Supervisors Cut Funds for Victims’ Program : Budget: The board decides that the $9,000 should come from a state grant. Four residents defend the service as an invaluable aid.

Despite appeals from a group of crime victims and their families, the Ventura County Board of Supervisors took action Tuesday to cut county funding of a victims’ assistance program.

The supervisors voted that $9,000 in overhead costs to run the program should no longer be paid directly by the county, but should instead be taken from state funds used by the district attorney’s office for program salaries.

The program, which is financed with a combination of state and county funds, would lose one employee under the action taken by the supervisors, said Colleen Toy White, assistant chief deputy district attorney.

Four speakers told the supervisors that the program has been an invaluable service to crime victims who are trying to overcome their trauma. Several others wrote notes in support of the program.

“I can’t tell you what we would have done without this program,” said Frances Morrow, who held back tears as she recounted how her daughter was raped four years ago.

Tuesday’s episode is expected to be replayed repeatedly in the next few weeks as supervisors grapple over which county programs to cut to erase a projected $16-million deficit in next year’s budget.

County Chief Administrator Richard Wittenberg has already required each department to prepare two budget plans: one that assumes a 5% cut, and one that assumes a 10% cut.

During Tuesday’s hearing, the speakers said they feared that the supervisors want to eliminate the program entirely. The supervisors said the victims were misinformed, and some supervisors suggested that employees at the district attorney’s office gave them the wrong information.

Supervisor Maria VanderKolk said her office has been inundated with phone calls and letters from people who are opposed to the elimination of the program.

“The thing I kept hearing was: ‘Please don’t eliminate this program,’ ” she said. “That is not what we are doing, and I think it’s critical for the D.A. to pass that on.”

Among the speakers who urged the supervisors to spare the program was Gail Cohen of Ventura, who choked back tears as she spoke.

“Two years ago, after my 10-year high school reunion, I was attacked and sexually assaulted by a man that I’ve known for 15 years,” she said.

Cohen said the program provided an advocate who also provided support for her when her assailant was released from prison and tried to contact her.

“I just want to say that I could be the daughter of any one of you people up there,” she told the supervisors.

Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury said in a memo Tuesday that the victims’ advocates spread the word that the program was in jeopardy because Wittenberg’s office suggested several weeks earlier that the program be eliminated entirely.

“Based on your comments, the board seemed unaware that the CAO (Wittenberg) had proposed the complete elimination of my Victim Services Division,” he said. “Assuming that is the case, I am extremely disheartened that the CAO was not completely forthright in his comments regarding this matter.”

Kathy McCann, an administrative analyst for the county’s chief administrative office, said she has suggested over the past few weeks that the district attorney consider eliminating the program to meet Wittenberg’s proposed budget cuts.

But McCann said the suggestion to eliminate the victims’ program was not a formal request, but a proposal for consideration. She said the county could save between $100,000 to $200,000 by cutting the program.

The program has an annual operating budget of about $310,000 and a staff of 10 employees. Last year, those employees helped 7,106 crime victims, including people who needed crisis intervention, court services and assistance in obtaining restraining orders, according to a district attorney’s report.

A state grant pays for 50% of the program costs, while the county pays the balance.

The supervisors gave the district attorney’s office the authority Tuesday to apply for the state grant, but to also request that $9,000 of the state money that would normally pay for salaries be used to pay for the county’s overhead costs.