County Cuts Estimate of Jobs Lost in Crunch Over New Budget to 141

Orange County Administrative Officer Larry Parrish told the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday that budget shortages will cost the county about 141 jobs in fiscal 1987-88, but officials said that figure could drop by the end of the year.

On the last day of hearings preceding approval of a final budget for the fiscal year that began July 1, Parrish reported Tuesday that the number of county jobs expected to disappear this year will be far lower than anticipated in June. On June 19, Parrish’s office predicted that about 343 jobs--some vacant and some filled--would be lost.

Still, if the expectations described Tuesday come to pass, it will be the first time in seven years that the county will have been forced to lay off employees because of budget shortages.

Predict Problems

And officials throughout county government say budget constraints will hurt performance and efficiency within a variety of agencies.

Of the 141 jobs expected to be lost, just 45 are now filled, Parrish said. And many of those are funded for part of the year, allowing time for more vacancies to develop and for department heads to shuffle positions and programs to retain more employees.

Richard L. Pickryl, programs manager in the county administrative office, said he figured that fewer than 30 employees will actually be laid off. But at least one department, the General Services Administration, already has issued layoff notices to about 18 employees.

Added Money

The supervisors tentatively adopted a $1.7-billion budget in June; final approval is scheduled for later this month.

Last week, the supervisors heard budget presentations from all of the departments within county government and added several million dollars in spending to the figures they approved in June.

When the supervisors tentatively adopted the budget two months ago, the funding levels would have required 237 layoffs and the loss of another 106 vacant positions, according to Parrish’s office.

Since then, the county has received more state money than it had anticipated, and the supervisors voted to spend more than $15 million on new jail facilities rather than saving the money in a landfill management account. The transfer left more money in the budget for jobs.

The supervisors also dipped into the county’s contingency fund--a budget cushion saved for emergency costs--to save jobs.

Parrish told the supervisors Tuesday that more than $10 million was added to the budget during the hearings last week and that the contingency fund now stands at $16,762,000.

Auditor-Controller Steve Lewis had warned the supervisors not to lower the contingency account below $20 million because it could cause the county to run out of money in a major unexpected expense, such as a lawsuit. The contingency fund is also analyzed by investment companies reviewing the county’s economic profile for purposes of assigning a credit rating.

Parrish told the supervisors $15 million is “rock bottom” for the contingency fund.

Under the tentative budget approved in June, the county’s health care and social services programs suffered the most serious reductions in jobs, losing nearly 140 positions. But unanticipated state funding and more than $1 million taken from the contingency fund last week by the supervisors will allow those programs to retain all their personnel, at least for most of the year.

Of the departments still losing positions, probation carries the greatest burden. The CAO’s office projected that the probation department will lose 51.5 positions, 22.5 of which are now filled.

But Michael A. Schumacher, the county’s chief probation officer, said there is enough partial-year funding for the positions that--with personnel transfers and additional vacancies--just two or three employees will be laid off.

Schumacher said the proposed cuts would have hardly any effect on his present staff of about 905 employees.

He said he is optimistic that the home-incarceration and work-furlough programs, scheduled to be ended under current budget plans, will be renewed when their temporary funding expires, because they have proved to be effective and much less expensive than sending offenders to crowded jail facilities.

Schumacher said his department’s normal rate of employee resignations and retirements will cover many of the positions deleted by the budget cuts.

He said the long-term effect of the cuts is to prevent expansion of his staff at a time when demands for their work are steadily growing.

“I’m committed to making sure my staff will not be overloaded,” Schumacher said. “We can’t control what the courts do, but we can look at ways of streamlining our work, like getting people off probation who are successful early on.”

Schumacher said it was premature to discuss what streamlining steps he might take. He said he would confer with his employees within the next few weeks on ways to increase efficiency.

Under the figures presented Tuesday, the sheriff’s department will lose 16 positions from last year’s staffing level. Sheriff Brad Gates has warned that such cuts would affect public safety.

However, Gates said Tuesday that most of the staff reduction will not come from public safety personnel. He said there will not be any reductions in patrol officers and a minimum reduction in jail personnel.

The positions cut are in “areas that don’t really impact the jail or safety,” Gates said. “But we are at an absolute minimum at this point in time. . . . Our emergency response times are at a point that is unacceptable to us.”

Assistant Sheriff Walter Fath said the cuts will include four deputies at the main jail in Santa Ana assigned to escort prisoners from their cells to visiting areas. Three other positions--for employees monitoring visiting areas--will be lost at a branch jail.

As a result, the visiting hours at the main jail will be reduced from 12 hours, five days a week, to eight hours, four days a week. In the branch jails, visiting hours will be reduced from eight hours a day five days a week to eight hours a day three days a week.

Fath said it will also take more time for jail personnel to make prisoners available for meetings with their attorneys.

The sheriff is expected to come back to the supervisors for more money when the new Intake/Release Center, near the main jail, is opened later this month. Gates said his budget is at least $700,000 short of the cost to operate the facility.

Burt Scott, director of the General Services Administration, said his office has already issued layoff notices to at least 18 employees.

PROJECTED LAYOFFS

Positions expected to be lost in 1987-88 county budget as of:

June 19 Aug. 3 Jobs now Vacant Jobs now Vacant filled positions filled positions Sheriff * * 1 15 Social Services Agency 92 2 0 0 Health Care Agency 28 29 3** 2 Probation 68 30 22.5*** 29 General Services 18 8 18 8 Administration Auditor-Controller 14 16 0 20 Community Services 2 0 1 0 Agency Personnel 6 1 0 0 County Administrative 1 9 0 8 Office County Counsel 4 1 0 0 Agricultural Commissioner 0 4 0 4 Data Systems 2 5 0 7 Detention Release 2 1 0 3 Total (all positions): 343 141.5

* Undecided ** Excludes an added 11 positions that may be deleted in April subject to the outome of study of Garden Grove Clinic *** Includes 9.5 positions which are expected

Source: County Administrative Office