City Nearly Doubles Aid to Needy : Budget: New Ventura council members lead push to increase allocation to groups that serve the poor and disadvantaged.

The Ventura City Council, influenced by its three new members, nearly doubled the city’s financial help to nonprofit groups and public agencies that aid the poor and disadvantaged.

Ventura, which has the most generous relief package for the needy of any city in the county, has alloted $266,650 to help the poor in its $79-million budget for 1990 that was unanimously passed Monday.

The council increased its financing of social programs for the needy after an appeal by Councilman Gary Tuttle during the last week of budget deliberations.

Tuttle said that in asking for more money to help the poor, he was simply fulfilling a campaign promise--a promise shared by the two other new council members, Cathy Bean and Todd Collart, who were swept into office last November on a slow-growth campaign.

“Cathy, Todd and myself all ran on a platform of helping the less fortunate,” Tuttle said. “I felt we had an obligation to live up to and apparently so did they.”

Because of the council’s decision to increase financing, five programs received more money than they had originally requested.

Before Tuttle’s request, City Manager John Baker had recommended spending $149,650 on social programs, a modest increase from last year’s allocation but more than double than any other city would spend on social service programs this year.

Deborah Millais, city social service coordinator, said that, excluding federal government block grants, Thousand Oaks approved $87,500 for social programs. Among other cities in the county, Fillmore approved $36,000 for the needy; Moorpark allocated $2,500; Ojai, $3,000; Santa Paula, $2,000; and Simi Valley, Oxnard, Camarillo and Port Hueneme nothing.

“Wow, that’s good,” Nancy Steinhelper said of the city’s decision to give the Senior Nutrition Program $12,150, instead of the $5,500 grant she had requested. “I really appreciate the city of Ventura’s recognition that a lot of social service agencies need that money,” said Steinhelper, who helps direct the county’s social service programs.

The Senior Nutrition Program, a county social service agency, provides meals and transportation to more than 3,000 elderly people. Without the increased financing from the city of Ventura, Millais said, the program would have to cut back from delivering meals five days a week to two or three times a week.

The largest award, $50,000, went to the Youth Connection for the construction of a facility that would house 40 abused children on a 33-acre site in Camarillo. The site was donated by the state government.

“It was a very generous gesture and very appropriate, of course, because Casa Pacifica is a marvelous project that deserves support,” said Superior Court Judge Joseph Hadden, a member of Casa Pacifica’s board of trustees.

The money appropriated by the council to increase its social service package came from several sources. Baker said $60,000 came from money earmarked for maintenance of a Police Department computer that has not been installed yet.

Another $20,000 was found in an audit of city books that showed city officials had spent less than previously estimated, Baker said. An extra $42,000 was added to the pot when the council voted to eliminate a Washington lobbyist from its payroll.

The council diverted $15,000 from its community newsletter budget and $10,000 from the Visitors & Convention Bureau to the social services fund.

Russ Smith, bureau director, said his agency would still be able to fulfill its commitments with the $400,000 that was left in its budget. But he said he is concerned that the council had started a dangerous trend that “could lead to the trap of creating a welfare state.”

Smith said if agencies start believing that “in Ventura they get a free ride, then that doesn’t help tourism. That’s why in Santa Barbara you have so many homeless living under a tree.”

Collart said he shared some of Smith’s concerns. “We don’t want social service agencies to believe there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and come to Ventura year after year with higher expectations,” he said.

“But I’m proud of what we did,” he added. “I think we found some intelligent places to make budget cuts, and we were able to extend services to people in critical need without impacting the city.”