Supervisors Order County Hiring Freeze : Economy: Citing the recession-caused drop in tax revenues, officials warn that elimination of some programs will be necessary.

The Ventura County Board of Supervisors imposed an immediate hiring freeze Tuesday and warned that more drastic cutbacks are sure to come in the months ahead.

The supervisors, citing a sour economy that has caused a statewide drop in tax revenue, approved the freeze as a hedge against sharp cuts in state funding expected for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

The state, which provides about half of the county’s money, has projected budget deficits of 8% to 13% over the next 18 months.

“It’s a prudent course for us to take,” Supervisor John K. Flynn said of the county’s midyear emergency measure.

Chairwoman Maggie Erickson Kildee asked her colleagues to begin to rank county services because “at some point we’re going to have to cut some programs.”

Both Erickson Kildee and Supervisor Vicky Howard said they favor eliminating entire areas or services, rather than continuing to weaken all departments through cuts. Supervisors imposed 5% cuts on most departments in August.

In the interim, the supervisors hope to save millions of dollars through the freeze on hiring.

Analysts estimated that the freeze could save the county, which has 6,800 employees, nearly $8 million if all 439 vacant jobs identified in a new budget report were left open for the next six months.

But actual savings may be less because some of those vacancies already have been filled, analysts said.

And even under the freeze, workers can be hired for some critical health and safety jobs, positions for which it is hard to recruit and jobs that pay for themselves or are paid completely out of state and federal money.

The supervisors gave department heads until Dec. 31 to provide a list of jobs they will freeze until July.

Several administrators, though endorsing the freeze as necessary, said they were not yet sure how much it will affect their operations.

James E. Isom, director of the county’s welfare agency, noted that the budget report listing 439 vacancies was prepared from data gathered two months ago.

“The budget document doesn’t mean much at this point,” Isom said. His records show about 75 vacancies in his 900-employee department. Many of those jobs would be exempt from the freeze because they are fully supported by outside money, Isom said.

Nor would the freeze have much immediate effect on the operations of the Sheriff’s Department, Public Works Department, the Health Care Agency, the district attorney’s office or the Library Services Agency, officials said.

Health care Director Phillipp K. Wessels said his 1,400-employee department has about 130 vacancies, not because of a hiring freeze but because it has not been able to lure new employees to the county. Low pay, the high cost of living and a nationwide shortage of some medical specialists have kept most of the posts vacant, he said.

“My point is that it doesn’t make any difference whether we have a freeze because we can’t find anybody to take these jobs anyway,” Wessels said.

The situation is much the same in public works, where many of the 51 vacancies are for hard-to-find engineers, Director Arthur Goulet said.

“Although there are a lot of engineers who are unemployed, many of them don’t have the talent or experience of the type we need,” he said. “We’re very specialized.”

Karen Kiplinger, budget analyst for Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury, said the chief prosecutor froze hiring in his department six months ago to absorb a 3.5% budget cut imposed by the board. So the freeze requires little change for the office, she said.

In library services, just four of the 11 positions listed as vacant in the budget report remain unfilled, Director Dixie Adeniran said.

“Of course with any turnover, we will begin to feel an impact,” said Adeniran, who directs a 15-branch system with outlets in seven cities.

Sheriff John Gillespie said he will voluntarily freeze nearly all of the 49 vacant jobs in his department even though many are probably exempt from the freeze because they involve public safety.

“I certainly think the board is doing the right thing. It’s necessary,” Gillespie said.

While the freeze apparently will be absorbed with few problems, county administrators said they are girding for bigger challenges in the 1992-93 fiscal year.

Richard Wittenberg, the county’s chief administrator, advised the supervisors to “really bore in on downsizing” county government. He said many California counties that have not tightened their belts face huge deficits even this fiscal year.

Santa Barbara County, for example, is facing a shortfall of about $15 million to $20 million, he said.

By comparison, Ventura County will have a surplus of about $6 million in this year’s $436-million general fund, which supports most essential services.

The county has already eliminated 54 jobs, frozen all pay and imposed 5% cuts on most of the 30 departments over which the supervisors have greatest control. Additional 3% cuts were implemented last January to help balance this year’s budget.

“We’re at the point where we’re going to have to start cutting programs,” Wittenberg told the board. And the programs that remain “will become less and less effective.”

After past spending cuts, some county programs “are close to crumbling because you can’t keep on expanding” services without an infusion of money, Wittenberg said.

Flynn, a supervisor for all but four years since 1973, said that he had heard such dire forecasts before.

“When budget time came around we always had severe problems it seemed,” Flynn said. “We heard speeches just like today. . . . What distinguished this year from all the other years?”

Wittenberg said the difference is that the nation is deep into its worst recession in decades, and that even usually optimistic federal officials see no end in sight.

Nor do supervisors have the kind of flexibility to raise taxes and cut programs that they did years ago, Wittenberg said.

Today, the county depends on the state for 50% of its revenue, instead of being able to increase local property taxes to make up for shortfalls.

And state and federal laws now require that the county provide services that eat up about 90% of the budget, contrasted with 60% years ago, he said.