Departments Make Pitch for Funding

They tried using humor. They tried compliments. They used fancy graphics and loud music.

And then there were the Ventura County department heads who hoped to elicit sympathy when asking supervisors for more money during a budget study session Monday.

“We have a Dom Perignon defense but a Miller Lite budget,” county Public Defender Kenneth Clayman told supervisors.

Clayman was among more than a dozen department heads requesting extra funds during the six-hour session. The county’s recommended spending plan for the fiscal year beginning July 1 totals $956 million, up 12% from $852 million this year.

Chief Administrative Officer Lin Koester said that despite the added spending the new budget emphasizes the need for the county to hold the line on services and programs not currently funded.

But several managers hoped supervisors would make an exception for their department. Clayman’s department, which provides legal representation to poor people and juveniles, is tentatively set to receive $7.2 million for fiscal 1999-2000, up about 2.8%.

Clayman urged supervisors to support spending more than $320,000 extra to hire four paralegals, an investigator and a sentencing specialist and to buy two vehicles. The paralegals are needed to deal with an increased number of “three strikes” felony cases without hiring more attorneys, he said.

Koester had earlier advised supervisors not to take action on Clayman’s request--and many others--until the county knows how much it will receive this year in Proposition 172 funds, which are intended for public safety. Koester estimated the county may receive about $400,000 for the upcoming fiscal year.

Dist. Atty. Michael Bradbury hopes to get a chunk of that money. He also wants supervisors to fund his request for more than $1 million beyond the $22.6 million set aside for his department so he can add 19 positions.

Nine new deputy district attorneys would be assigned to sexual assault, family protection and elder abuse investigations. One of the new prosecutors would be stationed in the east county and would handle cases at Simi Valley Courthouse.

Bradbury would also hire nine clerks and information systems specialists to work mainly on Y2K remediation, computer maintenance and training and another person to work in payroll.

An attorney to investigate elder abuse is badly needed, Bradbury told supervisors.

“This item affects all of us, because, whether we like it or not, we are all destined to become senior citizens,” Bradbury said. “I hated getting that first invitation to membership from the American Assn. of Retired People. But then I considered the alternative and decided senior status isn’t all that bad.”

In 1995, Bradbury’s office launched a Senior Crime Prevention Program. Since then, Bradbury’s office has received national recognition for its effort to combat the physical and financial abuse of the more than 100,000 senior citizens in the county.

In the next year, there will be 2,000 to 3,000 elderly people victimized in Ventura County, Bradbury said.

“We are all the elder citizens of tomorrow,” Bradbury told supervisors. “We can see ourselves and our loved ones in the eyes of those who are being abused today.”

A public hearing on the budget requests will be held beginning at 9 a.m. Monday.

Several more department managers are scheduled to speak before supervisors today regarding the budget.

Some departments expected to request added funds include the Health Care Agency, the Agricultural Commissioner’s Office and the Harbor Department.