County’s Budget Ax Spares Some Areas : Finances: Accounts in several high-profile departments remain untouched by the 5% cut imposed to balance the $729-million spending plan. Supervisor Flynn says most of the fat is gone.

At first glance, Ventura County’s $729-million budget appears tight and lean.

Adopted last week by the Board of Supervisors, the spending plan eliminates 54 jobs, freezes all pay raises and imposes a 5% cut in nearly all departments over which the supervisors have greatest control.

But a closer look at the budgets of several high-profile departments reveals many accounts that were left unscathed by the budget ax. Among them are:

* The County Board of Supervisors’ travel and transportation budget, which grew from $185,000 to $191,600;

* A $500,000 fund created this year to pay departments to implement cost-saving ideas;

* A special impound account that holds $6.5 million collected from cities for booking prisoners at County Jail and from cities and school districts for collecting their property taxes;

* A $19,000 uniform account, up from $16,000 last year, in the district attorney’s office to pay for suits and dry cleaning for 32 investigators;

* The Board of Supervisors’ account that pays for its memberships in six state and national organizations, cut from $165,200 last year to $135,700, which was only $99,900 two years ago.

Supervisor John K. Flynn, chairman of the board’s budget subcommittee, said supervisors did a good job of cutting most of the budget’s fat.

“When adopting a $729-million budget, you are bound to miss a few spots,” he said. “But I don’t think we missed many.”

The five supervisors’ own operating account--though reduced by $51,500 from $2.1 million last year--includes expenses that employee union representatives said should have been cut instead of laying off workers.

Included in the supervisors’ $191,600 travel budget, for example, was an increase for attending conferences and seminars. The budget for conferences was $55,000 last year and $56,600 this year. Two years ago it was $40,000.

Flynn defended the increase, saying the supervisors travel to professional seminars and meetings that are essential if they are to keep up with state and national issues.

“When you go someplace, it’s for the good of the county,” said Flynn, calling from a state water meeting in Oakland. “I’m certainly not up here for my health.”

Flynn, a recognized water expert statewide, made 24 overnight trips at county expense in 1989-90, a Times study found last year. Most of them were to water conferences.

Supervisor Maggie Erickson Kildee, who made 22 overnight trips in 1989-90, said the trips often lead to returns far greater than travel costs.

She cited county savings that resulted from several trips officials made to New York to convince two national credit-rating companies of the soundness of Ventura County’s financial position.

The firms gave the county the highest possible credit ranking, saving the county about $300,000 in interest payments on county borrowing, she said.

“I don’t think there is a supervisor who travels for fun,” she said.

But Barry L. Hammitt, executive director of the Public Employees Assn. of Ventura County, said the travel budget should have been reduced to spare jobs.

He also said he questions how effective the supervisors are in lobbying for the county.

“When you go to Sacramento and you are a supervisor from Ventura County, who the hell are you going to have an impact on?” he said.

While the supervisors’ budget for seminars and conferences was increased, the auditor-controller’s budget for seminars was cut about 50%, to $21,000 this year.

“When we thought about what we should take out, we decided that these things are not absolutely necessary,” Assistant Auditor Thomas O. Mahon said.

Department directors, ordered by the supervisors to cut their budgets by 5%, recommended where the cuts should come. But the board approved the final department budgets.

At the Sheriff’s Department, the conferences and seminars budget was cut by about 5% from last year, to $115,000. The district attorney’s budget for conferences increased by about 7%, to $48,300.

The supervisors defended their expenditure of $135,700 for memberships in professional organizations such as the National Assn. of Counties and the Urban Counties Caucus.

Erickson Kildee said the amount has increased because the dues are based on a county’s population, and Ventura County has grown by 140,000 people since 1980.

She said membership in such organizations is important because the groups help lobby for funds and legislation that help all counties.

But Hammitt said the county already spends $69,000 annually for a full-time lobbyist who operates out of the chief administrator’s office.

It also contracts with a lobbying firm in Washington, he said. County department directors sometimes travel to lobby or testify before lawmakers.

The supervisors last week left untapped $6.5 million that county officials diverted in May from property taxes that were to go to the county’s 10 cities and 21 school districts.

The money was impounded after city and school officials refused to pay new county fees for booking prisoners and collecting property taxes.

Because the cities have filed a lawsuit over the fees, the supervisors decided not to spend the money until the lawsuit is settled.

Some county officials, however, believe that the money was collected legally and should be spent.

“It would have been really nice for the board to take those dollars into consideration,” said Karen R. Kiplinger, fiscal manager for the district attorney’s office.

The supervisors imposed only a 3.5% cut on the district attorney’s prosecution unit after intensive lobbying by Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury against a 5% cut.

The district attorney’s office retained in its budget a $19,000 uniform allowance for its investigators.

The investigators do not wear uniforms, but because they are members of a union that includes sheriff’s deputies, their contract gives them the same uniform allowance as deputies, Kiplinger said.

The investigators can use the money to pay for shirts, business suits and dry cleaning, she said.

Also left untapped by the board was a $500,000 account that the supervisors created in January to pay departments to carry out cost-saving ideas.

Bert Bigler, the county’s budget manager, said money in the so-called Innovation Fund can be spent on such things as computer software needed to implement a new program that saves employees time.

He said the money is not spent until a committee of managers reviews the idea.

Supervisor Vicky Howard, a member of the budget subcommittee, said the Innovation Fund provides money for ideas that save the county more money in the long run.

“I think it’s just good business to do that,” she said. “It’s something new, and we are trying to be very creative in saving money.”