Cuts Reduced in Revised Budget by $4.5 Million

Millions of dollars from state lawmakers, leftover money in the county treasury and higher property assessments mean public safety and mental health programs won’t have to be cut as much as expected in the coming year, according to a revised $1.06-billion budget the Board of Supervisors will consider today.

In his new revision, interim Chief Administrative Officer Harry Hufford said he needs to cut only $7.9 million in spending instead of the $12.4 million he proposed two weeks ago.

Hufford found the relief in those newly discovered pots of money and by proposing the county take out a short-term loan to pay off the remaining $12.2 million of a five-year, $15-million settlement with the federal government over improper Medicare billing.

The so-called mitigation report was released late Monday afternoon, as Hufford and supervisors prepared for a public hearing that was packed with at least 50 vocal and anxious mental health and public safety advocates pressuring supervisors for more money.

During Monday’s hearing, some of those affected by the cuts continued to protest, while others said they could live with the new budget.

“I’m very glad the proposed budget cuts are diminished,” said Nancy Borchard, a member of the county’s Mental Health Board. “But I think any cuts to this budget are so detrimental. Any changes to this system that serves so many, and it could just collapse.”

Neal Andrews, chairman of that advisory board, called the proposed cutbacks “the first semblance of a reasonable set of proposals that I’ve seen.”

News of the reduced cuts also seemed to ease the struggle between Hufford and a troika of powerful department chiefs--Sheriff Bob Brooks, Dist. Atty. Michael Bradbury and Health Care Agency Director Pierre Durand, who earlier had predicted disaster if the cutbacks were imposed.

The Sheriff’s Department would have to cut $1.5 million instead of the $3.5 million Hufford recommended two weeks ago. The district attorney’s office would be out $250,000 instead of $666,400. The Ventura County Medical Center and its clinics would be spared $1 million in cuts because of increased Medi-Cal rates. And the county’s mental health programs would have to cut $1.6 million rather than $2.6 million.

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Hufford’s budget is actually the largest ever for the county, an increase of about 11.7% from the fiscal year that ends Friday. But he said inflation and negotiated salary increases will eat up those gains. Instead of increasing government, anticipated services must be cut to balance the budget.

Brooks greeted Hufford’s first set of proposed cuts by saying he would have to lay off 45 deputies and slash an anti-gang unit and other programs. Monday, however, Brooks said he could make the reduced cuts without resorting to such measures and called the plan “a win for both sides.”

Bradbury had earlier predicted the cuts would force his department to cut the number of misdemeanors it prosecutes, but Chief Assistant Dist. Atty. Greg Totten said Monday the department could handle the reduced cuts without significant repercussions.

Durand and his deputy, David Gudeman, had earlier refused to recommend cuts to mental health, asking supervisors to decide for them and then saying any decision would bring disaster.

The newest plan, however, finds them offering options to scale back administrative costs to reduce service cuts. The mental health department would consolidate some residential and emergency shelter sites, closing the Mid-Ventura and Seniors East facilities. Fifteen support positions in the department would be cut, but 12 of those are already vacant. The department would also reduce the counseling it provides to juvenile delinquents, but not eliminate it as was proposed earlier.

Supervisor John Flynn said Hufford’s plan was “going in the right direction” and looked “much better than it did two weeks ago.”

Although in immediate terms, Hufford’s plan means $4.5 million in reduced cuts, his mitigation report is actually more complex.

The report identifies $7.7 million in newly available money. That includes about $3 million from the state, $1.1 million in county money, $525,000 in interest accrued to date on the county’s share of a national settlement with the tobacco industry and more than $3.5 million from using the loan rather than cash to pay the federal government.

But Hufford’s revised plan wouldn’t spend the tobacco settlement interest, and he would set aside some of the new windfall to pay off the interest and principal on the Medicare settlement and offset an overestimate in property tax revenue. That leaves $4.5 million to offset the recommended cuts to county departments.

Meanwhile, Hufford on Monday released a report on County Ordinance 4088, the law passed in 1995 that guarantees public safety agencies a budgetary increase each year on top of the money they receive from Proposition 172, a half-cent sales tax for public safety.

The ordinance has fueled contention between Hufford, who is looking for money, and public safety agency chiefs, whose departments have largely been insulated from hard times. Hufford has argued that budget increases should be based on the Consumer Price Index, but agency chiefs argue that the ordinance says they should get higher annual increases than those determined by the CPI.

CPI had been used for the last five years, the county would have provided public safety agencies with $44 million more than the ordinance requires. Even under the formula preferred by public safety agencies, Hufford said, the county has contributed $13 million more than required. Brooks questioned the report’s accuracy Monday.

Hufford stopped short of recommending a switch to the CPI, but said he would return to the board with a follow-up report.