A Solution, Not a Patch

Ventura County Supervisors last week rolled up their sleeves, pulled together and began to tackle the county’s budget crisis as if they had a lot of experience at that sort of thing.

Unfortunately, they do.

And so while we congratulate them for at least momentarily setting aside their differences and taking the right first steps to erase this year’s $5-million deficit, we urge them to push further and address the systemic flaws and organizational bad habits that have landed Ventura County in this same familiar financial hot spot year after year.

The board moved quickly in its attempt to restore order to the county’s chaotic financial situation, unanimously ordering its interim chief administrator to begin identifying areas where $5 million in cuts will be made.

Judy Mikels and Frank Schillo, the board’s fiscal conservatives, interrogated Auditor-Controller Tom Mahon on changes they say are necessary to bring stability to the budget. Among the board’s marching orders: Require department heads to explain and make up any shortfall within their own budgets and also to return any surplus funds.

The board gave Interim Chief Administrative Officer Bert Bigler authority to turn down department heads’ requests to shift unused dollars in their individual budgets to unscheduled expenses. Instead, any money left over at the end of the year should be rolled into countywide reserves.

Mikels in particular showed outstanding leadership as she reminded Mahon that the supervisors, not individual department heads, are responsible for calling the shots.

In one exchange, Mikels asked Mahon why his reports to the board did not include an analysis of how a department’s projected budget deficit would impact the county’s general fund.

“Now you’re getting into what I like, but other people don’t like,” Mahon said.

“The issue is what works,” Mikels shot back. “Not what people like.”

Although drawing up a list of potential program cuts and vacant positions that can be eliminated is a logical first step, there is a wrong way and a right way to do it.

The wrong way would be to trim heavily from departments whose heads haven’t cultivated a champion among the board members, to let politics rather than the public’s needs dictate where the hit is felt.

The right way would be to trim in all departments where there is padding or deadwood, even if that includes the county’s powerful public safety agencies.

Likewise, until the CAO’s office and county auditor’s office do a better job of tracking the budget process and identifying potential problem areas much sooner, the habit of bouncing from crisis to crisis will continue. We see a lot of merit in Supervisor Schillo’s suggestion that Mahon and the CAO’s office prepare two-year budgets, which would better alert the county to upcoming problems.

It is good that the supervisors have reached this momentary consensus and are working together to resolve the current troubles.

We urge them to not just patch things up as they have done so many times before, but to fix things so they will stay fixed.

And we remind them that in the coming months they must not weaken their resolve when confronted with the pressures from powerful department heads and the county’s powerful employees union--pressures that are sure to come.