Creative Budgeting

Looking to avoid layoffs, Ventura County supervisors are mulling a host of creative budget strategies--from licensing cats to cutting employee salaries--as they struggle to pull themselves out of a $17.8-million deficit.

Chief Administrative Officer Lin Koester submitted a list of 44 budget reduction options to supervisors this week as they headed into their annual budget study sessions.

But some officials said many of the options listed by Koester would be almost impossible to achieve or would only create onetime savings or earnings, and therefore not serve as long-term solutions.

“I’m getting frustrated at the whole process,” Supervisor Frank Schillo said after a daylong budget session. “I’ve got a lump in my stomach and I’m saying, ‘How are we going to make this work?’ ”

Koester could not be reached for comment.

But county Budget Director Bert Bigler acknowledged that many of the options presented in Koester’s report are not new ideas and that some needed further review to determine whether they were viable.

The following is a sampling of options outlined in Koester’s report:

* A 1% salary reduction for about 5,000 county employees. Estimated savings: $1.06 million.

* Close the corrections agency’s work furlough program and expand use of security bracelets for defendants. Estimated savings: $1 million.

* Continue to incarcerate state inmates in local jails as has been done in the past. Estimated revenue: $500,000.

* Discontinue the annual financial contribution to the Ventura County Historical Museum. Cost savings: $20,000.

* Approve a new cat licensing program. Estimated revenue: $40,000.

* Evaluate the sale of county property. The county owns more than 900 parcels, but without further study, it is not known how much revenue could be generated from the sale of some properties.

Other budget-cutting suggestions include merging some departments, eliminating county employee health and safety programs, and reducing the county’s $2-million contingency fund by half.

One option would also furlough county employees--meaning that they would have time off without pay--during the five days between Christmas and New Year’s and on all state holidays in which the courts are closed.

But Auditor-Controller Thomas O. Mahon and Schillo pointed out that county employee unions would have to agree to a reduction in salaries and to work furloughs before such proposals could be implemented, and that is not likely to happen.

“Maybe I’m too pessimistic,” Mahon said. “But I can’t imagine they would give up [a part of their salaries].”

Schillo also noted that the board has proposed to do away with the correction agency’s work furlough program by expanding its monitoring of defendants with electronic bracelets, only to have the courts veto such a move.

“The judges have already said that they do not want to be confined to just one method of meting out punishment,” he said. “So it doesn’t help to propose this, if the judges are going to just say no.”

Ed Robings, executive director of the Ventura County Historical Museum in Ventura, said he was not aware of the proposal to cut the county’s annual contribution. The museum, which has an annual budget of about $500,000, depends largely on membership fees, fund-raising and state grants for its operations.

“It would be bad news,” Robings said of the potential $20,000 loss. “That’s a significant cut. We house a lot of county records. We would obviously like to think that the county is going to give us some support. But if not, then we’re going to have to cope with it.”

Whatever budget-cutting scenario the board adopts, Schillo said, there is no way that supervisors can make a significant dent in the county’s $500-million General Fund budget--more than half of which is made up of personnel costs--without laying off employees.

“It all comes down to people,” he said. “Some people are going to have to be cut.”

Mahon agreed, noting that a New York bond-rating agency just last week lowered the county’s credit rating because of its persistent deficit problems. He said if the board does not wipe out its deficit this year, its bond ratings will likely be lowered again, which would make it more expensive to borrow money.

“If you tell them [you’re going to make cuts], then you’ve got to live up to it,” he said of the bond-rating agencies. “Without layoffs, I don’t see how we can do that.”

The board is set to begin final budget hearings the week of June 23. A new county budget must be approved by July 1.