Private Food Stamp Distributor Sought : Social services: County officials say staff can’t handle the rising caseload. They want an outside vendor for the monthly distribution.

In an effort to cut expenses, Ventura County social service officials are seeking a private company to distribute $2 million worth of food stamps each month to about 12,000 families in the county.

On Tuesday, county supervisors gave James E. Isom, Public Social Services Agency director, the go-ahead to find a firm that could administer the county’s burgeoning food stamp program.

The county is spending nearly $20,000 each month to distribute the stamps to the poor, an administrative task that social service officials believe the private sector could handle more efficiently. The county will ask firms to submit bids to take over the job, Isom said.

“The staff just physically cannot handle the increase in caseload,” he said. “Outside vendors might be the best way to do this.”

Food stamps are provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help the indigent buy basic food supplies.

The program is limited to the poor. For instance, a single mother with two children could collect stamps provided she has an income of less than $14,484 a year. Under a complex federal formula, she could collect the equivalent $142 a month in stamps provided her net income was less than $500 a month.

Over the past few years, the number of Ventura County households receiving food stamps has increased from 7,000 to 12,000, Isom said. Within five years, county officials project the number to rise to 20,000 households, representing about $5 million in coupons monthly.

Isom said the state has agreed to pay for private distribution help, and the counties of Santa Barbara, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Riverside are already using the private firms.

He said county employees now responsible for distributing the stamps would be reassigned to other duties. None would be dismissed, he said.

The supervisors agreed the plan sounded like a good option, but some board members said the county should proceed carefully.

“Food stamps are just like money,” Supervisor John K. Flynn said. “Security is a very important thing. To contract out may be a good idea if it saves money, but it must be secure. We have to monitor that.”

Supervisor Maggie Kildee said she wanted to make sure Isom contacted other counties that use private firms to learn how the programs work.

“I’m only concerned that we use the information that other counties have gathered together so we don’t reinvent the wheel,” Kildee said. “I think there is some real value in what has been proposed. I think we can benefit from it.”

Santa Barbara social service officials said they hired a Sacramento firm about six years ago to distribute food stamps there.

“Our risk management people told us we just couldn’t do it anymore,” said Latricia Faulkner, program assistant for the Santa Barbara Department of Social Services. “We couldn’t afford the personnel factor.”

The private venture has worked out well, Faulkner said.

In the wake of the recession and a cutback in state funding, the county has been searching for ways to contract with private companies to run public services.

Recently, officials hired private physicians to run the county’s family health clinics, which had been operating in the red. So far, officials said, the privatization effort has been a success.

“We are trying to become much more proactive than reactive,” said Kay Doyle, a county senior administrative analyst. “We know that we have several years ahead of us with tight budgets. We are looking at anything that is creative and innovative. We have to absolutely function as a business.”

Supervisor Maria VanderKolk agreed.

“It will provide us with cost savings,” she said. “It is just another example of how we are trying to deal with the tough economic times.”