Help Is on the Way : Summer jobs: More than 700 young interns will get work experience and provide much-needed aid in government offices. The federal government is paying all costs.

Budget-weary county administrators and city officials can take a small measure of relief now that summer vacation has begun: The interns are coming.

Starting this week, more than 700 young workers will begin jobs in county offices and city halls throughout Ventura County.

The workers, ranging in age from 14 to 21, are participants in the federal Summer Youth Employment Training Program, one of several intern programs in the county. They will spend six to nine weeks filing, making copies, mailing letters, running cash registers and performing other tasks regularly carried out by city and county staff.

And it won’t cost their employers a cent.

Program costs--everything from minimum-wage salaries to workers’ compensation and health insurance to bus tokens for workers without transportation--are paid for through a $900,000 grant administered by the Ventura County superintendent of schools office.

Supporters say the program provides city and county governments with crews of eager young employees while giving students--all of whom come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds--much-needed experience as well as a summer job.

“Our goals are to expose youths to real work experience and to have them perform productive work,” said Ventura County Personnel Director Ronald Komers, whose department will place about 80 students countywide.

“The focus of our efforts is to build a stronger bridge between the classroom and the job site,” Komers said. “We’re looking for something in this program that helps them and us.”

Because local government budgets are so strapped by the recession and the state’s fiscal problems, the free labor is a windfall for the agencies that sponsor young workers. But the recession has had an impact on the program itself, coordinator Pamela Macias said.

About 400 of the participants come from the Oxnard area, Macias said. But not all students in the program come from such traditionally poorer areas of the county, she said.

“We are seeing a lot more kids turning up eligible for this program, many of whom have parents who have become unemployed due to the economy. And that’s what has made them eligible.”

As with many government programs, demand for assistance far outstrips funding to provide it, Macias said.

“We have more kids, and more prospective work sites, than we do money to pay for it,” she said, adding that more than 1,000 youths sought jobs and applications are still coming in.

Applicants who are 14 or 15 get first priority because they have the hardest time finding jobs, Macias said. Next are high school dropouts and others who are deemed likely to get into trouble unless they find work.

Those who get in find the program an all-encompassing introduction to the work world, Macias said. They are held to the same attendance standards as their full-time colleagues and are required to be prompt, to fill out their time cards properly and to work diligently during their entire shift, Macias said.

“What we’re really teaching them is how to be an employee.”

Several similar student job programs operate during the school year in Ventura County. One of the most successful is the Regional Occupational Program, said Director Jim Compton.

Each year hundreds of students from throughout the county enroll in the one-year trade school program, studying everything from auto body repair to nursing to word processing.

The highlight of the program, Compton said, is the spring internship that each participant is required to complete after training. Many of these interns also provide much-needed help to cash-strapped city and county administrators.

Elias Delgado, a graduating senior at Rio Mesa High School who studied auto painting and repair during the program, did his internship at the Ventura County Auto Fleet Service Center.

Delgado practiced his new skills repainting black-and-white police cars for auctions and doing minor body work on other county vehicles.

The internship, he said, “was pretty interesting. I learned a lot about body shops.”

Delgado’s supervisor, senior mechanic Monte Rounsavill, said his intern was not afraid to ask questions, an important quality in a young employee. But that trait also diminished his cost-effectiveness somewhat.

“In reality, a shop would lose money on him because of having to take the time to answer questions and explain things. But what we’re trying to do is show kids like him what it’s like to work in a body shop and see if he really wants to continue in the field.”

Apparently, Delgado does, having landed two jobs since his internship, one restoring antique cars in Camarillo and the other doing body work on damaged race cars in Oxnard.

“The stuff I learned in ROP came in pretty handy,” he said.

Wendy Ulloa, a graduating senior from Hueneme High, is another ROP student whose training could turn into a full-time job.

Ulloa studied computer software and business applications last year and was an intern for Port Hueneme personnel manager Arlene Morrelli. Ulloa put her ROP training to use each day writing letters on one program, designing identification cards and graphics on another and retyping a police training manual on a third.

Morrelli said she was impressed with the competence shown by her young assistant.

“These interns are really capable of sitting down almost immediately and being productive for you,” she said.

Ulloa said she hopes that her performance will give her a chance to continue working for the city.

“They told me they were happy with my work,” Ulloa said, “and the Police Department will probably need part-time workers in the summer, so they might give me a call.”