O.C. Supervisors Hack Away, Pass Budget : Spending: $3.7-billion plan cuts back on sheriff’s funds, eliminates women’s panel, spares 4-H Clubs.

The Orange County Board of Supervisors, after a chaotic and frustrating debate, approved its $3.7-billion budget Tuesday, restoring money for the 4-H Club program while slashing funds for law enforcement and other services.

“This has been the most difficult fiscal year that the County of Orange has ever faced,” Board Chairman Gaddi H. Vasquez said. He called the final 1991-92 budget “sound and prudent,” stressing that it does not raise taxes.

Recent cuts in state funding, the recession and the incorporations of several new cities created the board’s financial quandary this year. When the budget hearings opened last month, the supervisors faced a $67.7-million shortfall.

To close that gap, the board was forced to trim dozens of programs and authorize the first layoffs since 1978, when the passage of Proposition 13 slashed funding to California counties. Under the budget approved Tuesday, 260 positions will be eliminated, and 68 workers are expected to lose their jobs.

Although many programs were cut, supervisors were forced to increase others. In the area of welfare and social services, for instance, state and federal mandates require that the board add staff. As a result, the county expects to add 729 new workers this year, even as it is laying off others.

The final vote on the budget was 4 to 1, with Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder casting the dissenting vote. Wieder said later that she meant to vote against a portion of the budget, not the whole thing.

Wieder added that she intends to correct the record at the board’s next meeting to show her support for the overall document.

Among the victims of the budget ax were:

* The Sheriff’s Department, which will have to reduce its spending by $4.8 million. Investigator jobs in homicide, sex crimes and organized crime will be eliminated, along with other cuts.

* The Probation Department, which will lose 21 positions, including six workers who oversaw a highly touted adult drug program that kept some low-level offenders out of overcrowded county jails.

* The public information office, which will lose five of its seven employees.

* The Commission on the Status of Women, which was eliminated and its mission assumed by the Human Relations Commission. The latter also will suffer a deep cut.

* An array of other operations, many of which will be laying off employees, working with fewer supplies, canceling recruiting and other programs and making do with worn-out workplaces.

With so many county operations forced to absorb cuts, many observers at Tuesday’s meeting were stunned when the Board of Supervisors dipped into its reserves for $51,000 for the county’s 4-H Clubs, which teach thousands of young people every year about agriculture. The extra money means no budget cuts for 4-H Clubs.

Supervisors had previously refused many requests to tap their contingency funds.

Backers of the 4-H program packed the board chambers, bursting into applause at the board’s action. Some of the youngsters wore their 4-H uniforms.

Supervisor Roger R. Stanton, who led the effort to restore funding for the 4-H program, said he was persuaded by the pleas of one of its young backers.

“While I may not be moved by a tree or something else, I am moved by this particular program,” Stanton said. “Get a 15-year-old who can talk like an articulate college graduate, and I’ll be moved.”

Three other supervisors joined Stanton in supporting the $51,000 appropriation.

Only Wieder objected, arguing that it was unfair for the board to be swayed by the impassioned appeal of a 15-year-old while other programs were being cut.

As the supervisors debated the issue of the 4-H Club funding and its implications for the rest of the budget, a packed audience looked on bemusedly. Some even laughed out loud as the board struggled to make sense of the funding proposal for that program.

When Vasquez told the 4-H supporters that “this is your government in action,” the audience burst into laughter.

“You may laugh and think it’s funny,” Vasquez responded sternly. But the young people “compelled this board to reevaluate this program.” He commended them for their presentation.

Nina Hull, who chaired the now-defunct Commission on the Status of Women, said she was “totally amazed” that the board would go to such lengths to save 4-H while refusing to approve money for the 16-year-old women’s panel.

“I don’t think this is how you run a government,” she said.

Hull, who had planned to resign in protest, found that even that option was taken from her as the commission will be disbanded immediately, leaving her with no post from which to resign.

Hull did draft an open letter to the women of Orange County, however, accusing the board of ignoring women’s concerns and charging that William Baker, director of the Community Services Agency, did not do enough to save the commission.

“A voice for women’s issues has been silenced,” Hull said in her letter. “Women and their unique problems have not been eliminated, only silenced until another voice is found.”

As the supervisors completed action on their budget, they did so under the gathering storm of next year’s projected problems. Early estimates put the county shortfall at more than $70 million next year, more than it was at the opening of the 1991-92 budget hearings.

Faced with the prospect of another tough year, Stanton, who will become the board’s chairman in January, urged the staff to begin planning for it right away.

“Let’s get on it this afternoon,” he said.

Budget Winners, Losers

The Board of Supervisors passed its $3.7-billion budget for 1991-92 on Tuesday. Supervisors cut $20.8 million to counter a projected deficit. In all, 260 jobs-mostly part-time or unfilled positions-were axed. About 68 employees are expected to be laid off. Some county programs scheduled for cuts emerged unscathed, while others suffered reductions or were eliminated entirely. Winners (Saved From Closure) Joplin Youth Center Armory shelter program Losers (Eliminated) Commission on the Status of Women “Operation Santa Claus,” a volunteer Christmas-gift program Survivors (Budgets Reduced) Human Relations Commission: Budget cut by two-thirds Public Information Office: Budget cut be nearly half Source: County Administrative Office