Lobbying Is Intense for Fair Share of $26 Million : Government: Supervisors will allocate funds under Prop. 172. County criminal justice branches submit request for $24 million.

In a decision that could have far-reaching effects on the way public safety services are funded in Ventura County, the Board of Supervisors this week will begin debating who gets $26 million a year up for grabs under Proposition 172.

Government leaders have begun a fierce lobbying effort to persuade supervisors that they rightfully have claim to the dollars generated by a half-cent sales tax hike made permanent by voters last fall.

Competition for the money is so intense that top managers in the county’s criminal justice system have taken the unusual step of banding together and submitting a 24-page request for about $24 million. The county’s fire chief, who said he didn’t learn of the crime fighters’ request until last week, hastily fired back with his own written plea for $5.5 million.

And leaders in many of Ventura County’s 10 cities are doing their own arm-twisting, circulating a letter to the supervisors that asks for $2.6 million.

“When there’s money available, everyone wants it,” said county Auditor-Controller Thomas O. Mahon. “I’m trying to figure out how I can get some,” he joked.

With requests outstripping available funds, supervisors must begin the difficult task of deciding which requests to approve. Their decision is critical, competitors for the money said, because it will probably determine for many years who gets proceeds from the sales-tax initiative.

“If (the supervisors) allocate all of the money to new positions in the criminal justice departments, then there are no decisions to make in the future,” said Fire Chief George Lund. “All of the money will go to paying for those positions in the future.”

Supervisor Maggie Kildee said the board will probably move quickly, although supervisors won’t know until July how much Proposition 172 money the county will receive for fiscal year 1994-95. Mahon has estimated the county’s return on sales tax will amount to about $26 million annually.

Supervisors also must decide how to distribute about $12 million in sales-tax funds expected to be raised between January and July of this year.

“There is public pressure to allocate the funds now because there is a perception that the money will not be used to fund public safety as intended,” said Kildee, a member of the budget subcommittee.

The most comprehensive request comes from the managers of four departments within the county’s criminal justice system.

In a joint proposal signed by Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury, Sheriff Larry Carpenter, Corrections Services Agency Director Frank C. Woodson and Public Defender Kenneth I. Clayman, the managers ask supervisors for $24 million for the fiscal year that begins in July.

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The biggest chunk, $10 million, will be used to operate the new Todd Road Jail scheduled to open next year in a citrus field near Santa Paula. Carpenter said he will also add 92 sheriff’s deputies, trainees and a technician to his department.

The district attorney’s office is proposing to add 33 positions, including 11 attorneys and six investigators, while probation officials are recommending 41 new employees, primarily probation officers.

Under the proposal, the public defender’s office would also increase its staff, adding five attorneys, two investigators, two law clerks and a social worker.

Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Donald Coleman said it is the first time that law enforcement officials have taken such a unified approach. Department officials met for six weeks before drawing up the plan submitted to supervisors.

Reaching consensus on the amounts each agency would receive took “a lot of work,” Coleman said. But the parties ultimately came away feeling the strategy makes sense, he said.

“There is a recognition that we each have a job to do and that each one impacts the other,” he said.

The head of the county’s fire protection district said he was stunned to learn how quickly law enforcement officials moved to claim Proposition 172 funds. Lund said he learned of their proposal when criminal justice officials made a presentation to supervisors at a budget subcommittee hearing Feb. 16.

“I was surprised to see that the competition had already started,” Lund said. “It required us to scramble and put something together to present at Tuesday’s meeting.”

His four-page request for $5.5 million would help restore 19 positions eliminated and services trimmed as a result of two years of budget cutting, Lund said. He is also proposing to buy seven new fire trucks to replace outdated equipment, and to reinstate full-service fire and rescue squad services in portions of Oxnard and the Ojai Valley.

Lund acknowledges his department must overcome some obstacles. A county audit performed last year concluded that the fire district is top-heavy with managers, spends too much on overtime and is lax with sick leave.

Although Lund has denied those charges and a county committee is currently looking into them, he knows he must also overcome the public’s current obsession with crime.

“The board is trying to do what the public wants,” Lund said. “Now that the fires are out and we’re not dealing with an earthquake, the Fire Department does not have high visibility.

“But everyday you pick up the paper, the focus is on crime. I think that is going to have a heavy impact on how that money is allocated.”

Battling crime is also the centerpiece of city leaders’ attempts to get a piece of the Proposition 172 pie.

“Most of the crimes in Ventura County occur in the cities, and we are facing increased costs every year,” said Thousand Oaks City Councilman Frank Schillo.

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Schillo is leading an effort by leaders of the county’s 10 cities to receive 10% of all sales-tax money collected as a result of the public-safety initiative. In a pitch to the cities’ mayors at a breakfast meeting Feb. 13, Schillo said he asked them to sign a letter urging the supervisors to grant their request.

Signatures are being collected for the letter, he said, and it will be presented to the supervisors at Tuesday’s meeting. Besides paying for extra street patrols, Schillo said he would advocate that the funds be used to pay for crossing guards at busy intersections in Thousand Oaks.

Schillo said cities are more deserving of the money than the fire district, although he said he supports the funding request by law enforcement officials. Schillo, a candidate for the 2nd Supervisorial District, has long contended that Thousand Oaks pays more to the Fire Department in taxes than it gets back in service.

“I don’t see where they think they need more money,” Schillo said.

Where each of the supervisors stands on the funding issue won’t become clear until this week’s meeting. Kildee said she won’t make a decision until she has heard each side’s arguments. But Supervisor Maria VanderKolk said she is leaning toward giving law enforcement its full request.

“The public clearly wants support for criminal justice, and that is where we’ve got to put the money,” she said.