REGIONAL REPORT : Counties Brace for Cuts in Police, Other Services : Finance: Shrinking revenues will force reductions in areas previously protected from the budget ax. Courts, D.A.’s offices, and jails will feel the crunch.

Southern California counties, already limping along on bare-bones budgets weakened by a recessionary economy, are preparing to slash such essential services as police and criminal prosecutions to an extent not seen since Proposition 13 was passed in 1978.

The counties are being forced to impose dramatic cuts in public safety departments, along with virtually every other governmental service, as legislators in Sacramento move to transfer up to $550 million in property taxes from counties to public schools.

The cuts will vary from county to county and are still being calculated, but officials from Ventura to San Diego are predicting layoffs of deputy sheriffs and deputy district attorneys, jail closures, fewer operating hours for courts, longer response times to crimes and fewer prosecutions.

Likewise, fire suppression, libraries and flood control--paid for primarily with special district funds--will also be scaled back once legislators decide how much of that money to skim off to help cover California’s record $10.7-billion budget gap.

Health and welfare funding for counties also will be reduced, a move that may force counties to eliminate some services to the poor and indigent. Administration, accounting and most other departments will be hit as well.

Some counties have imposed or discussed mandatory days off without pay for employees, or postponement of three days’ pay each month until next year to cut payroll expenses. Others may close their offices two days a month.

“What is going on in Sacramento amounts to guerrilla warfare,” said San Diego County Supervisor Susan Golding. “They have pitted counties against cities against schools against special districts in a battle to see whose ox will be gored more deeply.”

With a two-month delay in adopting a budget, the losses will seem more severe because counties will have fewer months over which to spread the shortfalls.

“In a time when our economy is worse than it’s been in years, the state Legislature is willfully making it worse every day they delay,” Golding said before the Legislature approved the budget.

The governments’ economic plight reflects the nation’s lagging economy. But unlike the private sector, which is cutting back to match diminished demand, the public sector must eliminate jobs and reduce programs as the need for law enforcement, prosecutions and other services escalate.

In the Riverside County district attorney’s office, the number of ongoing homicide cases tripled between 1988 and 1992, while staffing levels remained relatively static.

The only solution many county officials see is to raise local taxes and fees for services, an unpopular concept that politicians at federal and state levels have boastfully eschewed.

“Maybe we can have no new taxes at the state level, but taxes may have to increase at the local level,” said Riverside County Dist. Atty. Grover Trask.

Otherwise, Trask said, there will be fewer law enforcement officers to respond to crimes, and fewer deputy district attorneys to prosecute offenders.

“The public doesn’t seem to have a heightened sense of urgency about this yet, and I don’t think they ever will--until they become victims themselves,” he said.

The counties have authority to hike fees for services, but there is debate over whether they can legally increase sales or other taxes without approval of two-thirds of voters.

The funding cuts come at a difficult time for the counties after more than two years of diminishing income from slumping tax revenues statewide.

The cuts to be imposed call to mind those that hit after Proposition 13 reduced property tax revenues for counties, cities and special districts by more than 60%.

In 1979, the Legislature bailed out local entities with school property tax money and at the same time required some of the funds to go to new health and welfare responsibilities. Then the state reimbursed the schools. But now legislators are planning to return that property tax money to the schools, leaving the counties, cities and special districts in the lurch.

“We are seeing for the first time the true effects of the implementation of Prop. 13,” Ventura County Supervisor John K. Flynn said.

Los Angeles County will take the largest hit in property tax transfers of all counties because it has had the biggest bailout from the state. The county could lose about $250 million of $4 billion that funds the offices of the district attorney, sheriff and public defender, along with administration and other services.

“I don’t think there is a program in the county that will go unscathed,” said Virginia A. Collins of Los Angeles County’s administrative office.

The district attorney’s office has cut $1.5 million from a $158-million budget and must cut another $13 million in anticipation of state reductions.

The office dismissed its entire cadre of 65 law clerks. It then hired 34 previously recruited clerks to meet a legal obligation and notified them immediately that they would be laid off.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has eliminated overtime pay and reduced personnel at some stations. Now the looming state budget cuts may force the layoff of up to 500 deputies and close some jails. Sheriff Sherman Block said as many as 5,000 prisoners may have to be released.

In Ventura County, administrators said they expect to cut about $10 million from the $200-million fund that pays for law enforcement, courts, administration and other services.

The Ventura County district attorney’s office, long known for a tough-on-crime policy, has stopped prosecuting minor misdemeanors and must lay off eight attorneys, four investigators, two victims advocate workers and two clerical workers.

Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury also is exploring ways to fund his fraud unit with contributions from local business.

“I had hoped for higher priority for funding from the supervisors,” he said. “But we are just going to roll up our sleeves and do the best we can.”

The Ventura County sheriff’s office has left 80 of 1,000 openings unfilled in anticipation of the state cuts. The department may have to close a model work camp that allows inmates to build Christmas toys, raise pine trees and work as trail crews.

In San Bernardino County, administrators say its general fund could lose up to $17 million of $314 million that pays for law enforcement, the district attorney and other county services.

The county had cut $14 million from programs and eliminated 70 positions. Some employees took transfers, some took early retirement and 21 took lower-paying jobs just to keep working. The county also imposed 10 mandatory days off a year without pay, and will close county offices as well as courts every Friday before three-day holiday weekends.

“And that’s just because the economy was lousy,” said Lynn Kirkhofer, assistant county administrative officer, indicating that state cutbacks will bring further reductions.

The San Bernardino County district attorney has cut funding for a victims’ assistance program by half and has quit accepting new child abduction cases stemming from custody disputes.

“We already have an absolutely overloaded, going-down-for-the-count criminal justice system,” Dist. Atty. Dennis Kottmeier said.

“The citizens have an expectation that, when it comes to personal safety and protection of their homes, public safety will never be cut,” he said. “They are about to see different and it’s not by my choice.”

Sheriff Richard Williams has also scaled back his force, holding 150 positions vacant out of 2,080 employees.

In Orange County, administrators say the state cuts may claim up to $15 million of the $502-million portion of the general fund that pays for police, prosecutors, public defenders and other essential services.

Roger R. Stanton, chairman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, said: “I think we’re all beginning to understand how hostages must feel. One can only shudder at the prospects for the next fiscal year.”

To save money, officials gave tentative approval to a plan to close county offices, except for court-related offices and the Sheriff’s Department, every other Friday.

“We already made $42 million in cuts to balance the proposed budget, which is down because of the economy,” said Steve Franks, Orange County’s budget manager.

The district attorney’s office has reduced its law clerk program and has stopped hiring attorneys to fill positions. The sheriff’s office has scaled back as well, waiting to see what the state budget will bring.

Riverside County is expecting cuts of up to $11 million out of $270 million. Those trims would be in addition to a 12% reduction imposed to meet the budget. To preserve basic services, the county has eliminated 271 positions since 1991 and left other positions vacant.

The Riverside County district attorney’s office lost 23 positions this year, including seven lawyers out of an attorney’s staff of 124 responsible for criminal prosecutions.

The Sheriff’s Department is hoping to avoid laying off officers, but the outlook is unclear, said Tim Botts, chief deputy.

“The Board of Supervisors has been good so far in making public safety a priority,” he said. “But that can only go so far in this kind of situation.”

And San Diego County stands to lose up to $19 million from state cuts after reducing spending by $66 million to balance its 1992-93 proposed budget. The county set up a voluntary time-off program and keeps 1,900 positions vacant out of a staff of 17,000.

The county administrative officer reduced his staff by half to help stave off cuts to public safety programs as long as possible, said John R. Sweeten, director of intergovernmental affairs for the county.

“But how we will achieve the next $20 million in cuts, we don’t know. Law enforcement and public protection will have to suffer significant reductions,” Sweeten said.

The number of homicide cases in the district attorney’s office is up 150% over two years ago, yet the staff of 250 criminal prosectors has remained unchanged.

“There are no good outcomes for this whole thing,” Sweeten said.