County Considers Cutting Panel on Women’s Issues : Budget: Officials say a weakening economy may lead to action. Other services may be eliminated or merged.

SANTA ANA —  To save money, county budget cutters acknowledged Thursday that they may recommend disbanding the Orange County Commission on the Status of Women, created more than a decade ago to advise women on issues ranging from job discrimination to domestic violence.

Chief budget officer Ronald S. Rubino cautioned that the 15-member commission is only one of several community service programs being considered for elimination or merger, and he stressed that it is a sign of bleak economic times rather than a lessening of concern for the needs of women.

“People are getting real nervous because of the questions we are asking,” Rubino said, referring to his staff’s search for programs to slice from the county’s $3.39-billion budget. “But it would be extremely premature to indicate that any actions have been taken or any decisions have been made.”

Leaders of women’s groups wasted no time in reacting with outrage, however.

“It’s the message that we have fought against for a long time, that women are at the bottom of the priority list,” said commission Chairwoman Nina Hull. “And we just can’t have that anymore.”

Hull said shaving off the commission’s $114,000 annual operating cost will have little impact on county spending, which at one point this year faced a $46-million shortfall. Blaming massive state funding cuts, the Board of Supervisors has already dramatically reduced health services to the poor and other programs while imposing several new fees to generate revenue. Officials are bracing for more bad news in December when a mid-year spending report is due.

“Our budget’s nothing, that’s what I can’t understand,” Hull said, after emerging from a 90-minute meeting with one of several county budget analysts who are preparing a report expected to go before the supervisors early next month.

Hull said options discussed in the meeting included eliminating the commission outright, transferring its duties to the Orange County Human Relations Commission--which monitors civil rights abuses--or leaving it intact under the auspices of another agency.

“It has been worthwhile for the last 15 years--it’s worthwhile now,” Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder said in signaling her support for the commission. “Women have not come a long way, baby. We have a long way to go.”

The women’s commission uses its funding to study and advise county officials on a wide range of issues, including domestic violence, employment discrimination and child day-care services. It also acts as a clearinghouse, advising women on where and how to get economic, legal and social services.

Rubino said his staff is considering whether to recommend abolishing the entire Community Services Agency, a major branch of county government that oversees the women’s commission and a host of other community programs.

The agency has already lost a large chunk of its authority and funding, Rubino noted. Last August, supervisors voted to eliminate the agency’s supervision of housing issues, reducing its operating budget from $15 million to $11 million, according to a community service administrator.

Budget staffers are now reviewing which of the agency’s other programs might be eliminated or absorbed by other departments, Rubino said.

Mark Goodman, an aide to Supervisor Thomas F. Riley, said there are no plans to disturb the county’s commissions on aging and veterans affairs because both receive federal funding and “have a distinct purview.”

Goodman said the Commission on the Status of Women, on the other hand, might easily be combined with the Human Relations Commission.

“Basically you’re dealing with civil rights,” Goodman said. “An argument can be made that in separating women from Human Relations you’re not giving them the same status as full citizens.”

Hull noted, however, that if the commissions were combined, the women’s staff of three employees would be eliminated. And issues especially important to women, she argued, would no longer receive as much attention.

Dolly Schultz, an Anaheim grandmother appointed to the first commission on women in 1975, expressed dismay at its possible termination.

“These things are needed now more than ever,” Schultz said. “There are more single parents. There are more women working. It would be a terrible thing for working women and for abused women. We helped both.”

State activists also said they would fight any effort to disband the Orange County commission or merge it with another panel. Linda Joplin, California coordinator for the National Organization for Women, said such panels play an important role in fostering positive change within government.

“Women’s issues have not been--and continue not to be--dealt with completely,” Joplin said.

Pat Towner, executive director of the state Commission on the Status of Woman, said her group and 33 others around the state have successfully fought efforts to disband local panels elsewhere.

In Santa Clara County, for example, officials had decided against funding the local women’s commission but changed their minds after hundreds of letters and telephone calls of complaint poured in, she said.

“Every time there’s a budget crisis they start looking at women services. . . , “ Towner said. “I think the local commission should know that we and other local commissions will rally around it. It has happened in the past and will happen again. We will be there to support them.”