Supervisors Approve 3rd Systemwide Budget Cut : Finances: The board says the reductions will weaken all agencies almost equally. An early retirement plan is also passed.

The Ventura County Board of Supervisors, unable to devise a better solution to budget problems, on Tuesday approved the third across-the-board cut for all county departments in a year.

Most supervisors said the broad reductions--which total 10% since last January for most departments--weaken all county agencies almost equally regardless of their importance to the public.

However, the plan ratified Tuesday could save an estimated $4 million through 2% across-the-board cuts, reductions in travel to seminars and use of county vehicles, and elimination of a savings-incentive program.

In a related action, the board also approved an early retirement program that gives longtime employees credit for up to three extra years of employment if their early resignations would generate significant county savings. At least 100 workers qualify, officials said.

“Government is a business and should be run as a business,” said Supervisor Vicky Howard, who proposed the early retirements as a member of the board’s Budget Committee.

“We face serious financial problems for this year,” added Supervisor John K. Flynn, also a committee member, “and it doesn’t look like it’s going to get better next year.”

The retrenchment should supplement savings of up to $8 million from a hiring freeze imposed by the board two weeks ago.

A recent analysis estimated that, even without the hiring freeze and the cuts imposed Tuesday, the county would have a surplus of about $6 million in its $436-million general fund for the year ending June 30. The fund pays for most essential county services.

But county administrators, citing a continuing drop in tax revenue statewide, recommended more cuts. The state, from which the county gets half its revenue, has projected 8% to 13% budget deficits over the next 18 months.

“I understand the frustration because we feel it ourselves,” Chief Administrative Officer Richard Wittenberg told the board. But he said the cuts were necessary as “a way of getting ahead of the problem.”

“Who knows what will be enough,” Wittenberg said. “Nobody really knows . . . but this is a start on it.”

The supervisors, who expressed frustration at their lack of options, set aside time within the next two weeks to debate a list of services that should be top budget priorities.

Supervisors Howard, Maggie Erickson Kildee, Susan K. Lacey and Maria VanderKolk have said they favor eliminating entire areas of service rather than continuing to weaken all departments through cuts.

They have said they especially want to shield such basic services as police and fire protection, libraries and parks.

Erickson Kildee said Tuesday that some departments are reaching the point where 2% cuts “may cripple them.” Flynn said the county has “maybe reached the end of across-the-board cuts.”

And Lacey said, “This is the time we need to say to (county employees), ‘Bring all of your creative juices to bear.’ ”

But supervisors were at a loss Tuesday to say where they should cut the budget if not as recommended by the Budget Committee.

“I can’t pull a program out of the air,” Lacey said.

Under the new proposal, department directors would have to implement 2% cuts over the next 18 months--or could delay the reduction until July 1, when they would have to cut spending by 5%.

Midyear budget cuts are difficult to absorb, officials said, because departments already have spent half of this year’s budget. That makes a 2% cut seem more like a 4% decrease, said county Budget Manager Bert Bigler.

In addition to the budget cuts, the county could save about $5,100 per year for each vehicle it can cut from its 1,000-vehicle fleet, officials said.

The county also could save about $200,000 by trimming the $1 million allotted for employee conferences and seminars. Administrators should be able to show that travel is necessary and would help the county in a tangible way, supervisors said.

“I do see some duplication of effort in this travel,” Flynn said. For example, department directors often go to Sacramento to lobby lawmakers on bills, instead of leaving the persuasion to the county’s lobbyist, he said.

“Each department thinks it needs to make the strong charge in Sacramento,” Flynn said.

Another $500,000 to $700,000 also is to be saved this fiscal year by eliminating a county program that rewards departments that spend less than their budgets.