County May Cut Jobs, Services to Save Libraries

Ventura County would help bail out its financially troubled library system, but other departmental budgets would be slashed $5.1 million and see 65 positions eliminated under a spending plan recommended by Chief Administrative Officer Lin Koester on Monday.

Public Social Services director James Isom immediately warned county supervisors that his agency might be forced to close its Santa Paula welfare office if it has to trim another $250,000 as Koester is recommending. The agency already is facing $988,000 in cuts and the loss of 25 positions.

County department managers were directed earlier this year to come up with ways to cut 25% of their budgets to help the county erase its $20-million operating deficit. Koester’s recommendations are intended as a supplemental guide for supervisors to use when they begin final budget deliberations on Wednesday.

Although the additional cut to his agency is not a large one, Isom said it could result in his agency losing more than $1 million in annual state and federal money because it would no longer be able to administer some programs with a reduced staff.

“You can cut to the point where you destroy yourself,” Isom said.

To comply with Koester’s recommendations, Isom said he would consider closing down the Santa Paula welfare office that assists area residents with food stamp and Medi-Cal benefit applications and other services. If that happens, he said, those residents would have to travel to Ventura or Oxnard for help.

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Isom told supervisors that he also might have to make cuts in the county’s senior nutrition program, which provides hot meals to needy seniors throughout the region. But after huddling with his staff in the afternoon, Isom said he hoped he could work out a plan with Koester’s office to eliminate part or all of the recommended $250,000 cuts.

Under Koester’s plan, the county Health Care Agency, already facing $1.9 million in proposed cuts, would be asked to slash another $250,000 from its budget.

Pierre Durand, director of the agency, said it was too early to say what effect that would have on direct public services. Last week, he said he would be able to cut $1.9 million and five positions largely by reducing administrative costs.

“Another $250,000 would be a serious challenge for us,” he said. “We already have plenty of challenges to meet.”

One bright spot in Koester’s proposal was his recommendation that the county use $288,000 of its general fund money to keep five of the county’s small libraries open.

The Library Services Agency, which lost half of its $10-million budget due to state cutbacks in 1993, had been threatening to shut down its branch libraries in Saticoy, Oak View, Meiners Oaks, Oak Park and Piru next Monday if it did not get some financial help. The county has provided the agency, which operates as a special district, with a subsidy the last three years.

“I’m very pleased with [Koester’s] recommendation,” said Dixie Adeniran, the county’s chief librarian. “This would enable us to stay open for the next 12 months.”

Last year, the county gave $1 million to libraries. The lower allocation this year would be offset in part by funding from other sources, such as grants and reserves, and by cuts in supply budgets. Ventura, Camarillo and other cities have also pledged financial support for their branch libraries, some of which had also been threatened with cuts.

The $288,000 in allocations would allow the current level of service to be maintained at the five libraries that have been threatened with closure.

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In other areas, Koester’s budget plan calls for each member of the Board of Supervisors to eliminate one of his or her four staff positions, all of which are filled. The county clerk, county counsel and tax collector’s office would each lose two positions and the auditor-controller four. Sixty-five positions would be eliminated in all, including 10 in planning and maintenance.

In addition to the $5.1 million in department cuts, Koester’s budget plan would borrow heavily from reserves and contingency money to offset the remaining $15-million operating deficit for the 1996-97 fiscal year, which begins next Monday.

County supervisors said Koester’s report was simply a list of recommendations and that some proposals may be excluded from the adopted budget. They said they would wait to hear back from department managers on Wednesday before beginning their final budget deliberations.

The supervisors briefly halted Monday morning’s hearing after the county received a bomb threat. But the board resumed the hearing after about 10 minutes without having to evacuate the Ventura County Government Center.

About 200 county residents showed up at a special public hearing Monday evening, primarily to speak out against library cuts.

Residents urged the board not only to keep all libraries open but to support adult literacy programs and to pay for new books and materials.

“Literacy programs, children’s programs and book budgets are more than just a line on a budget proposal,” said Fillmore resident Cara Shelton. “They are what makes a library a library rather than just a book warehouse.”

Another woman was more direct in her plea for library dollars.

“Keep the status quo,” she said. “I know you don’t want to be known as the Board of Supervisors who closed the libraries.”