10% cut was imposed because his department has several vacant positions.

But he said public safety would be affected because he would have to cut back heavily on the amount of overtime paid for firefighters to fill the vacant positions.

“Any time we cut staffing levels, it can have an impact,” Holoway said.

Speaking before the Board of Supervisors, Ken Maffei, president of the Ventura County Professional Firefighters Assn., said: “I ask that you re-evaluate the proposed budget cuts and support public safety services for Ventura County.”

Wray, the grand jury foreman, criticized firefighters and law enforcement officials for “using key phrases such as public safety and talking about rapes, robberies and burglaries” when urging the board to spare their departments from budget cuts.

He also took the supervisors to task because he said they have routinely blamed the state government for Ventura County’s budget problems.

“You guys are the leaders of the county,” he said. “You need to lead.”

“The grand jury challenges you not to go about with business as usual,” he said.

In response to the testimony, Supervisor Maggie Erickson Kildee suggested that the board could save the county money by modifying a prisoner booking fee that the county adopted last year.

The supervisors adopted an ordinance in September to charge cities $120 for each prisoner processed into the county jail.

Erickson Kildee suggested that the fee be imposed only when a city surpasses a monthly number of prisoners. That would save the county money by encouraging cities to book fewer prisoners and by reducing the possibility of a lawsuit the cities have threatened over the fee.

Supervisor Susan Lacey suggested that the county save money by eliminating various fees paid to supervisors for attending meetings and hearings. She said she has saved the taxpayers about $20,000 by refusing to accept such fees since she was elected to the board in 1980.

Because the prisoner booking fee has reduced the number of prisoners processed into the county jail, Supervisor John K. Flynn suggested that the county forgo plans to build a new jail near Santa Paula, a suggestion that Erickson Kildee rejected.

On the business license tax, county officials in the past have defended it, saying that each city in the county already imposes such a levy.

But opponents of the fee told the supervisors that the tax is unfair.

“This getting ridiculous,” said Wilma Foley, an Ojai resident who works for a construction contractor. “People cannot afford to pay more taxes.”

Ruth Johnson, a founder of CONTROL, said the fee has generated “a lot of anger, bitterness and grief” among business owners.

Russum, wearing a tan camouflage uniform and Army boots, read from a statement: “I believe the citizens of this county have had enough and are beginning to take back control of our government by ridding ourselves of politicians whose wasteful management of our tax dollars has caused severe economic problems.”

In Thousand Oaks, about 75 workers angry about budget cuts protested layoffs at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting.

Members of the Thousand Oaks City Employees Assn., wearing black arm bands, demanded the reinstatement of 14 workers who were laid off last week. City officials say the layoffs were necessary in order to balance a $60.8-million budget for the next year.

“I was going to retire in a year,” said Tony Bozzo, who was laid off after 23 years as a inspector for the city public works department. “I didn’t like the way they did it. No handshakes, no warning, no nothing.”