County Health Services Expand

Rejecting a last-ditch effort to increase dollars for anti-smoking programs, Ventura County supervisors Tuesday approved an $8-million expansion in health care services ranging from immunizations and dental work to creation of a psychiatric residency program at the county hospital.

Supervisors thanked a volunteer citizens group that made recommendations on how to spend the money, generated from a multi-state lawsuit against major tobacco manufacturers. The citizens group advised supervisors to spend 15%, or $1.2 million, of this year’s money on anti-smoking programs, a portion supervisors said was adequate.

But several speakers Tuesday urged the Board of Supervisors to increase that figure to 20% or higher.

The federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta advises that states and local governments set aside a minimum of 15% of tobacco settlement revenue for anti-smoking efforts.

Many California counties have followed that guideline, but nationally just 5% of the money has been used to help Americans kick the cigarette habit.

“Our children are bombarded by tobacco advertising,” Ventura resident Paul Tolbert told supervisors. “The subliminal message is overwhelming.”

But board members did not budge. Board Chairman Frank Schillo noted that public schools already receive $400,000 a year in cigarette taxes to educate children about the dangers of smoking.

And other supervisors questioned the effectiveness of some education programs in preventing smoking.

“I’ve been in education for 25 years and have seen many ineffective tobacco education programs,” said Supervisor Steve Bennett, a former Ojai teacher.

Anti-smoking activists vowed they will be back next year to again push for higher funding.

Ventura County expects to get $10 million a year for at least 25 years from the 1998 lawsuit settlement. Board members agreed to distribute $8 million this year and to keep $15.7 million from prior years’ payments in a reserve account for now.

Another pot of money generated by a tax on cigarettes is distributed by the Ventura County Children and Families First Commission. That group receives about $11.7 million annually for programs benefiting young children and is unaffected by Tuesday’s board vote.

Stop-smoking programs received the second-largest chunk of tobacco settlement money this year. The largest slice, $2.6 million, goes to the Ventura County Medical Center to pay for care provided to people with no insurance.

Private Doctors and Hospitals to Get Share

Private doctors and hospitals will each divide up $900,000 to reimburse their cost of providing such charity care. The county’s Behavioral Health Department will receive $750,000 to provide housing for the mentally ill and to start up a psychiatric residency program at Ventura County Medical Center.

Under the residency program, student doctors interested in becoming psychiatrists would train at the medical center. The goal is to attract top-flight psychiatrists to the Ventura hospital and to multiply the opportunity for state and federal funding of projects there, officials have said.

Supervisor Kathy Long said she is concerned that the program could become a significant drain on the county’s general fund unless the Behavioral Health Department finds grants to cover costs.

But she said she is willing to give mental health Director David Gudeman time to prove that the program will become self-funding after an initial investment.

The tobacco dollars will also pay for 50 heart-starting paddles to be placed in county buildings across the region. Studies show that people who suffer a heart attack can be saved if they can be quickly treated with paddles that deliver an electrical shock to the heart.

“This benefits potentially every citizen of this county,” said Supervisor Judy Mikels. “We can save lives with this program.”

It took Ventura County two years to begin distributing tobacco settlement dollars because the supervisors first had to fend off an attempted raid on the money by private hospitals.

Voters Rejected Hospital’s Measure O

Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura spent $2.7 million on an initiative that would have shifted control of the money from supervisors to private health care providers. But Measure O was defeated nearly 3-to-1 by voters last fall.

A month before the election, supervisors approved an ordinance dedicating all the settlement dollars to health care. Earlier this year, they appointed an 11-member citizens advisory committee to oversee distribution of the dollars.