Budget-Cutting Options Listed by Supervisors : Finances: The county could lose more than $40 million in state funding if Gov. Wilson’s grim fiscal plan is adopted.

Preparing for upcoming budget cuts, the Ventura County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday began to outline options for slashing costs--including closing several fire stations, lopping at least 113 Fire Department and library jobs and shutting down government operations one day a week.

After a bleak budget presentation by county staff, the supervisors decided that they may need to take drastic action to offset sharp projected losses in state funding, which could exceed $40 million for the county’s general fund alone if the Legislature adopts Gov. Pete Wilson’s grim budget plan.

In an effort to take early action to mitigate the fiscal crisis--which officials said could be the county’s worst money crunch since the Great Depression--the supervisors agreed to:

* Allow Chief Administrative Officer Richard Wittenberg and the personnel department to begin negotiations with the county’s labor unions to develop a program that cuts hours of most county employees and shuts down the government one day a week.

* Direct the county’s department heads to immediately implement a voluntary hiring freeze to forestall layoffs.

* Allow the fire chief and the library services director to explore the possibility of assessing property owners who receive fire or library services up to $62 annually to offset a “devastating” shortfall in state revenue for next year. The county’s fire and library services could lose up to $27 million.

The supervisors also agreed to step up their lobbying effort in Sacramento to try to persuade legislators to scrap Wilson’s plan to shift nearly $2.6 billion in property tax funds from local governments to the school districts in 1993-94.

“We need to make sure we at least give it the best effort we can,” Supervisor Susan K. Lacey said.

During the five-hour budget session, Wittenberg, Fire Chief George Lund and Library Services Director Dixie Adeniran presented the board with their desolate projections for next fiscal year, which begins July 1. Other department heads will submit their budget proposals later.

“This is the worst economic time since the ‘30s,” Wittenberg told the supervisors. “The largest target and the easiest target . . . is the counties. It’s time to re-examine our functions. We are looking at Draconian effects.”

In the Fire Department alone under the “best-case” scenario, Lund said, about 60 workers would be laid off and 15 positions would be eliminated when nearly $7 million is cut out of the department’s $46-million budget for the next fiscal year.

“Proposition 13 is here in 1993,” Lund said. “That’s what we are trying to deal with.”

The Fire Department also has proposed closing the Ventura Avenue station and contracting with the Ventura Fire Department for services in the area. In addition, fire officials say they may be forced to scale back the stations in Upper Ojai, Lake Sherwood and near Malibu.

Officials also are considering consolidating the fire stations at Los Posas Estates in Camarillo and at the Camarillo Airport, as well as the fire stations in Saticoy and Fillmore.

Under the worst-case scenario, which would mean a loss of $22 million in state funding to the Fire Department, the department would be forced to slash services in half. Up to 15 stations would be closed and about 200 of 463 workers would be laid off under the worst-case plan. Officials said they hope that raising $11 million through a special assessment district would buffer the blow.

According to Lund’s proposal--which he plans to fine-tune over the next few months--property owners would be asked to pay $50 annually to the district.

Adeniran said that the library services department could lose up to 57% of its $8.4-million budget for 1993-94 and that she feared that the department will be forced to cut up to 38 jobs out of 130 and gut services.

Already, department officials are considering closing the Ventura Avenue Library and cutting hours at four other libraries to offset a $300,000 state funding shortfall for this fiscal year.

“We’ve scraped it to the bone,” she said.

Adeniran said a special assessment on property owners of $12.29 annually--which would raise about $1.8 million--would soften the impact. Library officials also are considering soliciting more funds from private donors.

“We are looking at different revenue-raising possibilities,” she said. “The long-term opportunities need to be financed outside of the public purse.”

The supervisors are expected to continue their discussion on the budget at their meeting Jan. 26.

BOARD SHAKE-UP: Maria VanderKolk is voted out of her seat on the supervisors’ budget committee. B4