Tighten Belt, Top Official Tells County

Projecting a $15.6-million budget imbalance for the next fiscal year, Ventura County Chief Administrative Officer Lin Koester is recommending that departments begin tightening their belts now or pay later.

In his midyear report to county supervisors, Koester suggests that his staff work with the auditor-controller to conduct an extensive review of all departmental purchasing to control costs.

Koester also recommends that his staff work with the county’s personnel office to oversee hiring for all vacant positions until the end of the current fiscal year June 30.

“The Human Resources Department will prepare guidelines that may require departments to explain the urgency of filling any vacancy or hiring extra help or contract employees, prior to year-end,” Koester says in his 50-page report.

He goes on to say that department managers will be asked for “alternative suggestions as to how to meet workload requirements without the addition of staff, at least temporarily.”

The news may not be as bad as it sounds, because Koester’s report also notes that the auditor-controller is forecasting departmental savings--money not expected to be spent--of approximately $12 million by the end of June. This money has traditionally been used to offset the county’s budget deficit.

Koester could not be reached for comment Friday.

But Supervisor Frank Schillo said that Koester’s report stresses the need for departments to crack down on spending or face the possibility of another round of large cuts.

Last year, the supervisors cut $4.7 million from departmental budgets to balance the current $860-million county budget.

“This is the wake-up call for everybody to tighten their belts between now and the end of June,” Schillo said. “We have to increase our savings.”

Schillo said salary and benefit increases approved for 900 managers and several thousand other employees last year will have a significant impact on the 1997-98 budget.

In addition, most managers are scheduled to receive another 5% salary increase in March.

“Those raises are definitely going to impact the budget,” said Schillo, the only supervisor who voted against the salary increases.

Faced with a $20-million spending gap last year, county supervisors cut expenditures by $4.7 million, with the single largest cut of $1.9 million coming out of the Health Care Agency’s budget. The Public Social Services Agency was next with a cut of nearly $1 million.

To cover the remainder of the imbalance, the supervisors agreed to borrow approximately $15 million from reserves, excess earnings and other savings.

Koester’s midyear budget report will be presented to the Board of Supervisors at its meeting Tuesday.

Bert Bigler, the county’s budget director, said the county administrator’s office will report back to the supervisors March 25 with specific information on those departments that are expected to exceed their current budget appropriations.

Meanwhile, county budget hearings are scheduled to begin the last week of June.