Prop. 172 Petition Drive Declared a Success : Public safety: More than 47,000 signatures are gathered, enough to force a special election on use of the tax revenue.

Supporters of a ballot initiative guaranteeing that all Proposition 172 sales tax revenue be spent solely on public safety agencies have collected enough valid signatures to force a special election, officials said Thursday.

A total of 47,437 signatures on petitions calling for the ballot measure have been certified, about 3,000 more than needed for a special election, County Clerk Richard Dean said.

“I think that is probably a record in terms of the numbers,” Dean said.

The Board of Supervisors must decide whether to call a special election within 100 days or simply vote to turn the measure into an ordinance.

The board, sharply divided on the measure, is scheduled to discuss its options Tuesday. Supervisor John Flynn, one of three supervisors who signed the petition, however, said he will be in Washington next week and will ask the board to postpone the item. He said he supports approving the measure as an ordinance.

“There should be no question about what the voters want,” he said.

Voters statewide endorsed the half-cent sales tax in November, 1993, with its promise to provide a secure source of funding for public safety. Ventura County’s new ballot initiative would guarantee that the county actually give the money to certain agencies--specifically the sheriff, district attorney, public defender, probation and fire services.

Two newly elected supervisors, Frank Schillo and Judy Mikels, also support the measure, while longtime members Maggie Kildee and Susan Lacey have said in the past they want more flexibility in using the special sales tax revenue.

Otto Stoll, president of Citizens for a Safe Ventura County, the chief organizer behind the petition drive, said his group also wants the board to adopt an ordinance. He said spending $426,300 to hold a special election would be a waste of taxpayer money.

“We don’t want a special election,” Stoll said. “There’s no purpose for that. The public has already voted for this.”

Starting in January, Stoll’s group collected 58,000 signatures supporting its initiative. The petitions were submitted April 25 and election officials, studying a random sample, have determined that enough of the names belong to registered voters in Ventura County.

The petition drive was prompted by the supervisors’ decision last year, opposed by Flynn, to divert some of the money from voter-approved Proposition 172 to other agencies.

To block any similar board actions in the future, Stoll’s group drafted a local initiative with language that specifically defines public safety as five county agencies.

County Counsel James McBride said only a majority vote is needed by the board to approve the local initiative as an ordinance.

Meanwhile, McBride said he has yet to determine if the county Fire Department is legally eligible for a portion of the special sales tax money. Proposition 172 was intended to provide a source of funding for agencies hurt by an earlier shift in local property tax revenues to the state.

Unlike other public safety agencies, the Fire Department is part of a special district and did not suffer state budget cutbacks during the 1992-93 fiscal year. For that reason, Auditor-Controller Thomas O. Mahon said earlier this week that state law may prohibit the Fire Department from sharing in the sales tax money.