Supervisors Hear Pleas for Funding

Waving a red kazoo that she offered to play if it would help her case, Kathy Jenks pleaded Tuesday with Ventura County supervisors to provide $565,000 to keep a shelter for homeless families open for one additional year.

Jenks, director of the Ventura County RAIN project, told supervisors that if they did not produce the needed money, the 56-bed shelter near Camarillo Airport would be forced to shut its doors.

“If they don’t fund it, then 52 people will have absolutely nowhere to go,” Jenks said later.

Jenks’ funding request is one of nearly three dozen expected during the preparation of the county budget for next fiscal year. On Tuesday, she was one of nine department managers who requested additional funds during the daylong session.

The county’s recommended spending plan for the fiscal year beginning July 1 totals $956 million, up from $852 million budgeted in the 1998-99 fiscal year.

Chief Administrative Officer Lin Koester said the new budget, which includes a 12% spending increase, stresses the need for the county to hold the line on services and programs not already funded.

But noting that the shelter would otherwise be forced to close, Koester suggested supervisors consider making an exception for the transitional living shelter.

Behavioral Health Director David Gudeman made a pitch for another type of housing program--$3.5 million to launch a housing plan for the mentally ill.

His plan includes building a 30-bed rehabilitation facility. Gudeman said the lack of such a facility has been the focus of a recent state audit that criticized the mental health department for keeping mentally ill patients in the hospital longer than necessary.

He also said the facility, which would include close supervision by nurses, would allow some of the 45 patients who have been forced to stay at a rehabilitation home out of the area to return to Ventura County.

Gudeman, whose department is set to receive more than $50 million next year, received support from several supervisors.

“It’s definitely a large unmet need,” Supervisor Kathy Long said. “We need to build something or lease a building.”

Other supervisors said Gudeman should return to the board in October with a more comprehensive plan.

“We would all be better served if you took the time to come up with a program,” Lacey said. “I would like to see a plan with some meat on it.”

Beginning this morning, the last of the county departments will go before the board requesting additional funds. Along with the Library Services Agency, the county Fire Department and the department of airports, officials from the county’s parks, harbor and public works departments will make presentations.

Koester has suggested that supervisors delay a decision on most of the additional requests until October, when county officials will know how much money they will receive from the state in Proposition 172 public safety funds.

After a public hearing scheduled Monday night, supervisors will begin discussing which funding requests to approve.