RESPONSE TO CENSUS UNCHANGED VENTURA COUNTY COULD SUFFER CONSEQUENCES.

Byline: Daily News Staff

Although the population in Ventura County has increased 11 percent from 1990-99, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Tuesday the proportion of residents participating in the 2000 head count remained the same.

And that could mean fewer dollars for programs such as highway projects and seats in Congress, officials said.

``In most areas of the country where participation is higher, they tend to get a higher census count and that does mean more money for federal and state programs that are based on population numbers,'' said senior planner Steve Wood of the Ventura County's Planning Department.

Preliminary census figures show 76 percent of the county's 745,063 residents - according to 1999 estimates - filled out the forms sent to their homes earlier this year - the same as in 1990. Neighboring Los Angeles County saw its participation rate increase to 70 percent from 64 percent.

Wood said the county distributed fliers, aired radio announcements and gave presentations to city councils about participating in the census. He also said census officials gave presentations to community groups.

``We made every effort to get the number up as high as we can get them up,'' he said.

Tuesday's census report covered only the rate of return of long and short census forms that were mailed in March and April to 120 million household nationwide. The balance of the count was conducted by census takers, who visited or conducted telephone interviews with nonresponsive households.

Census Director Kenneth Prewitt cautioned that it is too early to measure the exact impact of the increased response rate nationwide, but he predicted that it would result in a more accurate count and allocation of federal funds and House seats.

Figures for Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks and Moorpark showed minimal changes.

``When you already have a high level of participation it's hard to get it higher,'' said Thousand Oaks Assistant City Manager Scott Mitnick. ``We would like to be 100 percent but 80 percent is pretty good.''

Calabasas in neighboring Los Angeles County saw a participation jump to 77 percent from 65 percent a decade ago.

``It's not good enough,'' said Calabasas City Councilwoman Leslie Devine - who pointed out that 23 percent of the city's households didn't get counted, which translates into less money for library books and more police officers. ``We didn't do everything we should have done.''

``We would lose almost 25 percent of the federal and state funding we are legally entitled to by population,'' she said. ``That is taxes (residents) have already paid in federal and state taxes coming back to their community.''

Devine said the city went as far as to send out eye-catching postcards reminding residents to fill out their forms. But she said foreign-born residents who may mistrust the government may have found the forms intrusive - and the city's gated communities may have kept census workers away.

``They have census workers go out and knock on doors and they can't do it in gated communities,'' she said, adding 30 percent of the city's homes are behind gates.

California's overall response rate was 70 percent, compared with 65 percent in 1990, when a controversial undercount was estimated at 7 percent.

That result cost the state and its cities and counties an estimated $2.2 billion in federal funding.

Final census data now being tabulated by the bureau will be presented to President Bill Clinton in December, when initial numbers will also be released to the public.

CENSUS RATES

U.S. census particiaption rates

1990 2000

Agoura Hills 75 81

Camarillo 80 81

Calabasas 65 77

Fillmore 75 75

Moorpark 79 81

Ojai 77 74

Oxnard 69 74

Port Hueneme  69 70

Santa Paula 77 72

Simi Valley 77 78

Thousand Oaks 80 78

Westlake Village 80 82

Ventura County 76 76

LA County64 70

Calif. 65 70

CAPTION(S):

box

Box: Census Rates (see text)