EARTHQUAKE: THE LONG ROAD BACK : County Lobbies for Federal Funds : Assistance: Supervisor Howard says local government must streamline its own services to speed rebuilding.

Determined not to be overlooked, Ventura County supervisors already have begun lobbying Washington to secure funding for local rebuilding efforts.

“You gotta remember that the feds are going to put a lot of money into this,” Supervisor John K. Flynn said. “We just have to make sure we get every penny we can. That’s our job to do that.”

County officials estimate that the quake, which hit at 4:31 a.m. Monday, and its aftershocks caused at least $1 billion in damage in the county, most of it concentrated in Simi Valley and Fillmore.

During President Clinton’s visit to Los Angeles last week, Flynn made his way through a throng of people to give the President a note, which asked that he remember Ventura County.

“We don’t want to play second fiddle to Los Angeles,” Flynn said. “We don’t want to be forgotten about like Santa Cruz was after the earthquake in Northern California.

“Everyone remembered San Francisco and Oakland, but forgot about Santa Cruz. . . . Earthquakes don’t stop at political boundaries.”

Supervisor Maggie Kildee, meanwhile, said she wants to use federal funds to help homeowners rebuild in hard-hit areas.

“I don’t know the exact amount of money, but it could be substantial,” Kildee said. “As a county, we have to begin assessing all kinds of resources that can be made available.”

In addition to securing outside funding, the county must streamline its own services to make it easier for citizens to rebuild, Supervisor Vicky Howard said.

“We are just going through a list of what we can do,” she said. “The assessor can re-evaluate property so people can get a break on that. We can also delay property taxes. We can waive permit fees.

“We are trying to respond without the red tape.”

Kildee added: “It’s going to be a big job for all of us to get back on our feet again. We’ve got to work together.”

While residents and businesses struggle to recover, county government could also be hard-pressed to deal with the aftermath concerning its own buildings, officials said.

The East County Courthouse, which flooded when a pipe broke, and the Simi Valley Library suffered extensive damage in the quake.

Although insurance will cover much of the cost of the repairs, county crews have been working around the clock to fix the problems--raising overtime expenses.

“It’s going to be enormously costly,” said county Chief Administrative Officer Richard Wittenberg. “And our budget has really been pummeled the last few years” by state funding reductions, he said. “We’re just going to have to face it step by step.”

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Kildee and Howard said they hoped something good would come out of the crisis.

“It could be a boom to our construction industry, which may help the economy in general,” Howard said.

Kildee added: “We need to make the very best of it and recognize there will be job opportunities for some people.”

Although the aftermath will be difficult to deal with, Supervisor Maria VanderKolk said she felt fortunate that the damage in the county was not more extensive.

“I’ve tried very hard to look at this in a positive light,” VanderKolk said. “Hopefully in the next weeks and months, as the repairs are completed, people are going to be able to pick up again and look back and say, ‘We were really lucky.’ ”