Not in These Numbers

World travelers know that certain phrases have specialized meanings in particular places. An innocent greeting in one country might be fighting words somewhere else.

In Ventura County, the phrase to watch out for is “public safety.”

When those words are spoken in most of the world, they refer to the full range of factors that allow residents and their families to feel secure from harm and free from fear. But in Ventura County--at least in county government circles--those words have come to mean something very specific.

That’s because of a 1995 county law, Ordinance 4088, that guaranteed that 100% of the local proceeds from 1993’s Proposition 172 half-cent sales tax would go exclusively to four agencies engaged in law enforcement: the Sheriff’s Department, district attorney’s office, public defender’s office and Probation Department. That is about $40 million a year, with the sheriff receiving about $30 million.

On top of that, Ordinance 4088 grants those four agencies annual increases from the general fund to cover inflation. (In fact, those increases are far larger than the rate of inflation, adding to the lopsided growth of the county budget.) Ventura County is the only county in California that imposed such restrictions on Proposition 172 funds; the Board of Supervisors did so after a petition drive gathered 55,000 signatures to put the issue on a special-election ballot.

It was brilliant politics but lousy public policy. The result has been soaring budgets for those four agencies while the rest of county government has had to make do with less and less.

Here’s where the average person needs a phrase book to translate “public safety” as spoken in Ventura County:

* Is the fire department important to public safety? Not under Ordinance 4088.

* Are the city police departments of Oxnard, Port Hueneme, Santa Paula, Simi Valley or Ventura involved in public safety? Not under Ordinance 4088.

* Do the people who treat drinking water, dispose of sewage and monitor hazardous waste or the use of farm chemicals have anything to do with public safety? Not under Ordinance 4088.

* Are those who inspect restaurant kitchens or construction sites working to protect public safety? Not under Ordinance 4088.

* Do the medical personnel who control infectious diseases or treat the potentially violent mentally ill play a role in public safety? Not under Ordinance 4088.

The Ventura County Grand Jury has urged the supervisors to rescind Ordinance 4088, saying it illegally ties the board’s hands on budget-making decisions. The grand jury believes the ordinance violates the California State Budget Act, which requires the board annually to consider the needs of each department before approving a budget. It recommends that the board review every year how best to use Proposition 172 sales tax funds. That supports Chief Administrative Officer Harry Hufford’s position that Ordinance 4088 is too restrictive.

The petition drive that led the 1995 Board of Supervisors to pass Ordinance 4088 is reminiscent of the current campaign to divert all of the county’s share of the tobacco lawsuit settlement money to private hospitals. That one, too, easily gathered all the signatures it needed to put the question on the ballot.

In both cases--as often happens in ballot initiative campaigns--an inspiring slogan and a too-simple concept conceal unintended consequences that may reveal themselves too late.

Ordinance 4088 is a monument to the political savvy of Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury and now-retired Sheriff Larry Carpenter. Without question, its legacy has been good for the four agencies that get the cash--and that makes it seem like a good idea to people who believe that public safety begins and ends with locking up lawbreakers.

We believe there is a lot more to public safety than that.

What’s more, until the Board of Supervisors musters up the political will to rework Ordinance 4088, Ventura County is doomed to continue the current trends that have given us Rolls Royce law enforcement agencies while parks, social services and other legitimate needs--and even city police departments--go threadbare.

We encourage the board to empower Hufford to sit down with Dist. Atty. Bradbury, Sheriff Bob Brooks and others to negotiate an improved version of Ordinance 4088 to help build a county that is truly safe and secure in every way--including fiscally--and not only tough on crime.