Grand Jury Finds Flaws in Tuition Program : Government: The panel reports no criminal acts. But it questions some employee payments and calls for new supervision.

A Ventura County grand jury investigation found no criminal activity in connection with a controversial county tuition funding program, but says the program made a number of questionable payments and needs new supervision and controls.

A major recommendation calls for removing program supervision from the county Personnel Department and suggests that a committee of three department heads take it over.

Problems were so rampant, the report said, that the grand jury “was shocked to find” that one county employee used public funds for courses aimed at helping her become a horse trainer.

The grand jury report was completed Monday and distributed to county government officials Thursday.

One line of inquiry by the grand jury was whether Ronald W. Komers, the county’s personnel director, abused the program by using its funds to underwrite a doctorate program in which he is enrolled at a Santa Barbara school, sources have told The Times.

In its report, the grand jury disclosed that it interviewed Komers and other county government officials, including those from the auditor-controller’s office who discovered problems during an audit last year.

Although no employees are specifically cited for violating guidelines, the grand jury made clear that it took a dim view of highly paid county employees using a program that was designed, in part, to help minorities and lower-paid workers enhance their careers.

The report was critical of “the participation of upper-management personnel whose annual compensation packages are in excess of $100,000.”

The report said it was particularly wrong for highly paid employees to be using the program “during periods of fiscal restraint when the county is reducing its services to the public.”

Komers, 47, the county’s personnel director for eight years, supervises the career development program. He draws an annual salary of $89,724.

Komers could not be reached for comment on Thursday.

In a recent interview, Komers said he did nothing wrong. He said his use of career development funds to further his education “was fully within the program guidelines.” He added, however, that he was no longer using county money to help fund his tuition.

Under the career development program, approved by the Board of Supervisors in 1989, employees can receive up to $300 per unit for college graduate courses and $100 for undergraduate courses.

Between March, 1990, and December, 1991, about $183,000 had been spent on the academic programs of 140 employees, the report said.

Among the grand jury’s recommendations:

* Instead of the program being under the supervision of the Personnel Department, it should be managed by “a committee of at least three people to approve applications, each from different departments.”

* Funding should not be paid directly to program participants.

* Komers should include the auditor-controller, Norman R. Hawkes, in monitoring the program’s fiscal controls.

* Program funding should be limited to county employees “below a certain income level.”

* Supervisors should redraft the program’s guidelines so that employee education goals “be directly related to a county job, classification or function.”