Local Leaders Devoting 2000 to Cleaning Up After 1999

If 1999 was Ventura County’s year of scandal and embarrassment--marred by state and federal investigations of its health care system--2000 will be largely dedicated to mopping up the damage and making sure it never happens again, officials say.

Supervisors will spend a good portion of the next six months trying to restore health to a $1-billion budget battered by fines and payouts associated with those investigations.

The year just begun will be pivotal in other ways as well--supervisors will pick a permanent chief administrative officer, and perhaps gain up to three new faces on their five-member board.

How supervisors respond to the challenges ahead, and voters’ judgment of the board’s performance, will chart the course of county government for years to come, many say.

“What we are able to do in the next six months will be a signal of what can be done and will set a direction for the future,” said Harry L. Hufford, the interim administrator hired to guide the county out of its crisis.

Supervisor Kathy Long, one of two incumbents facing challengers on the March 7 ballot, said she is keenly aware that the board must act decisively in the months ahead.

“The voters will be looking closely and they should,” Long said. “But we are up to the challenge.”

Other issues are also expected to come before county leaders in the next few months. Besides replacing Hufford, who agreed to work only through July, they must start work on a new juvenile hall, decide how to expand housing for the mentally ill and debate where to open a homeless shelter.

Local leaders will also be asked to create or expand greenbelts near Fillmore, Oxnard and Camarillo. Supervisor John K. Flynn wants to stimulate business at Channel Islands Harbor by docking big cruise ships offshore. In the Conejo Valley, Supervisor Frank Schillo hopes to attract high-tech companies and the clean, high-paying jobs they bring.

But first things first.

“First we’ve got to balance the budget,” Schillo said. “But once we do that, people won’t be as worried and we can get other things done.”

The man the county is turning to has plenty of trouble-shooting experience. Hufford was brought in as interim administrator in Los Angeles County in 1993 and was chief administrative officer in that county from 1974 to 1985.

Hufford, described as a “calm and stabilizing influence,” said Ventura County’s financial troubles can be solved if the Board of Supervisors shows a little backbone.

“It’s easy to balance a budget,” said Hufford, speaking from a vacation home in Northern California. “What’s harder is dealing with the impact of cuts.”

Hufford has already met with interim administrator Bert Bigler and Auditor Tom Mahon. And he alternated rounds of golf with budget study sessions during a short vacation break this week.

“It’s been 50-50,” Hufford said. “Golf and homework. Golf and homework.”

Hufford’s recommendations on how to trim the budget and eliminate a projected $5-million deficit will be presented to supervisors later this month.

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Getting the budget back on track will be tricky because officials are still unsure how much more the county will lose in addition to the estimated $11 million it has already paid out in fines and payments, Schillo said.

The county has appealed a decision by the U.S. Health Care Financing Administration to reduce the Medicare reimbursement rates for 34 public health clinics.

Hufford and supervisors are expected to travel to Washington to lobby federal officials to reverse that decision. If it stands, the county would lose $4 million to $6 million a year in health care costs, Schillo said.

The problems began with the ill-advised merger of the county’s mental health and social services departments, approved by a split Board of Supervisors in April 1998. Although the board reversed itself nine months later, the merger triggered a series of audits and investigations of the county’s health care system.

A federal lawsuit alleging the mental health department improperly billed Medicare for nearly a decade was settled for $15.3 million. Millions of dollars more have been spent on attorney fees, accounting costs and other expenses.

State regulators are also keeping a close watch on the county’s mental health system, threatening to cut an annual $5.3-million grant.

Aside from those problems, the fight over the mental health merger has created such bitterness among employee groups in the Health Care Agency that suspicion and resentment still run high.

The supervisors have also asked Hufford to make recommendations on whether the chief administrative officer’s position should be given more power over budgetary decisions.

In his scathing resignation letter, county administrator David L. Baker accused supervisors of stripping the chief administrator’s office of so much power that it was ineffective in managing the budget--one of the primary duties of the county’s chief officer.

Baker, who resigned after four days, said unless supervisors change “business as usual,” the county would lurch from one fiscal crisis to another. By June, Hufford is expected to offer his suggestions for structural changes in the county’s budget process.

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If the budget can be balanced and authority restored, the next chief executive will be walking into a “very stable situation,” Schillo said. And that, the Thousand Oaks supervisor said, would allow county leaders to focus on other issues during the second half of the year.

“We’ve got to get off the front page,” he said. “We’ve got to solve our problems and get on with providing the services. That’s my main hope.”

One priority for a majority of the board is to increase housing options for people with serious mental illness. Long has proposed the county convert its shuttered psychiatric hospital in Ventura to a 30-bed transitional shelter for mentally ill patients leaving Ventura County Medical Center.

Schillo and Flynn said they also are committed to closing this gap in mental health services.

“Housing for the mentally ill is one of my highest priorities,” Flynn said.

Where to operate a shelter for the county’s homeless will also come up for debate. The county is considering a proposal to convert a building near the Cal State Channel Islands campus for a year-round transitional shelter.

“My hope is that by next winter we will no longer need a cold-weather shelter,” said Long, who is heading up a task force looking into the homeless issue.

Supervisors are also expected to push hard to find a site for a planned juvenile hall. The county must have the juvenile center up and running by May 2003, or risk losing $40 million in state funding for the $65-million project.

The leading site is a 40-acre flower field in Saticoy. Extensive environmental studies must be completed and the site purchased, however, before supervisors can make a choice, Long said.

“Picking a site will be a big accomplishment,” the Camarillo supervisor said.

The county’s perennial hot-button issue--how to preserve farmland while protecting landowners’ property rights--will also gain a new hearing. A proposal to designate a greenbelt between Fillmore and the Los Angeles County line is expected to gain approval this year.

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Long said she may also propose new greenbelts between Moorpark and Camarillo in the Las Posas and Somis areas.

Schillo, meanwhile, said he will push for designation of a greenbelt on cropland south of Oxnard. County leaders are already working with Oxnard city officials on the plan, Schillo said.

Whether these efforts succeed or fail could partly depend on the outcome of the March election.

Flynn is facing the first serious challenge in a decade from Latino activist Francisco Dominguez. And Long must fend off a last-minute challenge by Camarillo Councilman Mike Morgan. Lacey is retiring after 20 years.

Depending on who wins, the conservative-leaning majority of recent years--formed by Flynn, Schillo and Judy Mikels--could be upset.

’ First we’ve got to balance the budget. But once we do that, people won’t be as worried and we can get other things done.’

Supervisor Frank Schillo

’ My hope is that by next winter we will no longer need a cold-weather shelter.’

Supervisor Kathy Long

’ What we are able to do in the next six months will be a signal of what can be done and will set a direction for the future.’

Interim administrator Harry L. Hufford