County Paints a Bleak Budget Picture : Rising Criminal Justice Costs May Force 22% Cutback Elsewhere

The county Social Services Agency may have to lay off hundreds of employees if the budget picture for next year turns out to be as bleak as forecast, the agency’s director said Friday.

A directive was sent last week to many county agencies and departments to draw up contingency plans based on 22% cuts in the part of their budgets funded by the county and the agency heads have until Wednesday to respond.

County Administrative Officer Larry Parrish said the increased costs of the criminal justice system--for new jails, prosecution and defense of criminals, and other court expenses--as well as the lack of a budget surplus are causing the problems.

Parrish in March had ordered the heads of county agencies to tell him the effects of 6% and 12% reductions in the budget for the fiscal year starting July 1.

Supervisors Friday predicted a lean year for county agencies but said no determination had been made about which agencies would be cut and how much. Though the directive went out to nearly every agency, cuts could be administered selectively.

The final decision is up to the supervisors. They will adopt a general budget before July 1 but will not get down to specifics until later in July.

Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez said that “the situation is serious” but noted that there has as yet been no determination of how heavy the cuts will be or exactly where they will fall.

Supervisor Don R. Roth said the budget picture “looks very gloomy, and right now you know all of us are wrestling with reductions here and reductions there. It’s going to be a lean year ahead.”

The current county budget is $1.49 billion, and next year’s is expected to be about the same. But the bulk of the spending is on state and federally mandated programs which cannot be cut.

In addition, Parrish’s directive to county agencies spared those in criminal justice, such as the Sheriff’s Department, district attorney and public defender, because they carry out programs required by the state.

But with costs for those departments rising, and with federal revenue sharing at an end, other programs may have to be cut back unless the state government provides more money to the county, officials said.

Larry M. Leaman, director of the Social Services Agency, said that his agency is receiving $15.6 million from the county’s general fund this year and that a 22% cut means his agency will get only $12.9 million from the general fund. The agency gets another $54.1 million in state and federal money.

Leaman said 388 people in a 1,700-person agency would be laid off if the cuts were 12%, which had been an earlier target figure. At 22%, “probably a couple of hundred more” will have to be let go, he said.

No Panic Yet

“We are in a state of some distress,” Leaman said. “We have not pushed the panic button yet.”

He said the county’s adoptions, day-care licensing and foster-care licensing programs might have to be abandoned if the budget is slashed. If the programs are eliminated, the state would have to step in and run the programs, Leaman said.

Ron Novello of the Environmental Management Agency said budget cuts for his agency would probably force layoffs in the 1,200-employee agency, but he said the number would not be known until next week.

“Most of our positions are filled right now,” Novello said. If layoffs are necessary, “we would try to do it by attrition. We’ve got an internal freeze now on planning position vacancies.”

Workers at the General Services Agency and the Health Care Agency said their officials were drawing up scenarios based on the 22% cutback and had not decided just what would be cut.

County Forced to Pay

In discussing how counties must deal with their budgets, Roth said a major problem is that the Legislature requires counties to run various programs but does not provide full funding for them. That forces counties to pay for these programs from their general funds and to cut other services, he explained.

He said he had heard reports that some counties in Northern California were considering putting chains on the doors of county buildings for a brief period next week to symbolize the potential for a shutdown of government services.

“Orange County won’t participate in that kind of publicity gimmick, but that’s how bleak it is up and down the state,” Roth said.

Leaman said his staff would work through the weekend to draft the figures Parrish wanted. He said the agency would try to avoid cuts in personnel who deal directly with clients of the various welfare programs. But, he said, any cuts would mean increased workloads for employees.

Last month R. W. Scott, head of the General Services Agency, said that even the 12% cuts, if implemented, would mean a dramatic and highly visible trimming of the custodial services provided by his agency in all county offices.

“We’re just not going to be able to keep the facilities clean as often as people are used to,” Scott said.

Parrish has consistently said that the budget picture for the upcoming year is “the worst budget forecast I’ve ever had to deal with.”

He called the situation “desperate” last month and the budget process “brutal.”