Countywide : Poverty Agency Expects Budget to Be $4 Million

It may have had its share of internal problems, but the Orange County Community Development Council (CDC)--which pays for programs for the county’s poor--has little difficulty in raising cash.

The agency funnels money for such needs as housing, health care, transportation, energy and food to the about 138,000 county residents who live below the poverty level.

The anti-poverty agency last week approved an outline of county needs that will be delivered to the state and federal governments for use in allocating various funds. CDC senior planner Donald Sizemore said the agency expects to approve a budget of about $4 million next November, an increase of about $850,000 from the 1985 fiscal year, which in turn was about $500,000 greater than the previous year.

Sizemore said the growth is partially linked to the state’s move two years ago to update the demographic information used for funding. The state now makes payment decisions based on 1980 Census figures--the latest available--that reflect the number of Latinos, Southeast Asians and unemployed who flocked to Orange County in the last decade.

The change has gradually brought Southern California social service funds to about the same level as Northern California funds, Sizemore said. Until 1984, he said, “San Francisco County, for example, got an average of $26 for every low-income resident, while Orange County got $5.”

Executive Director John Flores, who took over in 1984 after the former director was dismissed amid allegations of fiscal mismanagement, said things are beginning to turn around. “We’re healthy now, but (we were) in critical condition for a while,” he said.

He said one positive sign is that 45 people attended public meetings in San Clemente, Cypress, Anaheim, Huntington Beach and Santa Ana to give their views on social needs for next year. Flores, who just received a two-year contract at $46,000 a year, noted that in 1984 only 19 people showed up.

Some of the programs the CDC hopes to pay for next year include energy conservation and assistance in payment of utility bills for low-income people (recommended at a cost of about $1.8 million), a mobile health-care unit manned by UCI Medical Center doctors (about $126,000), distribution of surplus and donated food (about $242,000) and a crisis intervention program for domestic violence cases (about $93,000).

“Things are going well for this agency,” said Sizemore. “It’s certainly been troubled in the past, and it’s once again a successful, efficient agency.”

The most recent problem involved former Executive Director Norine Miover, who was dismissed in March, 1984, amid allegatio