Supervisors to Donate Office Funds for Debt

Supervisors Jim Silva and Todd Spitzer will donate $25,000 each that their offices were to receive as discretionary funds in the next fiscal year to a county account earmarked for paying off bond debt incurred after the 1994 bankruptcy.

The action came Monday after other supervisors insisted that they needed their discretionary money for worthwhile programs in their districts not funded through the county budget. But they approved their colleagues’ generosity unanimously.

“That shows it’s easy for nonconservatives to spend other people’s money,” Spitzer grumbled of his Republican colleagues after Monday’s public hearing on the county’s 1997-98 budget.

Spitzer also supported Silva’s motion to move $8.1 million left over from last year’s budget into the “bond defeasance” account--a motion that also failed to win enough support.

But Spitzer held the line when Silva suggested eliminating $107,000 in funding for the county Human Relations Commission.

While Silva praised the commission’s work, he said the county is paying more than its share.

He said some cities benefiting from commission programs--which include training police officers on hate crimes and conducting human-relations programs in 40 schools--are contributing as little as $2,500.

When supervisors wouldn’t support his motion, he suggested allocating $50,000 instead--but that motion also went nowhere.

“I do not want to wipe out the program,” Silva said. “I’d like to see it transition [from county funding] to a nonprofit agency. We should try it for a year and let them stand on their own.”

Both Silva and Spitzer said they received phone calls at home over the weekend from commission supporters urging them not to cut off funding.

Spitzer said the message he heard from both the La Habra and Fullerton chiefs of police was that cities help pay for the commission in large part because of the county’s funding commitment.

Commission Executive Director Rusty Kennedy said the group has raised more than $300,000 in donations from private sources.