County OKs Public Safety Funding Ordinance : Prop. 172: Law ensures that all future revenue from the initiative will go to five agencies. The 3-2 vote ends a yearlong feud.

Despite objections from two Ventura County supervisors concerned about the fiscal impact on other departments, the board Tuesday approved an ordinance guaranteeing that all future Proposition 172 money will go to five designated public safety agencies.

The board voted 3 to 2 to approve the ordinance--prompted by a petition drive led by the sheriff and district attorney that garnered the signatures of more than 47,000 registered county voters. Supervisors Maggie Kildee and Susan Lacey cast the dissenting votes.

The board’s action ended a yearlong feud between law enforcement officials and the county over the distribution of sales-tax dollars generated from voter-approved Proposition 172. The half-cent tax brought more than $27 million to the county last fiscal year.

“The greatest relief of all is that we can now dedicate all of our time to fighting crime rather than fighting over budgets,” Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury said after the board’s vote.

The new ordinance ensures that all future revenue generated from Proposition 172 will go to the sheriff, district attorney, public defender, probation and fire services.

“It’s simple, it’s straightforward and it’s the will of the people,” Sheriff Larry Carpenter told the supervisors during an hourlong hearing on the ordinance. “I urge you to adopt this as it now stands and begin the healing process.”

But Kildee and Lacey said they could not endorse the ordinance because it exempts the five public safety agencies from future cuts of non-Proposition 172 money. That could have a major financial impact on other departments and programs, which must be scaled back to reduce a projected budget deficit of $38 million, they said.

“My concern is that we’re tying our hands in a way that I don’t believe is good public policy,” Kildee said.

Barry Hammitt, president of the county employees union, called for a detailed financial analysis of how the ordinance might affect other county departments and programs.

“If this is to be adopted today, then law enforcement--regardless of what happens--will never have their budgets reduced,” even if the need for those services is reduced, Hammitt said. “There’s going to be a lot of valuable programs lost.”

Although they took no formal position on the issue, the county’s four other elected officials--tax assessor, treasurer, auditor-controller and county clerk--did not sign the petition for the local ordinance.

“I wanted to remain neutral,” Auditor-Controller Thomas O. Mahon said.

Supervisor Frank Schillo, one of three supervisors who signed the petition, defended the board’s action.

“Whether we’re in good times or bad times, I would have a hard time cutting the budget for public safety,” he said.

“I think we have to recognize the fact that the people have spoken,” Schillo said. “I can hear all day long people saying there’s more important needs [for Proposition 172 money]. But when you get right down to it, this is something we have to listen to.”

Bradbury and Carpenter said that without the passage of Proposition 172, which was intended to provide a secure source of funding for public safety, other county departments would be facing even more severe cuts than they are now.

“I find it interesting that a year and a half ago, when the sheriff and the district attorney were at the forefront of the passage of 172, we were hailed as heroes,” Bradbury said. “And today when we seek to enforce the will of the people we’re vilified.”

The petition drive led by Bradbury and Carpenter was prompted by the board’s decision last year to divert some Proposition 172 money to other agencies.

Kildee and Lacey supported the transfer of the revenues to the medical examiner’s office and for children’s legal services after the sheriff and district attorney offered to assume authority over those departments. The board refused that offer but transferred the money anyway, saying Carpenter and Bradbury had classified the agencies as public safety-oriented.

The two law enforcement officials said Tuesday they are willing to work with the county to resolve its budget problems, including possibly taking over some departments.

“I have never been reluctant to work with the county as a team player,” Carpenter said. “If there are some things that we can legitimately absorb . . . and save the county some money, I’ll participate in that.”

After the board’s vote, Kildee echoed Carpenter’s earlier comments.

“I hope now that the healing will begin and that this county will become united in a way that it needs to be,” she said.