Requests for Sheriff Spur Resentment : Budget: Many feel forsaken as supervisors try to satisfy the funding wishes of the powerful law enforcement lobby.

Phillipp Wessels, Ventura County’s health care director, just couldn’t compete. Neither could chief librarian Dixie D. Adeniran.

While Wessels, Adeniran and other county department managers quietly watched, law enforcement officials and members of a new group of Sheriff’s Department boosters urged the Board of Supervisors to cut deeper into other departments’ budgets in order to spare the criminal justice agencies.

Now, as the board begins its final budget deliberations, medical administrators, social service officials and dozens of other managers have found themselves forsaken as supervisors attempt to satisfy the requests of the powerful law enforcement lobby.

Last week the supervisors ordered all county department heads, other than law enforcement officials, to come up with additional 5% cuts, on top of the 12.5% reductions already ordered, so the board can protect the county’s criminal justice system.

The move has sparked widespread resentment among county staff members, who say the supervisors have allowed themselves to be bullied by one interest group.

“I’m a little angry that I tried to be a team player,” Wessels said. “No one heard from health and it’s been to our disadvantage. I’m feeling guilty and frustrated. The employees are upset over what they perceive to be a lot of inequities in the system.”

But at a time of dwindling money, the budget process is anything but fair, Supervisor Vicky Howard said. The board must set its priorities, she said, and the majority of the supervisors believe law enforcement comes first.

“The public has spoken, and that’s who we work for,” Howard said. “We would love to not cut anyone, but that’s impossible.

“There is no fair and equitable way. We are in tough times and we can’t be fair and equitable.”

Starting July 12, county department managers will begin to parade before the Board of Supervisors, explaining how they will make up to 17.5% cuts in their spending for fiscal year 1993-94.

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The cuts are needed to close the county’s $13.5-million funding gap for this fiscal year and will not be easy to absorb, Wessels said.

The Ventura County Medical Center could be forced to lay off up to 30 more employees, on top of the 25 staff positions eliminated earlier this year. The staff reductions could force the county to turn away some needy residents seeking medical treatment, he said.

“We may be left with no other option,” Wessels said. “Unfortunately, you reduce services to those who have no other place to go.”

Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury and Sheriff Larry Carpenter said they understand the frustrations of the other department heads, but insist the county cannot afford to cut law enforcement.

They cite a study from a criminologist who predicted that violent crimes will explode in Ventura County in the future and a financially strapped law enforcement system could be hard pressed to keep pace.

“We have already suffered,” Bradbury said. “We simply are in the position that our budget cannot be cut any further without impacting public safety significantly.”

He said he would like the other county employees who are complaining about law enforcement to “spend a day at my desk and see the dangers to the public that most will never know about. . . .

“People may be upset when they hit a pothole or concerned that they will have to wait until tomorrow to check out a book because the library is closed today.

“These things pale in comparison when you talk to a rape victim or to the person whose parent has been murdered. You quickly realize why governments were formed. It wasn’t to fill potholes and build libraries. It was to provide public safety.”

But Adeniran, director of the Ventura County Library Services Agency, said the county must be careful to balance its services.

Libraries, she said, can help people become productive members of society and stay out of trouble. After school, for instance, the county’s small Avenue Library in Ventura is packed with children who spend their time reading books and not hanging out with the area’s gangs.

Yet, when faced with sharp budget reductions, the small branches are the first to close. Facing a loss of more than half of the library district’s state funding, Adeniran said she might be forced to shut down 12 of the county’s 15 libraries unless the department gets bailed out by the county.

“I certainly think the citizens want to be adequately protected,” Adeniran said. “But the board also has the responsibility to provide a lot of other services. Their task is to find a balance. I’m hopeful they can do that.”

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Supervisor John K. Flynn said although he is concerned about the plight of public health services and libraries, he is committed to protecting the county’s law enforcement agencies.

He said the board simply could not ignore the heavy lobbying campaign launched by the Sheriff’s Department and a new citizens group financed by the deputies’ union.

“I figure they are going to get their way anyway,” Flynn said. “I would lose if I went in the opposite direction.”

Flynn suggested that Wessels should have “put up more of a fight.”

“I think if Phil were to stand up and really be firm, he would gain more attention as far as money goes,” Flynn said. “I think it’s the responsibility of agency heads to fight in the best way they can for their agencies.”

But Supervisor Maggie Kildee said her decision to protect the justice system was spurred by concern for her constituents--not by the law enforcement’s lobbying effort.

“I just feel a lot of pressure to deliver the services that people in the county expect for their tax dollars,” she said.

Barry Hammitt, executive director of the Public Employees Assn. of Ventura County, said the supervisors do not understand that there is a silent group of people who want more for their tax dollars than public safety workers.

“I’m more concerned if the water I drink is pure, if the construction of my home is done properly so it doesn’t fall down on my head, if there will be a nurse to help me if I get wheeled into the medical center,” he said.

“We can’t buy enough cops to make it safe,” he said.