L.A. County supervisors adopt $28.7-billion budget, adding more than 1,000 positions
Los Angeles County supervisors voted unanimously Monday to adopt a $28.7-billion budget for the fiscal year that begins on Friday, an increase of about $500 million that adds more than 1,000 positions to the government workforce.
Many of those jobs are in the Department of Children and Family Services, with a goal of reducing caseloads. The agency is budgeted to get more than 400 additional positions, including 273 children’s social workers. In December 2013, concerns over high case loads led social workers to go on strike for six days.
The new spending plan budget also adds 12 positions in the county medical examiner-coroner’s office, which has been struggling with lengthy backlogs in autopsies and toxicology testing.
A civil grand jury report issued earlier this year said the office was “significantly understaffed in both coroner investigator and laboratory positions, has a sobering backlog in toxicology testing” and was likely to lose its accreditation if those issues were not addressed. The coroner’s office, which had asked for 80 additional positions in the coming fiscal year, was given only two in the initial budget proposal.
County Chief Executive Sachi Hamai ultimately recommended that the forensic laboratory staff be supplemented with five new positions to help reduce the analysis backlog and that seven investigator positions should be added.
“Our office will continue to work with the interim medical examiner-coroner to evaluate future staffing levels and when necessary make appropriate recommendations to the board,” she wrote.
The county’s former chief medical examiner-coroner, Dr. Mark Fajardo, abruptly announced his resignation in March, saying the department had not been given the resources it needed to do the job. Former longtime coroner Dr. Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran came out of retirement to take over the post while the county searches for a permanent replacement.
The budget adopted Monday also adds 123 positions to community programs run by the Department of Mental Health, 95 nursing staff positions, 20 animal care and control staff positions and 12 deputy sheriff positions needed to increase patrols in unincorporated areas.
The plan brings the total budgeted county workforce to 109,219.
This was the last budget adopted before the makeup of the supervisors’ board shifts in December. Supervisors Michael D. Antonovich and Don Knabe, the two Republicans on the five-member board, are stepping down due to term limits. Their replacements will be selected in the November election.
Twitter: @sewella
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