Board Pledges Tax Funds for Public Safety : Finances: County supervisors pass a resolution aimed at persuading voters to extend the half-cent sales levy.

Hoping to persuade Ventura County voters to extend a half-cent sales tax, the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday pledged to allocate all the funds from the tax to fire, police and criminal justice agencies.

“Clearly we understand that the priorities of the county are on public safety,” Supervisor Maggie Kildee said. “If this extension of the half-cent sales tax passes, we will spend this money on public safety. It’s important for the public to understand what the intent of the board is.”

Voters in Ventura County and across the state will decide in November whether to extend the sales tax, which is due to expire at the end of the year. The tax brings in $26 million to $30 million to the county each year.

Under the state guidelines worked out between Gov. Pete Wilson and the Legislature, the county must spend all the money from the extended tax on “public safety.” But state leaders have left it up to county officials to define which public safety agencies will benefit from the tax dollars.

Voting 4 to 0, the board passed a resolution on Tuesday to dedicate all of the funds to the Sheriff’s Department, the Fire Protection District, Correction Services Agency and the offices of the district attorney and the public defender.

The resolution grew out of a series of meetings among county officials, union representatives for county workers and members of the Citizens for a Safe Ventura County, a group set up this year to protect the Sheriff’s Department against budget cuts.

Supervisor John K. Flynn left the meeting before the supervisors voted on the resolution Tuesday. But he told his fellow board members earlier that he objected to the measure because it was created during private sessions with union members.

“We almost have a meet-and-confer situation on how to spend the money we have not received yet and we might not receive,” he said. “I’m not going to sign this resolution today because it’s improper. The meetings were improper. They should have been done in the public arena.”

Nevertheless, Otto Stoll, president of the citizens’ group of law enforcement boosters, said the resolution “gives us a mandate to take to the voters.”

“The board has acted in good faith and given us a direction as to where they will spend the money,” he said.

Stoll said the group, which has about 2,000 members, will work hard to persuade voters to pass the extension.

“We are going to face some major budget shortages in Ventura County if it doesn’t pass,” Stoll said. “We will be right back where we were in June or July trying to figure out how to allocate a shrinking amount of money to a number of important public services.”

Without the money, law enforcement agencies could be forced to cut their budgets by 15%, said Sheriff Larry Carpenter. He said the department would have to end routine investigations of all but the most serious of crimes, close down the jail in the east county and lay off up to 100 workers.

“There will be a dramatic drop in service,” Carpenter said.

The extension of the tax would mean the Sheriff’s Department, which was spared from deep budget reductions this year, could continue operating at its current level.

“We have approved the budget based upon the passage of this (ballot) proposition,” Supervisor Maria VanderKolk said. “If it doesn’t pass, we are losing $28 million. The untenable situation that would result is hard to fathom.”