The Ventura County Transportation Commission may hire a Sacramento firm to do the background work on a proposed sales tax to pay for improvements to local roads and mass transit.

Ventura County voters have twice rejected similar transportation measures, but as state and federal money dries up for transportation, local officials say it's worthwhile to ask a third time.

"We are the largest county in the state without one (a local sales tax for transportation)," said Keith Millhouse, a commission member and Moorpark city councilman.

Not being able to show a commitment of local money puts the county at a competitive disadvantage when competing for state or federal money, Millhouse said.

At its Friday meeting, the commission will consider hiring the lobbying firm California Strategies, a Sacramento-based lobbying and consulting firm that has been involved with the successful passage of at least five local transportation measures in the past six years, said Darren Kettle, executive director of the transportation commission.

Kettle worked with the firm during his time as director of legislative affairs and freeway construction with the San Bernardino Associated Governments.

"They have a proven track record," Kettle said, noting the firm did research for similar successful sales tax measures in Riverside County in 2002; San Diego, San Bernardino and Contra Costa counties in 2004; and Orange County in 2006.

Ventura County voters rejected Measure B in 2004, garnering only about 42 percent of the vote. To attract the two-thirds majority needed to pass a transportation measure takes time, said Kettle. It requires enlisting the support of as broad a coalition as possible, he said.

Santa Barbara County, which has a local transportation sales tax measure, rejected renewing it in 2006, but officials are going back to voters this November.

"We've been watching and following what happens there," said Kettle, in part because half the money for the Coastal Express, which connects commuters from Ventura County to Santa Barbara, comes from Santa Barbara County's transportation sales tax.

"In the two-thirds vote environment, any measure really has to be tailored to the interests of voters if it's going to pass," he said.