Delay in Hiring New Deputies Recommended

The county administrative office is recommending that the hiring of between 20 and 54 new sheriff’s deputies for the South County area be delayed until the 1990-91 fiscal year.

Adding the deputies for the unincorporated part of South County--where the patrol staff is stretched thin and there has not been a manpower increase since 1984--was considered during last year’s budget hearings, but the Board of Supervisors agreed to delay a decision until the mid-year budget review.

That review was completed last month. The Sheriff’s Department did receive $4.6 million to cover a budget shortfall, but action on the South County patrol issue was delayed once again, with the county staff promising to return to the board with its analysis and recommendation within two weeks.

The initial recommendation by the administrative office was to simply defer any consideration of new deputies until the 1990-91 fiscal year. But after meeting with three supervisors Wednesday--South County representatives Gaddi H. Vasquez and Thomas F. Riley and Board Chairman Don R. Roth--Assistant County Administrative Officer Murry L. Cable agreed to put the item on the agenda for the board’s March 6 meeting, with a recommendation from his office that new hiring be delayed.

“The issue needs to be deliberated in public in a board meeting,” said Vasquez, whose district includes the unincorporated communities of El Toro, Lake Forest, Rancho Santa Margarita and Coto de Caza. “It’s something that I’m concerned about.”

Riley, whose district includes Laguna Hills and Aliso Viejo, said he hopes that he and Vasquez can persuade at least one other supervisor to approve the hiring this year.

“The time is now,” Riley said. “The growth in South County is great; the needs are there. We sometimes think of it as a rural area when really we should think of it as urban.”

Sheriff Brad Gates, who was in Los Angeles much of Wednesday and had not yet heard about the county administrative office recommendation, responded angrily when he heard the news.

“I haven’t been told that,” Gates said. “The agreement we had with the CAO is that (County Administrative Officer) Ernie Schneider was supposed to call me last Friday. . . . He hasn’t done that yet.”

Schneider is on vacation this week. Cable, as the assistant administrative officer, is scheduled to meet with the two remaining supervisors, Roger R. Stanton and Harriett M. Wieder, today.

The last few months have been rough going for Gates, who has increasingly found himself at odds with the Board of Supervisors and the county staff over his budget requests.

Last year, some board members told Gates that the new genetics testing laboratory he wanted should be paid for with money seized in drug raids. Gates eventually got funds for the lab without using the drug-raid money. But Gates was dealt another, big setback when the board voted to sell Rancho del Rio, where the sheriff had wanted to build an international narcotics enforcement training facility.

Earlier this month, a Gates-backed plan to increase the sales tax to pay for a new jail was ruled unconstitutional by a Sacramento County judge, leaving the county’s plans to relieve jail overcrowding in disarray.

Capt. Doug Storm, commander of the South County sheriff’s substation in Laguna Niguel, said he did not want to comment on the county administrative office recommendation to delay the new hires until the matter goes before the board next month.

“We’re still hopeful that something can be worked out,” Storm said.

Among the three alternatives the board will consider are plans to hire 20, 39, or 54 new deputies, at initial costs of $1.3 million or $2.6 million or $3.6 million.

There are now 122 deputies to patrol South County--the same number as in 1984. According to a county report completed last December, population in the area has increased about 18% a year and calls for service have increased about 15% per year in the unincorporated area.

The report also says that South County deputies spend almost 60% of their time responding to calls for service and writing reports, and 13% of their time on “preventive patrol”--that is, developing contacts, stopping people who are acting suspiciously and patrolling neighborhoods to seek suspects and deter crime. The average response time for the highest-priority calls, including those for crimes in progress, is more than eight minutes, the report says.

The general standard for law enforcement is to have patrol units spend between 40% and 60% of their time on preventive patrols; the average response time for highest-priority calls should be five minutes. Calls for Service Number of calls for service received by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department from South County residents.* ‘84-’85: 33,803 ‘85-”86: 37,136 ‘86-’87: 43,603 ‘87-’88: 51,018 ‘88-’89: 58,671** ‘89-’90: 67, 472** *Area includes El Toro, Lake Forest, Laguna Hills, Laguan Niguel, Ailso Viejo, Rancho Santa Margarita and canyons. **Projected Source: Orange County Sheriff’s Department