Hundreds Urge Supervisors to Spare Services : Budget: The board hears often tearful testimony from residents to save what they consider the most essential items. Final deliberations are expected to begin today.

Hundreds of Ventura County residents turned out at an emotional public hearing Monday night to urge the Board of Supervisors to spare the county’s health-care system, libraries and other services from budget cuts.

The residents, who packed the supervisors’ hearing room and spilled into a lobby at the County Government Center, asked the supervisors in often tearful testimony to save what residents called the most essential services from the deepest cuts.

Board members are expected to begin their final deliberations today, searching for ways to slice spending by up to $13.8 million in an effort to adopt a $442-million General Fund budget.

“Crime is rising,” said Gustavo Faerman, a member of the Citizens for a Safe Ventura County, a group that has lobbied on behalf of the Sheriff’s Department. “We cannot afford to lose any men and women from out in the field. This is very, very important. If my son goes to a library, I want to make sure he’s not going to get assaulted before he gets there.”

But library supporters asked the board to spare the county library budget, which stands to lose $3.5 million, or 40% of its state funding. The loss would force the closure of six of 15 branches.

“I’m not saying we don’t need sheriff’s deputies,” said Barbara Rice of Ojai, who has three children. “But it all starts at a young age. If our children grow into educated adults, we won’t need to build more jails.”

Supervisors listened, jotting down notes as dozens of speakers addressed the board. Supervisor John K. Flynn said “this is the biggest turnout we’ve ever had” for a budget hearing and that he was surprised by the intensity of emotion.

James L. Holden, director of surgery at Ventura County Medical Center, choked back tears as he urged the board not to cut the medical center’s already lean budget.

“It is hard to look at someone in pain and tell them that the hospital does not have the money to provide them with the treatment they need,” Holden said. “Until recently we could get the care for these patients. Today we cannot. Today we are rationing care and the people who cannot pay are not being provided treatment. I urge you to consider the cost in suffering as well as in dollars.”

Earlier Monday, Sheriff Larry Carpenter, Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury and Health Services Director Phillipp K. Wessels made their last-minute pleas to stave off funding cuts to their departments as the supervisors ended a series of hearings for top county officials.

Repeating dire warnings, the three officials told the board that large funding cuts could impair efforts to protect public safety and provide medical care to the poor.

“We are running out of maneuvering room,” Wessels said.

Although most board members have already pledged to buffer law enforcement agencies from sharp reductions, protecting health care services from the cuts could prove difficult, officials said.

“I’m very concerned about the medical center,” Supervisor Vicky Howard said. “I really think we will have to have significant board discussion on that.”

But she added: “If we start opening the flood gates, pretty soon everyone will be asking (for exemptions).”

Since January, when Gov. Pete Wilson unveiled his plans to shift $2.6 billion in property taxes from local governments to the schools, the supervisors have been searching for ways to offset losses in funding.

The majority of the county’s departments could face budget cuts ranging from 10% to 17.5%, but the cuts are not as sharp as anticipated because Wilson agreed to shore up local governments by extending a half-cent sales tax until December.

The cuts, Wessels told the board, will not be easy to absorb.

He said he could be forced to lay off up to 17 more employees at the medical center, on top of the 25 already cut earlier this year. He also said the hospital could be forced to eliminate overtime pay for nurses working 12-hour shifts--a move that has been criticized by members of the nurses’ union.

And if all other options are exhausted, the county hospital could be forced to eliminate up to eight beds for indigent patients, cutting services to about 300 people annually.

“None of these options are very easy to do,” Wessels said. “We are simply looking for what additional things we can do to avoid getting down to the point where we have to close down beds. None of us like it.”

Carpenter asked the board to leave intact his $48-million budget. He said he has already taken steps to streamline the department’s operations and has persuaded the sheriff’s deputies union to forgo pay raises and bonuses for the 1993-94 fiscal year. The measures will save about $1.5 million, reducing the department’s budget by about 3%.

Bradbury asked the board to cut his budget by no more than 5%, or about $500,000. If the cuts go deeper, he said, his office could be forced to stop prosecuting some misdemeanor crimes such as battery, petty theft and vandalism.

“If the sheriff sustains a 3% cut, and we hope his budget is not impacted more than that, a 5% cut for the district attorney’s office would maintain some balance in the criminal justice system,” Bradbury said.