Board OKs $6.7-Billion Budget for L.A. County

A $6.7-billion budget was approved Friday by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors after the conservative majority defeated liberal attempts to increase funds to ease jail overcrowding, help the homeless and improve programs for curbing child abuse.

The county budget, approved on a 3-2 vote after a week of often bitter and testy deliberations, represents a 10% increase over last year’s fiscal plan. Much of that increase was blamed on inflation.

Voting against the budget were liberals Kenneth Hahn and Ed Edelman, both of whom attacked the conservative majority for not providing enough money to handle record increases in applications for county relief.

“I don’t carry hate around in my heart,” Edelman said bitterly, “but I do carry around anger.”

Work Force to Rise

Contrary to earlier predictions that 600 county employees might lose their jobs, Chief Administrative Officer James C. Hankla said after the budget’s adoption that no layoffs are expected. The county’s work force actually will show a one-year rise of 533 positions to 72,427.

This somewhat rosier county job picture developed as the board dipped into previously earmarked construction funds and other reserves to stave off a projected $37.5-million deficit.

While the budget is balanced, Hankla said that tough times await the county next year if it loses an expected $60 million in federal revenue-sharing funds.

Law Enforcement Cuts

The final budget for the first time since 1982 stung county law enforcement, but only mildly. Treated by the conservatives as fiscal sacred cows in the past, the Sheriff’s Department, the district attorney’s office and the Fire Department suffered some reductions from recommendations originally made by Hankla, but the departments generally wound up with net gains over last year.

The cuts will mean that the Sheriff’s Department will forgo hiring about 93 deputies, while fire officials said two engine companies will be taken out of service for half the year. Fire Chief John Englund said he does not know which companies--consisting of about five firefighters each--he will choose. The impact on the district attorney’s office was not immediately known.

The biggest loser in the budget fight was the county’s welfare program. Board conservatives set aside $21.7 million in additional revenues to meet an unexpected rise in the number of poor people seeking assistance. But the money was put in a contingency fund, meaning that welfare officials must continually return for separate allocations, rather than getting the additional funds at once. Supervisors also rejected a number of Edelman’s motions for money to hire more case workers to handle additional welfare applications.

The board’s conservative majority of Pete Schabarum, Deane Dana and Mike Antonovich stressed throughout the week that they would no longer stand by and pump county money into assistance for the poor without a fight.

They urged Eddy Tanaka, director of the county’s Department of Public Social Services, to try harder to get unemployed recipients back to work.

Serious Errors Feared

Tanaka responded that his staff is now working at its maximum and warned that without additional help the backlog not only will continue, but serious errors and fraud could result.

The conservatives also voted against increasing the $228-a-month payment to general relief recipients.

The Children’s Services Department, hailed during its formation last year as a means to fight the county’s rising child abuse caseload, made some modest gains this year. While the department’s budget calls for an overall increase of about $16 million over last year, Acting Director Robert Chaffee told the supervisors that he needed about $10 million more to make the department “viable, manageable and accountable.”

Edelman, the self-proclaimed “father” of the department, attempted several times to gain more money for it, with only partial success.

More Money Sought

“Either we’re serious about children’s services or we’re not,” said Edelman as he implored his colleagues to pump more money into the effort. “As the father of this department, I’m trying to get the ship ready to sail.”

The board majority, however, would vote only to increase funds for specific department functions, such as the MacLaren Children’s Center, and to help license more foster care homes. The supervisors rejected nearly $2 million in requested additions for administrators and equipment.

Left unresolved, at least for the moment, was the problem of jail overcrowding. Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner told skeptical board members Thursday that by hiring 77 more prosecutors at a cost of $7.4 million, he could guarantee a reduction of 6,000 inmates in the Central Jail in one year.

Motion Unsupported

Hahn could not get support for a motion endorsing Reiner’s plan, while Edelman failed to garner backing for a pilot night court project. Dana and Antonovich, however, promised to reconsider allocating money for easing overcrowding after plans to do so are studied by the countywide Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee.

Also left unanswered by the budget’s adoption was the issue of employee raises. Hankla’s original budget proposal did not call for wage increases, but in recent weeks the board has concluded that some raise is necessary if a major job action is to be avoided.