Ventura County Erases One Deficit but Another Looms for Fiscal ‘97-’98

They are back in the black for now. But Ventura County supervisors will definitely be seeing red again next year.

Even as the supervisors moved last week to erase a $20-million operating deficit, county budget managers were already forecasting an $8-million shortfall for the 1997-98 fiscal year.

Much of that is to continue paying for salary and benefit increases approved this year for most of the county’s 7,000-member work force. Another contributing factor is inflationary costs--increased expenses for county equipment and supplies.

Officials said they don’t regret approving the pay raises, even though they were forced last week to borrow $4.1 million in reserves and eliminate 41 positions to help balance the county’s budget. Many of the positions were vacant, but not all, and some workers will soon be getting their pink slips.

“You have to pay people for their work,” Supervisor John K. Flynn said in defense of the salary raises. “The board has a policy that we’re going to pay fair, and if that means laying people off, then that’s what we’re going to do.”

The supervisors themselves added to the new deficit when they failed last week to follow the recommendations of the county manager and cut their budget $289,000 by eliminating five staff positions, one for each official.

Before taking a cut, the board said it wanted to first split its roughly $2-million budget into five separate accounts, giving each member a better handle on his or her own expenses. The board, which declined to adopt the proposed $289,000 cut as a baseline, plans to re-examine the matter July 23.

“The supervisors have to look at their own house and take the cuts that are necessary,” said Mike Saliba, director of the Ventura County Taxpayers Assn. “That’s the first thing that has to be done in the new fiscal year. The cutting is not finished.”

Board Chairman Frank Schillo, who caused a flap last year after moving into a more expensive office, said he is ready to take a cut of some sort. But he said that he has no intention of giving up his office in the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, which costs the county $10,000 more a year than the previous space. He said it is convenient to the public.

“I’m not going to back off when it comes to my office,” he said. “I’m proud of it. This is where I should be, so I’ll take the heat on it.”

Schillo said he is already taking steps to reduce next year’s budget deficit in other areas. He said he is continuing to work with Sheriff Larry Carpenter about having his department, which is protected by county ordinance from budget cuts, take over other county services.

He said one idea that is being talked about would involve the Sheriff’s Department taking over the Channel Islands Harbor Patrol, which is now overseen by the General Services Agency. But Schillo said he did not know how much this could save the county and that details of the takeover are still being worked out.

The supervisor said he also plans to meet this week with Flynn and Chief Administrative Officer Lin Koester to discuss revising the county’s salary and benefits structure for new workers.

A recent salary survey by The Times found that 326 county managers and employees made more than $80,000 in 1995, with many of them supplementing their base salaries with thousands of dollars in annual cash bonuses for things like car allowance, unused vacation time and for having a college degree.

Schillo, the only board member to vote against all employee pay raises this year, said that civil service laws and union contracts make it nearly impossible for the board to revise the pay structure for current employees. But he said he believed that the board could do so when it comes to new employees.

Saliba of the taxpayers association said an examination of the county’s pay practices is long overdue.

“The last few years the county has cut people and services” because of its budget problems, he said. “Now it’s time to look at the overall compensation packages for employees.”

In other areas, the county hopes to save about $400,000 in its Health Care Agency operations in the new fiscal year.

Ventura County Medical Center recently received a state license to establish its own managed care system. With the new license, the county will be able to keep a tighter lid on the cost of providing health insurance for the 2,700 employees enrolled in its plan.

The license will allow the county to place a cap on the amount paid to contract physicians based on how many patients they serve. Under the current system, the county pays physicians for every service provided.

Flynn said he also expects the county to benefit from the board’s decision earlier this year to split the county’s parks and harbor operations into separate departments.

The county-owned Channel Islands Harbor in the past has provided a $1.2-million annual subsidy to the county’s park system, which administers 18 parks, golf courses and community centers. The reorganization plan calls for that subsidy to be reduced to $1 million during the new fiscal year, with payments to the parks system gradually declining to nothing over the next five years.

Some of this money could eventually be diverted to the county’s general fund to help cover its overall operating costs, Flynn said.

Because of some of these actions, the supervisor said he is confident that the county’s budget problems next fiscal year will not be as dire as they might appear.

“We’re on our way now,” Flynn said. “We’re on top of the problem.”