Campaign Rivals Offer Lofty Plans : Election: All the candidates for supervisor have pet projects and reforms. But budget woes will hamper whoever wins.

Sweeping changes have been pledged by leading candidates in the historic Jan. 22 election that is expected to give Los Angeles County its first Latino supervisor in this century--and possibly end a decade of conservative control of the Board of Supervisors.

City Councilwoman Gloria Molina has promised to seek campaign contribution limits and other reforms in county politics. One of her first acts, she said, would be to press for the removal of a glass security barrier separating supervisors from the public in the board meeting room.

State Sen. Art Torres said that he would stop any new private contracting of county jobs--a favorite program of the conservative supervisors--and would create a county Department of Environmental Protection.

Sarah Flores, a former aide to retiring Supervisor Pete Schabarum, has pledged to bring “more harmony” to the board, establish a hot line for reporting graffiti and study importing water from Alaska and Canada to solve Southern California’s drought.

State Sen. Charles Calderon said that he would review the county’s $10-billion budget “to see how the money is being spent” and investigate the county’s troubled children’s welfare agency.

No matter who is elected, a proposal to expand the board from five to seven members appears headed for the ballot. All four major candidates have vowed to provide the swing vote to place the measure before voters.

The all-white board is expected to gain a Latino member who--at the very least--will raise issues of importance to the new, heavily Latino 1st District, such as hiring more Latino county employees.

But the harsh reality is that money does not exist to significantly alter the course of county government, even if the election of a Latino supervisor establishes a new liberal majority that would include supervisors Ed Edelman and Kenneth Hahn, county officials say. Three of the four candidates in the heavily Democratic district are Democrats; Flores is a Republican.

“We’re not all just rubbing our hands with glee that things are going to be different from now on in a dramatic way,” said Joel Bellman, press deputy to Edelman.

“The economy,” explained Hahn, “will make everybody more conservative.”

“No county board has a whole lot of latitude when they are . . . between a rock and a hard place,” said Richard B. Dixon, the county’s chief administrative officer. “In this case, the rock is state mandates”--for the county to run the courts, hospitals and jails and provide welfare--”and the hard place is limited or falling revenue.”

In fact, the new supervisor is expected to be confronted immediately with the need to cut programs, raise taxes or both. The county, which relies on Sacramento for funding, expects to be hit hard by the state’s projected $7-billion shortage.

The four major candidates have pledged to be more compassionate than the board’s conservative majority on social issues. They also have pledged to be tough on crime. But additional funding from Sacramento and Washington is unlikely, and the candidates have failed to identify what programs they would trim or taxes they would raise to increase funding for law enforcement and social programs.

They have insisted that there is waste in the $10-billion county budget but have failed to identify substantial areas for savings.

“All I can do is offer you a promise that I will commit my energy, my skills, my hopes to finding answers,” Calderon said.

Torres said he believes that the county could obtain more money from Sacramento or Washington if supervisors lobbied harder.

“I can’t remember the last time I saw Antonovich, Dana or Schabarum in Sacramento or Washington lobbying for money for health care,” Torres said. “Because if they had been there, (Republican Gov. George) Deukmejian would never have vetoed” a Torres-sponsored bill to provide $24 million for strapped Los Angeles County health programs.

Some changes--requiring small expenditures--are likely if there is an ideological shift. For example, Edelman and Hahn have been outvoted by the conservative majority in their efforts to raise the $312-a-month welfare stipend to 50,000 mostly homeless people, allocate $500,000 to reduce the 21-week wait time for first-time AIDS patients at county hospitals and spend $2 million to keep homeless shelters open for 60 days during the winter.

A new supervisor may not affect the outcome of some other issues.

For example, the Latino community has opposed construction of more jails in heavily Latino neighborhoods near downtown--and Molina and Torres have appeared before the board in opposition. But Edelman, the area’s former supervisor, opposed expansion of the men’s Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles, and was outvoted 4 to 1.

Additionally, even a liberal majority would not assure the distribution of bleach kits and condoms to prevent the spread of AIDS because Hahn has lined up with the conservatives on that issue.

All four candidates have spoken out against aerial spraying of malathion to kill the Medfly. But authority for the Medfly eradication program rests with the governor, not the county board.

Officially, the board is nonpartisan. But after conservatives Mike Antonovich and Deane Dana joined Pete Schabarum on the board in 1980, the three Republicans voted together so consistently that the public employee unions--upset by their actions--wrote a jingle “Three-to-two, three-to-two, we always know just what they’ll do.”

Taking over the board during the post Proposition 13-era of fiscal restraint, the newly elected Antonovich and Dana, following the senior Schabarum’s lead, hired private firms to provide a range of services, from repair of county vehicles to food service at county hospitals. In order to provide additional money for law enforcement, they cut health and welfare programs for the poor. They also phased out rent control.

Antonovich and Dana are backing Flores, the lone Republican in the race.

“The board, if Sarah is elected, will go pretty much along the same line as it is today,” said Dana.

But another Flores supporter, Raul Nunez, president of the Los Angeles County Chicano Employees Assn. said, “I do see her breaking away from the conservative members . . . on matters that address human services.”

Hahn has endorsed Torres. Edelman and Schabarum have stayed out of the race.

The Service Employees International Union, Local 660, which has endorsed Torres, sent postcards to union members in the district reading, “Stop Contracting Out--Elect Art Torres.” The union contends that contracting has taken the jobs of many county employees, mostly minorities and women. Torres also disputes contentions that the county has saved money by private contracting.

The other candidates have talked in general terms about taking a hard look at contracting, but none have gone as far as Torres in pledging to oppose future contracting of jobs presently provided by county employees.

Bob Hattoy, Southern California regional director of the Sierra Club, said the election also offers a “great opportunity to change the way the county does business, not just for the Hispanic community, but for everybody concerned about growth control.” The Sierra Club has endorsed Torres.