Supervisors’ Spending Up as County Trims Services : Budget: Offices have no expense limits, and board members are not readily accountable for outlays.

While hard financial times have forced Los Angeles County to cut public services, the office budget for the Board of Supervisors has steadily increased in the past decade, and the board has used county funds for expenses ranging from $100,000 in office furnishings to full-time calligraphers who turn out 800 honorary scrolls a month.

The five supervisors collectively are spending $32.75 million this year to staff their offices and cover travel and other expenses--about four times as much as Gov. Pete Wilson and twice as much as the 15-member Los Angeles City Council.

One supervisor is chauffeured around in a bulletproof car that cost taxpayers $74,000. Another bought $5,600 in mahogany office furniture. Two supervisors have hired speech writers.

Last year, the board spent $180,000 for plaques, paperweights and other ceremonial gifts, including $180 crystal etchings.

The board’s spending has increased at nearly twice the rate of the county’s budget in the past 10 years, records show. Unlike some legislative bodies, the board has no spending limits placed on each supervisorial office--and the precise amount spent by each supervisor is not readily available.

“We don’t budget a particular (supervisor’s) office to a particular dollar amount and hold them to it,” said Larry Monteilh, the board’s executive officer.

The spending increase, he said, was caused partly by changes in the county’s accounting system and by the $5.5 million that supervisors annually set aside for pet projects ranging from anti-gang programs and homeless shelters to purchase of coyote traps and a $500 ballet scholarship for a low-income youth.

The board’s spending practices have already been debated during recent hearings on the county’s $12-billion budget. The cost of running the board is also expected to be a major issue as supervisors--and voters--consider a proposed June ballot measure to expand the body by two or four members.

“We don’t know who’s spending what and how they’re spending it,” said board newcomer Gloria Molina, a critic of the county’s budgetary practices.

As a former Los Angeles City Council member and state assemblywoman, Molina said she was shocked to discover when she took office in March that each supervisor does not have a fixed budget. “We asked (county administrators) what our budget was,” she recalled. “They asked: ‘What do you need?’ ”

In defense of the system, Supervisor Deane Dana said: “I don’t consider that we waste money. We all have about the same number of cars. . . . We all do about the same things to meet the needs of the constituents.

“To say that you actually have a set dollar amount and you live with it is just not practical at all.”

Dana said that last year he was faced with the costly task of moving field offices and hiring additional staff to represent 500,000 new constituents he gained during court-ordered redistricting.

Although there is no centrally located listing of expenditures by individual board members, hundreds of requisitions, invoices and other documents inspected by The Times show how some of the money was spent:

* Dana spent $45,800 to install a security system, including bulletproof glass and armor plating, in the $28,143 Buick Park Avenue that the county bought him. Special tires permit the car to travel 25 miles after they have been punctured.

“I’ve had several threats on my life over the last 10 years,” Dana said.

* Supervisor Kenneth Hahn spent $3,700 on miniature county flags, which he presents to visitors to his office. He also printed thousands of booklets extolling his major accomplishments, such as helping to bring the Dodgers to Los Angeles in the late 1950s and leading the fight to put emergency call boxes on freeways.

* Supervisor Mike Antonovich hired a $50-an-hour speech writer, led a four-member county delegation on a $9,300 trip to Spain to plan for the county’s 1992 celebration of the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ landing in the New World, and bought $5,642 in matching furniture, including a $598 mahogany serving cart.

* Supervisor Ed Edelman, who suffers from a bad back, bought a $112 orthopedic seat for board meetings. He also bought plants for his office and subscribed to an answering service to take calls at his home.

* Molina hired her political consultant to draft speeches and direct press strategy, among other duties. The pay is $3,000 a month.

* The board last year spent $24,601 for 1,200 commemorative paperweights, $13,000 for 1,000 walnut-framed “Award of Honor” plaques and $14,553 for 21 leather, executive chairs.

The supervisors also spend money budgeted to other county departments. For example, they tap the chief administrative officer’s $45-million budget to pay for two calligraphers who make scrolls and four photographers who cover ribbon cuttings, among other county activities.

A checking account controlled by the chief administrative officer was used last year to pay for a $1,532 breakfast held by Antonovich for the Just Say No anti-drug program and former First Lady Nancy Reagan. It also provided $237 for a security mailbox at Dana’s home. Officials said the security was needed because animal rights activists were protesting at his residence.

County officials said they do not know why each supervisor does not receive a fixed budget or why a breakdown is not maintained. Hahn, who has served on the board since 1952, said the accounting practice predates him.

He and Edelman speculated that the system was designed to shield spending from public scrutiny. “I can only surmise . . . it makes it more difficult (to assess) accountability,” Edelman said.

Dana said it would be costly to keep spending records for each supervisor.

“I’m sure it (a detailed accounting) is all there if you want to go to the great expense of digging it out,” he said. “But I don’t think it’s necessary.”

Antonovich was ill and could not be reached. But his chief deputy, Tom Silver, defended the supervisor’s hiring of a speech writer, saying Antonovich is too busy to prepare his own speeches. “The thought that he could pencil out eight to 10 speeches a week is ludicrous,” Silver said.

Monteilh, the board’s executive officer, said he can account for every dollar spent by the board, but acknowledged that compiling a complete record would take months of poring over documents.

The board’s current $32.75-million budget is 16% higher than last year’s. A decade ago, the budget was $6.6 million.

One reason for the increase, Monteilh said, is that the board is paying for its own janitors, security and other services. He said the board’s budget also includes $14 million in services provided to other departments.

Another reason, he said, is the $5.5 million set aside for the supervisors’ pet projects in recent years. Antonovich allocated $185,000 for a mobile “Yogi Bear schoolhouse,” which helps teach children earthquake preparedness.

The board also spent $54,586 for a Fortune magazine advertisement picturing the supervisors and promoting Los Angeles County’s business climate.

Monteilh said $17 million--about half of the board’s budget--goes to salaries, including about 125 employees who function as the board’s clerks.

This year’s budget also contains $20,000 for picture framing, $28,000 for subscriptions to periodicals, $70,000 for travel, $200,000 for printing, $245,000 for private contractors and $300,000 for office improvements.

The supervisors’ budget is one of the few in the county that is not routinely audited for frivolous spending.

Some supervisors say they are “audited” every four years by the voters. But Edelman said he favors creation of an elected county executive to oversee the board’s spending. “It’s hard to know who’s in charge,” he said.

Supervisors argue that their offices are unique and that comparing their spending to that of other public officials is unfair.

Each supervisor represents about 2 million people, more than any other elected representatives in California except a handful of statewide and local officials, including Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley. “We are the front line in dealing with constituents . . . on providing the services,” Dana said. “We have a greater responsibility.”

The Los Angeles City Council, with three times as many members, spends half as much as the board. The governor’s budget, which includes the state’s overseas trade offices in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Mexico City, Frankfurt, Germany, and other foreign cities, is $8.4 million, down 5% from last year.

Each board office is allocated about $1.5 million for staff salaries, according to Monteilh. Staff size ranges from 21 in Molina’s office to 35 in Antonovich’s.

Supervisors are paid $99,297 annually, plus about $16,000 to buy health and life insurance, or anything else.

Last year, the supervisors spent $9,874 for 50 crystal glass etchings shaped like California with the outline of Los Angeles County. They were ordered by the county Office of Protocol to be presented as gifts to visiting heads of state.

Ginger Barnard, county deputy chief of protocol, defended the crystal gifts, saying they are “reserved for dignitaries of the highest level.” Last year, recipients included the prime minister of Thailand and the president of Poland. This month, the Office of Protocol plans to give one of the $185 etchings to the president of Mexico.

Barnard, who joined Antonovich on a county trip to Spain last year, said the visit laid the groundwork for a County Museum of Art exhibit next year of art works from the Prado museum.

Hahn defended the presentation of scrolls to Eagle Scouts and the queen of the annual Tournament of Roses parade. “We give her a scroll and each of the princesses receives one,” said the supervisor, “and some of them tell me that this is the highest honor they have ever received.”

Richard B. Dixon, the county’s chief administrative officer, said he wonders whether anyone cares how much each supervisor spends. “I don’t know whether the electorate is nearly as concerned about what their board member spends money on as to how much money in total is being spent,” he said.

BUDGET COMPARISONS: What L.A. supervisors spend, and how it stacks up against budgets in other counties. B2