Ventura Lifts Hiring Freeze to Maintain Police Force : Law enforcement: Panel authorizes replacing three or four retiring officers, but some view move as first step toward unneeded expansion.

Complaining that he has five officers on sick leave, others exhausted from working record amounts of overtime and increasing crime problems, Ventura Police Chief Richard Thomas has won permission from a City Council committee to lift an 18-month hiring freeze.

“The only reason I’m here--I’m telling you this from the bottom of my heart--is I don’t think we’re able to provide the proper level of safety and hold it together much longer,” he told the Finance Committee last week. “There are some things in city business that can be deferred and others that can’t. A 911 call can’t.”

In response, the committee authorized Thomas to make three or four new hires in anticipation of three or four officers retiring within the next year. Two of the committee members said they will push to keep the police force at its present level of 116 sworn officers, rather than following through in July with a plan to cut the force to 114 officers.

But some city officials say Thomas is exaggerating his troubles to raise staffing levels back to 122 officers--the size of the force before council members made cuts last year.

“This is a very political move, and it’s only the beginning,” said one official, who asked not to be named. “I don’t think there’s any stopping him.”

“He can take advantage of the situation because public sentiment is behind him,” another official said. “But I think the resources are already there to get the job done.”

But Thomas said he is responding to widespread public concern about the city’s safety.

“Everywhere I go, public safety comes up in the community,” he said. “This isn’t something I’m making up. I don’t have any delusions of grandeur. I’m not trying to build an empire at the Ventura Police Department. I’m just trying to be the chief of police.”

Compared to other local law enforcement agencies, Ventura has one of the most robust departments in the county. Some facts about the Police Department are:

* Ventura has one officer for every 836 residents. By comparison, Oxnard has one officer for every 937 residents, and Thousand Oaks pays for one officer for every 1,222 residents.

* The city’s starting pay for sworn officers--between $2,800 and $3,450 a month--is about average for the county.

* The Police Department commands nearly one-third of the city’s operating budget, as compared to Thousand Oaks--the third-safest city in the United States among cities with populations of 100,000 or more--which spends just over a quarter of its budget on police.

* The overall crime rate in Ventura is down, with violent crimes dropping by 13% between 1992 and 1993.

Thomas said he is not trying to imply that Ventura is facing any crisis--but by taking action now, he said, he hopes to prevent crime from increasing in the future.

“I’m trying to make sure Ventura stays the neat community it is,” he said. “Whatever it takes, I want to make sure that Ventura never gets to the point that L. A. or Fresno or any other crime-ridden city is. That’s where my heart is.”

Thomas and his department enjoy the support of many residents--especially downtown merchants, who have been clamoring for more foot patrols to combat a transient problem in their neighborhood.

“I don’t think (the department) has enough officers,” said Ed Warren, who owns downtown’s Busy Bee Cafe. “The council needs to support the Police Department.”

Council members say that message comes through loud and clear.

“The public says law enforcement and safety is their No. 1 concern,” Councilman Steve Bennett said. “If that’s the case, no way would I support cutting the police budget.”

Allowing the Police Department to retain two officers in July, rather than losing the positions to attrition, will require cutting more than $100,000 out of other city budgets, Bennett said. But he said the prospect does not daunt him.

“I am comfortable that we will find the money for it,” he said.

City officeholders, both past and present, say local politicians can pay a dear price for showing any willingness to consider restraining costs at the Police Department.

Councilman Gary Tuttle voted for cuts in the police budget when the council slashed expenditures citywide in mid-1993. Five months later, when the city had its elections that November, Tuttle got the least votes of the four candidates elected to the council.

“I hope this doesn’t become a contentious thing like it did last time, in the elections,” he said. “They came out pretty hard against me then.

“The police are very strong in this city,” he said. “But I hope they support the council this time and don’t attack it.”

Todd Collart, who was also on the council in the summer of 1993, also voted for cuts in the police budget. But Collart was not reelected.

“I had the endorsement of the police union when I ran the first time, and I didn’t have it the second time,” he said. “You put two and two together.”

But Thomas says he is not twisting arms, only pointing out what a critical situation he faces. Between supervising storefronts on the Avenue and in Montalvo and meeting other, various requests to step up service around the city, he said his officers are driving themselves into exhaustion from working too much overtime. Without the ability to make new hires, the police force’s effectiveness will continue to diminish, he said.

“The last thing we want milling around is a bunch of tired, cranky police officers,” he said. “It’s getting to the point where there’s too much of it. They’re more subject to illness and to injuries.”

Some city skeptics point out that Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks and Oxnard make do with less than Ventura has.

But Thomas counters that the east county cities are inherently safer because their population is wealthier and the cities are newer, with no aging, declining areas such as Ventura Avenue. As for Oxnard, he said, it’s no accident that it has both less officers per resident than Ventura and a higher crime rate than Ventura.

For the moment, Thomas’ arguments are falling on receptive ears at City Hall. Councilman Gregory L. Carson, who also voted for the police budget cuts last year and who is up for reelection in November, 1995, said he understands the importance of supporting the city’s employees in blue.

“They are an integral part of our promoting tourism,” said Carson, a big tourism booster. “We want to make sure they are on board. It’s a joint partnership with the city.”