Supervisors Play ‘Let’s Make Deal’ on Budget : Finances: Leaders meet with county executives to hammer out bottom-line cuts. But some see themselves as profit centers.

Ventura County supervisors proposed that Treasurer-Tax Collector Hal Pittman reduce his annual budget by $161,000. But Pittman had another idea.

He suggested that officials give him $26,000 to hire a staff member to enforce the collection of business license fees, guaranteeing that the move would bring the county more than $200,000 in revenues.

“I can make it a moneymaker--if you can prime the pump,” Pittman said.

“Lets make a deal,” responded Supervisor Frank Schillo.

In the first of a series of budget study sessions, supervisors and county department managers spent much of Wednesday wheeling and dealing over proposed cutbacks aimed at narrowing a $38-million budget deficit.

One after the other, Pittman, Assessor Glenn Gray, Auditor-Controller Thomas O. Mahon and County Clerk Richard Dean stepped up to the podium in the board hearing room to offer their own cost-cutting alternatives.

Pittman told supervisors that the county is losing tens of thousands of dollars a year because his office doesn’t have a full-time staff member to ensure the collection of business license fees. The employee who performed the task was eliminated in last year’s budget cuts.

By filling the position, Pittman said, not only would the county make money, but he vowed to cut his own budget if he failed to generate all of the additional revenue promised.

Although supervisors will make no final budget decisions until later this month, they appeared receptive to Pittman’s proposal.

“You’re my kind of guy,” said Supervisor Judy Mikels when she heard Pittman’s no-risk offer.

Afterward, Pittman said he was pleased with the board’s reaction.

“I’m in the business of bringing in revenues,” he said. “So I’m pretty optimistic.”

The county assessor also appeared to get some assurances that his office, which faces a possible $703,000 cutback, would be spared budget reductions.

Gray told the board that his 96-member staff is overworked and unable to keep up with a backlog of property assessments as well as thousands of appeals. He requested that the board allow him to hire more full-time personnel or risk losing revenues.

“It’s important that we get more revenues in for the county, especially in these bad times,” he said.

Schillo and Mikels suggested that they might be willing to allow Gray to hire some temporary help in order to deal with his current workload but stopped short of committing to the new hires.

Gray agreed to meet with chief administrator Lin Koester to try to work out an agreement.

In other areas, Mahon told supervisors that the auditor’s office would be severely hurt if they followed through with a proposed $620,000 cut. His office, he said, would not be able to conduct money-saving audits of county departments, properly administer payroll or prepare budget reports in a timely manner.

Mahon said any reductions in his staff could translate into millions of dollars in lost revenue. “We cannot absorb additional staff reductions and perform the essential functions required,” he said.

Meanwhile, Dean, like Pittman, offered the supervisors an alternative to the proposed $87,500 cut that they are seeking in the county clerk’s office.

Instead of cutting his budget, Dean suggested that his office raise the fees for marriage licenses from $40 to $55 and for registering fictitious business names from $45 to $57. He estimated that the new fees could bring in an additional $118,000.

Dean said he would like to use some of the money to hire another staff member to help with the heavy workload in his office, which is also responsible for running local elections.

Also during Wednesday’s session, supervisors agreed to consider cutting their own $2.1-million budget. Schillo has proposed trimming the budget by $238,000.

“We need to take the lead role here and come down with the cut that was agreed upon,” he said.

The board, which continues its study session today, will begin final budget hearings July 25.