An Ojai nonprofit agency known for its work with the elderly has laid off nearly one-fourth of its staff and restructured the board of directors, officials said this week.

J.R. Jones, president and CEO of HELP of Ojai, said five of 22 employees were laid off in January in an effort to reduce costs. The employees were office workers, so the move did not reduce services to clients, he said.

"We had to step back and restructure and move forward," the administrator said.

The layoffs will save about $200,000 in HELP's operating budget of $1.5 million, he said.

The agency's board of directors formally dissolved two weeks ago and was replaced with a new governing board that has five members, rather than 15.

Officials said the former board was too large to efficiently operate, adding that the new one may expand up to a more manageable membership of seven to nine.

"A board that size becomes somewhat cumbersome," Jones said of the old board. "There were some people that didn't have the time to be as active as they needed to be."

The other directors were invited to join advisory committees focusing on the board's priorities of mission advocacy, public relations and fundraising, Jones said.

Kelly Randall, the board chairman, said the decision to dissolve the former board and appoint a new one came after long study and discussions taking about a year.

"We were in apparent discord and financial difficulty," the retired executive said. "There was discord over procedural matters, the ability to make decisions, the ability of the agency to respond to community needs."

Randall acknowledged the agency has been in financial disarray. But that's not because of expenses for converting the former Ojai Honor Farm into a second campus, as many residents of the small town believe, he said.

Under a lease signed in July 2006, HELP pays $100 a year to the county and will invest $1 million in the former penal complex over five to seven years. The total renovation is estimated at $2 million.

"There is a perception and a prejudice in the community that the acquisition of the Honor Farm is what caused HELP of Ojai's financial difficulties," Randall said. "That's not true. If HELP of Ojai could return to the county the lease of the honor farm and have our financial problems go away, I would do that in a heartbeat, but that won't do it."

The 10 programs that HELP operates have had longtime cost overruns, he said. In the last fiscal year, the only enterprises that ran in the black were the 2nd Helpings thrift store and the Honor Farm, he said.

Still, the agency is not running at a deficit, Jones said.

"We're holding steady, but we need to improve," he said.

He said the charity has used large bequests to subsidize its operations, but reserves have declined below $100,000.

Randall said the amount of unrestricted reserves — money that can be used for any of HELP's expenses — had fallen to a "very low" level. He declined to state the amount.

The board is looking at a variety of options for boosting revenues, including soliciting additional grants, corporate donations and gifts from outside the Ojai Valley.

The agency provides services to 9,000 people a year, about one out of four people in the Ojai Valley, estimates show.