Environmentalists Criticize VanderKolk Plan : Pollution: The supervisor proposes to retain prosecutors with $500,000 taken from the county’s anti-smog agency.

Ventura County environmentalists have condemned a proposal by Supervisor Maria VanderKolk to transfer about $500,000 earmarked for anti-smog programs to pay for prosecutors in the district attorney’s office.

VanderKolk, who was elected last year on a strong environmental platform, said the transfer would help the district attorney’s office survive impending budget cuts that could eliminate 11 prosecutors.

The money would come from increases in vehicle registration fees that have been approved for the Air Pollution Control District, a county agency that monitors air quality and operates several anti-pollution programs.

VanderKolk said she will present the proposal to the Board of Supervisors next week.

She made the proposal after Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury suggested last week that the supervisors increase the vehicle registration fee by $1 to pay for a team of lawyers to prosecute car thieves.

In the past eight months, the supervisors had increased the vehicle registration fee by $4 to pay for several APCD anti-smog programs. Each $1 increase will raise about $500,000.

Under VanderKolk’s plan, the supervisors would reduce the money set aside for the APCD to $3 per registration and add a $1 fee to pay for Bradbury’s prosecution team.

“I just cannot support any additional burden on the taxpayer,” she said.

However, she admitted that she may take a second look at the proposal if it draws too much opposition.

“I may not support it myself after I hear all of the testimony,” she said.

Several top environmentalists, many of whom supported VanderKolk’s campaign last fall, criticized the idea, saying the county’s anti-smog programs should be expanded, not reduced.

Ventura County’s air fails federal health standards for ozone pollution about 44 days a year and fails the more stringent state standards 125 days a year.

“We are pretty worried about the concept,” said Neil Moyer, president of the Ventura County Environmental Coalition, which has been a longtime advocate of stronger anti-smog measures.

The coalition has been considered a VanderKolk ally since before she took office. Her top aide, Russ Baggerly, had previously served as a member of the coalition’s board of directors.

However, most of the environmentalists who were interviewed said they believe that VanderKolk’s proposal is not an indication that she is backing away from her commitment to the environment.

“I think she’s wrong on this issue,” said Kevin Sweeney, a consultant for Patagonia Inc., a politically active Ventura clothing company that has endorsed VanderKolk and several other slow-growth candidates. “But it doesn’t mean she is no longer an environmentalist.”

Former Simi Valley City Councilwoman Ann Rock disagrees. She said she views VanderKolk’s proposal as a betrayal of her previous stands to support anti-pollution programs.

“It has to be getting away from her position in a very big way, given that one of the themes that Miss VanderKolk pressed is that air pollution is so bad,” Rock said.

Rorie Skei, a spokeswoman for the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, said she would not support any cuts to the APCD’s budget, but she stopped short of criticizing VanderKolk.

“I certainly support the work of the APCD,” she said. “Any diversion of funds that were expected to go to the APCD bear some scrutiny.”

VanderKolk said she has not backed away from her commitment to the environment but is simply offering a plan to keep the district attorney’s office fully staffed and still provide funding for the APCD.

“The APCD is expanding dramatically when the rest of the county is contracting,” she said.

Earlier this month, the supervisors approved a preliminary budget that calls for a 5% budget cut in each department to erase a $13.6-million deficit in the fiscal year that began July 1.

Richard Baldwin, the APCD’s top administrator, said the loss of $1 from the $4 vehicle-registration increase is tantamount to a 10% cut in his budget.

“It will be a step back and hamper our ability to reduce emissions from motor vehicles,” he said.

The department has a staff of about 70 and a budget of about $5 million, he said.

Such a budget cut could force him to eliminate several programs, including one that would pay a California Highway Patrol officer to cite drivers of smog-belching cars, Baldwin said.

He said the reduction would also force him to eliminate a promotion campaign for a toll-free telephone number that allows residents to report “smoking” cars.

Baldwin said the cut also could mean eliminating a program to teach employers how to comply with a district rule that requires businesses to promote ride-sharing.

He pointed out that his agency is funded primarily from fees charged to polluting industries and does not draw from the county’s general fund budget. If VanderKolk’s plan is approved, he said, the agency may be forced to increase the fees to those businesses.

“A 10% cut would be a serious cut on the APCD’s programs,” he said.

Baldwin also notes that the air pollution control agency in Santa Barbara County has a staff of about 100 and a budget of about $12 million, yet has only half the population of Ventura County.

VanderKolk said she has asked Baldwin to prepare a report outlining the effects of such a reduction. However, she said, “I still look at this as the APCD keeping a vast majority of the money.”