Budget Proposal Mixes Bright Spots With Cuts for County Programs

Olive View Medical Center in Sylmar, where the baby boomlet has caused much chaos, could receive $3 million to begin expanding the maternity wing.

A boot-camp-style program for prisoners at the Peter J. Pitchess Honor Rancho in Castaic, which had been scheduled to end in September for lack of funding, may continue for at least another year.

Money for both was included in the items affecting the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys in the $11.1 billion county budget proposal for 1991-92 that was released Friday. The budget will be presented to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday and will not be adopted until mid-July, after extensive public hearings.

Cuts dominate most of the budget this year, as they have for several years, and the valleys are not immune from the reductions. To save money, County Chief Administrative Officer Richard B. Dixon is proposing closure of the Lake Chatsworth Fire Station and a three-month delay in opening the new Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station.

And, if state and federal funding falls short, even the bright spots in the budget may dim, Dixon said during a budget briefing Friday afternoon. “This is the most uncertain budget I have ever seen,” he said.

For the 60 or so new mothers and women in labor who stay at Olive View Medical Center nightly, the $3 million recommended for conversion of existing space into additional maternity rooms would mean surroundings better tailored to their needs. Officially, only 29 of the hospital’s 377 beds are in the maternity wing, causing women in labor to be moved into other wings and sometimes even into the halls.

“It would be nice to have it now, for sure,” hospital Administrator Douglas Bagley said of the proposed expansion. “But the fact that there’s some action planned is encouraging. . . . We’ll keep our fingers crossed.”

For a few of the 8,900 inmates sentenced to the Peter J. Pitchess Honor Rancho, the $3.9 million set aside in the proposed budget for the Regimented Inmate Diversion Program would mean the chance for shorter terms.

The three-month program, known as RID, combines strict military-style discipline, uniforms and physical demands with intensive education and job-related training. More than 430 inmates have entered the program since September, 1990. After successful completion of the program, they are considered for early release on probation.

About 60% of those who have graduated and been released on probation are employed, compared with only about 25% of paroled inmates who did not participate in RID, said Sheriff’s Deputy Patrick Hunter.

In March, the Sheriff’s Department said county supervisors would have to provide at least $3.5 million or the program would end in September. At that time, the department made it clear that the money used to start the program--gleaned from assets seized during drug raids and arrests--provided only temporary funding because it was earmarked for other purposes, such as paying narcotics investigators’ salaries.

But Gerald Roos, the county’s budget director, said the department reconsidered: The $3.9 million will be drawn from the nearly $27 million seized last year.

Those who rely on the services of the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station in Agoura and the Lake Chatsworth Fire Station may be the losers in this year’s budget.

The budget proposes delaying for three months the scheduled Oct. 1 opening of the Agoura station to save money on staffing and operations.

Residents of the new city of Calabasas, which plans to contract for sheriff’s services from the new station, were concerned about the additional delay because they said response time from the next nearest station, in Malibu, is too long.

A spokesman for Supervisor Ed Edelman, who came to represent portions of the San Fernando Valley through court-ordered redistricting late last year, said the supervisor will challenge the proposed delay during the budget hearings.

The proposed closure of a fire station that serves an isolated corner of the West Valley known as Lake Chatsworth has been controversial since it was first announced last year. Residents there gained Edelman’s support with claims that neither county firefighters nor Los Angeles city firefighters from other stations could reach their remote neighborhoods in time to stop a fire.

At Edelman’s request, the Fire Department agreed to look at alternative funding sources. But the proposed budget states that if the city Fire Department agrees to service the area, the county station should be closed in order to save $800,000.

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How Valley Fares

Gains:

* Babies--$3 million to plan and start expansion of the delivery wing at Olive View Medical Center in Sylmar.

* Jails--$3.9 million to extend a boot-camp-style program at Peter J. Pitchess Honor Rancho in Castaic.

* Juveniles--$3.4 million to continue the phased opening of the Challenger Memorial Center, a camp for juvenile offenders in Lancaster.

* Substation--$450,000 to open and staff a new sheriff’s substation in Palmdale.

Losses:

* Substation--A three-month delay in the opening of the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station in Agoura.

* Fire station--Closure of the Lake Chatsworth Fire Station.

* Jail--Postponement of a $1-million program to accommodate a growing number of visitors to Peter J. Pitchess Honor Rancho.