County’s Financial Crisis

* Have we elected a crybaby sheriff here in Ventura County?

I have spent most of my working life as a police officer or training police officers. I have patrolled Ventura County as a deputy sheriff. For Sheriff Bob Brooks to jump out of the closet and yell, “Boo! The gangs are going to get you,” [if he is required to trim his budget] is very unprofessional.

Let me make a few simple suggestions on how to solve this situation in a time of serious financial problems for the county:

* It is reported in the newspapers that Brooks has 115 vacancies. He gets the money in his budget to pay for these people, but they are not there. He thus gets the money to spend as he wishes. Why doesn’t he just wipe 70 of those positions off the books? He would still have the money from 45 unfilled positions.

* The sheriff should stop running a mental hospital at the county jail. Besides being inhumane, it is much too expensive. I suggest that he let the mental health professionals take care of the mentally ill. Supervisor Frank Schillo has a sensible, inexpensive plan.

* It does not seem wise for the sheriff to be threatening chief administrator Harry Hufford with a lawsuit. Hufford is our only hope in Ventura County’s terrible financial mess.

* Stop rushing to the defense of and endorsing Board Chairman Kathy Long. She along with Supervisors Susan Lacy and John Flynn created this terrible mess.

* The sheriff should take a trip to Contra Costa County and study how a California county with a much larger population provides good service on about half the budget we give Sheriff Brooks.

It pains me to write a letter like this, but the good people of Ventura County deserve no less than a thorough review of this whole situation.

RICHARD CLEMENCE

Ventura

* I am beginning to wonder if our Board of Supervisors is placing Harry Hufford in a position to take all the blame for its years of ineptitude.

The supervisors have not a clue as to how much the county is in debt. They tried to skate by with another government grant; it failed. We now see our bond rating start to erode. If the board is not responsible for all of the department heads, who is?

One of the major sources of our financial problems is Ventura County Medical Center, and it has been for some years. As you do your analysis of counties of our size, check to see how many still have such hospitals. You will find very few because they are no longer cost-effective. This redundant facility would be a great place to start cutting.

A second place to do some cutting is the operations of the Board of Supervisors itself. While the county went into debt, the supervisors succeeded in their efforts to raise their salaries, their pensions and their perks. Even more ridiculous, they now want to build a golf course and purchase some farms.

We need basic care, good roads and streets, good police and fire protection, functioning drains and sewers--the necessities. This is not where to cut. How successful is our welfare program? We continue to throw money at it and it continues to grow, never a solution.

It is past time for this board to take early retirement and for us to start over on a businesslike basis.

ROBERT D. WILLIS

Ventura