County Orders Hiring Freeze, Spending Cuts

Los Angeles County department heads Friday were ordered to stop most hiring and non-essential spending in response to passage of a state budget this week that strips the county of $135.5 million in expected income.

The order from Chief Administrative Officer Richard B. Dixon probably has the most impact on people who have not yet begun their newly won county jobs. All previous hiring commitments should be canceled, Dixon wrote in an “urgent” letter to 40 department heads.

A few jobs that the county finds hard to fill, such as nurses and deputy sheriffs, are exempt from the new rules. But an unknown number of temporary workers retained by the day or week to carry out odd jobs were ordered off the payroll “in all but the most critical circumstances.” Purchases of drugs, medicine and food will continue in jails and county hospitals, but buying of other supplies will be halted.

Dixon said the steps were necessary to fend off financial hardship in case the state budget passed Thursday does not undergo significant changes before taking effect. The budget was passed without $350 million in state money that California counties had anticipated to help them pay the cost of running trial courts.

Los Angeles County was expecting to receive a $135-million share of the trial courts pie, enough to keep most county services at the same level as this year and yield some extra money to avoid further erosion of the county’s crumbling system of caring for seriously injured trauma victims.

Dixon said Friday that he anticipates the Legislature will fiddle with the budget enough to give some relief to Los Angeles County, which has become heavily dependent on the state government for funding since the passage of Proposition 13, the 1978 property tax initiative.

“On the other hand, (that is) not a bird in the hand, it’s still a bird in the bush,” Dixon said in an interview Friday. “And I cannot fail to take some prudent action to cut down on expense levels and save money.” Dixon acted in the absence of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, which has not scheduled a meeting next week because three of its members are traveling in Europe, apparently to seek new business and tourism for the Los Angeles area. The board was unable to conduct a meeting this week because of the absence of the three supervisors.

For the most part the steps ordered Friday will be reversible in case the trial courts money is voted by the Legislature, which left Sacramento today for the summer recess and is not due to return until August.

Dixon also drew the line at canceling any spending that will cause serious disruption of county operations or public services. For instance, Dixon said Friday, the temporary workers who staff the county’s pools in summer will be kept on the payroll and the pools will remain open.

Neither the Legislature’s action nor Dixon’s order Friday came as good news to the county Department of Mental Health, which was likely to lose money even if the state budget included the trial courts relief that the Board of Supervisors expected.

The state budget passed Thursday provides about $5.2 million for mental health programs in Los Angeles, far less than the $18 million that mental health director Robert Quiroz said he needs to avoid service cuts.

‘Grateful’ for Anything

“We’re grateful for any funding that comes to the mental health system, but we would have to review the budget situation before we see how much it helps,” Quiroz said Friday.

About 40 patients at county mental health clinics protested Friday outside the San Antonio clinic in Bell Gardens about the effect of the cuts.

The county-operated mental health outpatient clinic is one of 11 clinics targeted for closure next month as part of the cuts, officials said.

Carrying signs that read: “Close the clinic, increase the homeless,” and “Please do not close the San Antonio,” the protesters said that the largely Latino community served by the clinic would suffer because San Antonio specializes in their needs.

About 70% of patients are Latino, many of whom have escaped from civil wars and extreme poverty in their native countries, said clinic director Yvette L. Townsend.