Some Money Restored, but 2 Mental Clinics Will Close

Los Angeles County supervisors on Tuesday restored funding to some mental health facilities but refused to provide enough to prevent the closing Friday of two clinics and cuts in service at seven others.

The West Valley Mental Health Center in Canoga Park and the Hubert H. Humphrey Mental Health Center in South-Central Los Angeles will be closed, bringing to five the number of clinics shut down this year because of a funding shortage.

Before a jammed audience of mental health patients and workers, the board allocated $4.7 million in local funds to preserve a number of mental health programs. But supervisors refused to dig deeper into an $11-million property tax windfall to provide the remaining $3 million needed to stave off the closing of two county clinics at 5 p.m. Friday and reductions in service at seven other facilities.

Board Chairman Ed Edelman explained later that he did not seek full funding because he “did not have the votes and the county has pressing needs in other areas.”

One of the competing demands for money was evident Tuesday, as 807 social workers--63% of those who care for abused and neglected children--stayed off the job to protest slow contract negotiations.

The social workers are among 40,000 county workers--half of the county’s work force--whose contracts expire at midnight Saturday. The social workers have threatened to strike next Tuesday if the county does not limit their workload and pay a 14.5% raise over one year.

The Department of Children’s Services was preparing a plan to assign supervisory personnel to respond to emergencies, such as police reports of abused or neglected children.

During their discussion of mental health, supervisors complained about spending local money to bail out what they contend is a state responsibility.

Clinics where services will be reduced are Arcadia, San Antonio in Bell Gardens, Hollywood, Rio Hondo in Cerritos, San Pedro, South Bay in Hawthorne and West Central Family in the Crenshaw District.