BUDGET CUTS HURT FARMERS PROGRAM CURTAILMENTS THREATEN PRODUCE SHIPMENTS.

Byline: Andrea Cavanaugh Staff Writer

MOORPARK - Nursery foreman Ernesto Gomez doesn't know how his company is going to operate when budget cuts slash the resources of the Agricultural Commissioner's Office next month.

Gomez runs the 140-acre Boething Treeland Nursery in Moorpark, which ships out 20 truckloads of ornamental plants each day to destinations around the country.

About 70 percent of those shipments require an inspection certificate from the county Agricultural Commissioner's Office, which will shutter its Camarillo office June 30 and lay off two inspectors.

``If they cut the budget, there's not going to be enough inspectors,'' said Gomez, who already must arrange inspections three to four days in advance. ``They can't make any cuts.''

In addition to the two inspectors, the agency will lay off 11 people and eliminate 11 vacant jobs, Agricultural Commissioner Earl McPhail said.

When the Camarillo office closes down next month, its five remaining inspectors will squeeze into the agency's crowded office in Santa Paula with six other inspectors.

Growers from all areas of the county will have to travel to Santa Paula to get pesticide permits.

Allowing the Camarillo office to remain open would have meant laying off another inspector, McPhail said.

Growers fear the cuts will be a major blow to Ventura County's $1-billion-a-year agriculture industry.

The cuts mean it will take longer to get pesticide permits and export certificates, said Scott Deardorff, who grows strawberries, celery and tomatoes on nearly 1,000 acres in the Oxnard area.

``It's going to require us to spend a lot more time and energy to grow our crops,'' Deardorff said. ``Now we're going to have to go all the way to Santa Paula. We're going to have to wait in line or make an appointment.''

Agriculture officials said growers will have to make arrangements many days in advance to ensure their produce is inspected.

``If we can't get there, they can't ship it,'' said Herb Bunch, an inspector with the department for 13 years. ``Anything that's perishable, they're going to be hurting.''

The cuts were necessary to shave $656,000 off the agency's $3.4 million budget as the county wrestles with a $46 million shortfall, Deputy Agricultural Commissioner David Buettner said.

The department will receive another $2.6 million in federal funds this year as part of the effort to eradicate the glassy-winged sharpshooter, he said.

In addition to issuing about 12,000 export certificates each year for produce shipped outside California, the agency inspects about 36,000 shipments coming into the county each year, mostly trucks carrying nursery stock, Deputy Commissioner Alan Laird said.

The department also regulates termite companies and performs annual inspections at nurseries to ensure worker safety.

Programs to ensure that pests like gypsy moths and fire ants don't gain a foothold in the county likely will suffer, senior biologist Gayland Hagy said.

In the past five years, budget cuts have cost the department six inspectors in addition to the two that will lose their jobs July 1 and satellite offices in Simi Valley and Oxnard, McPhail said.

``There's no way were going to be able to do more with less,'' he said. ``We'll be doing less with less.''

County Supervisor John Flynn said he has received more than 25 letters from growers concerned about the cutbacks.

Flynn said he is considering a proposal to deputize volunteers to help inspect shipments.

``We're in a terrible mess here,'' Flynn said. ``We've got to have a contingency plan. The produce has to be inspected.''

Andrea Cavanaugh, [phone]

andrea.cavanaugh(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

Yard foreman Ernesto Gomez of Boething Treeland Nursery in Moorpark, left, goes over his inventory with Ventura County agricultural inspector Herb Bunch.

Joe Binoya/Staff Photographer