Thousand Oaks Fears State Funding Cut : Finances: The mayor says a quarter of the city’s workers would face layoffs if $4.2 million is axed from the budget. Officials want the public to urge legislators not to trim money for municipalities.

Threatened cuts in state funding could strip Thousand Oaks of $4.2 million and force the city to lay off nearly a quarter of its 400-member work force, city officials said Monday.

The loss represents 13.5% of its $31-million general fund, officials said. And other cuts could follow.

“The state is looking to take a meat ax to cities,” Mayor Robert E. Lewis told about 50 social service, business and labor leaders during an emergency council meeting at City Hall.

Thousand Oaks is not alone in its concern. Representatives of all 10 Ventura County cities will hold a news conference at 7:30 a.m. today in Camarillo to discuss the effect that the cuts would have on their communities.

On Monday, Lewis pleaded for help from local residents and civic leaders in averting state budget cuts.

Officials said they hope to use public outcry in urging state legislators against targeting funds normally reserved for cities. Those funds include property and sales taxes and vehicle license fees.

The proposed cuts are the worst that council members said they have seen in the 28-year history of the city. Four council members will make a pilgrimage to Sacramento this week to lobby legislators.

“We’ve got to go up there and convince those legislators how devastating these cuts will be,” Councilman Alex Fiore said. “We have to put the heat back on them.”

The Legislature on Monday missed a deadline for passing a new budget as lawmakers struggled to close a budget gap of nearly $11 billion.

City Manager Grant R. Brimhall said a legislative budget committee is expected to come up with recommendations on reductions in local government spending that could total up to $1 billion.

Thousand Oaks officials say their programs would be devastated.

“I don’t know of a city program that would not be at risk,” Brimhall said. “You’d have to lay off 100 people.”

In a report to the council, Brimhall outlined more than $4 million in possible spending cuts, including $831,000 in law enforcement, $1.1 million in library services and $1.1 million in administration.

The cuts would involve eliminating 79 positions, including librarians, street sweepers, engineers and sheriff’s deputies who run programs for drug abuse and crime prevention.

Ed Crouch, president of the Thousand Oaks City Employees Assn., said union members sent 300 postcards to state lawmakers in Sacramento urging them not to cut funding to cities.

“They’re saying things like, ‘Please don’t trade our jobs for a balanced budget,’ and ‘Don’t put us on welfare,’ ” Crouch said. “It’s our jobs that are in jeopardy.”

Last year, after the city was threatened with cuts in state funding, it eliminated 35 staff positions to save $1.1 million. None of those jobs were reinstated.

Resident Bob Hughes asked officials why they had not considered postponing plans to build a $63.8-million city hall and performing arts auditorium at Jungleland, a former wild animal park.

But city officials defended their decision to continue the project, saying that the money that will pay for its construction does not come out of the general fund.

Social service organizations that depend on the city for funding also would be hurt, representatives said.

Frances Prince, a former Thousand Oaks councilwoman who serves as director of the nonprofit Senior Concerns, said the proposed cuts could place in jeopardy $21,000 in funds that the group is expected to receive this July to run its meals on wheels and senior information and referral services, Prince said.

“It would be very serious for us,” she said. “Someone told me when I came in that the chickens had come home to roost. I would submit to you that it’s not the chickens that are roosting, it’s the vultures.”

STATE BUDGET CRISIS: A1