Roache Plan for Reducing Budget Ripped : Government: Sheriff says proposal to cut 60 probation officers and chief’s job will save county money, but Probation Department head calls it ‘political rhetoric.’

Sheriff Jim Roache has used “political rhetoric, specious arguments and outright fabrications” in an attempt to take control of the Probation Department’s work furlough program, two honor camps and probation work crews, the acting chief probation officer has charged.

Asked by the Board of Supervisors to come up with $3 million to meet a county budget deficit, the Sheriff’s Department proposed to save $4 million by eliminating Acting Chief Probation Officer Gerard A. Williams’ $71,864-a-year job, firing 60 probation officers and making other drastic cuts, Williams said.

The Probation Department is not under the purview of the Sheriff’s Department.

In particular, Roache asked that correction’s deputies take over the West Fork and Barrett honor camps as well as the county work furlough program and supervision of the probation work crews. The two camps and work furlough program house 680 inmates who are not deemed dangerous enough to be sent to state prison. In 1991, more than 22,000 convicts were assigned to work crews, who live at home but do freeway cleanup and other labor.

The sheriff’s department controls such operations in all but five California counties.

In an Oct. 1 letter to the county’s chief administrative officer, Williams said Roache had “evidently been deluded by his staff into disregarding 20 years of history wherein the Probation Department has proven that it can operate . . . cheaper than the sheriff.”

Roache said Wednesday that his staff has told him the county can save $1.5 million to $2 million a year by taking over the honor camps and work furlough program but he did not have specifics before him.

“I’m not going to get into an argument with Mr. Williams,” he said.

Already, Williams said, Roache has cost the county more money.

Pointing to the recent temporary transfer of inmates at the Descanso honor camp from the Probation Department to the sheriff, Williams said the Sheriff’s Department’s cost of staffing the camp is $575,000 more than the Probation Department’s entire budget. Roache’s eventually will spend $1 million more than the Probation Department needsto run Descanso, Williams said.

“In the harsh light of reality, it would appear that while his intentions were good, (Roache’s) actions missed the mark by over $1 million,” Williams wrote to David Janssen, the chief administrative officer.

“I urge you not to be fooled by the political rhetoric, specious arguments, and outright fabrications being presented to you,” he wrote.

Williams suggested that if Roache “is really serious about saving money,” he could eliminate the use of numerous take-home cars for “nearly every . . . sergeant and above,” trim three layers of management and use profits from cigarette and candy sales to inmates to pay correctional counselors.

Dan Greenblat, a special assistant to Roache, said that although the sheriff’s staff made initial projections on how much could be saved, Janssen’s office found the savings to be higher.

“To Jerry Williams, this looks like a power grab, but to anyone who has observed the system throughout the state, this system is a dinosaur which ought to be extinct,” he said. “Sometimes you have to break an egg to make an omelet.”

Both Roache and Greenblat said sheriff’s staff worked up the projections and that they did not believe Williams’ job was to be eliminated.

In his letter, Williams said the sheriff’s staff recommended that the chief probation officer’s job be eliminated.

“While I do not take this personally,” he wrote, “I would point out that the chief has a number of statutory duties outside of overseeing” work furlough and the honor camps.

Arlene Smith, the Probation Department’s spokeswoman, said probation officials are busily developing studies that show how much money the department would save by continuing to run the honor camps and work furlough centers.

The Board of Supervisors requested the analysis earlier this month, she said.

“We believe we have a history of being able to provide the best service for the most cost-effective means possible,” she said. “The Probation Department is committed to saving the county dollars and providing equal or better service than the Sheriff’s Department.”

In June, Roache was given temporary control of the Descanso honor camp to meet a court-ordered cap on jail overcrowding by filling empty honor camp beds with medium-security inmates from the jails.

At the time, Williams accused Roache of requesting more beds to gain more control over the Probation Department. He was especially angered that sheriff’s staff members had been calling probation employees about the transfer weeks before a decision had been made.

“Once again,” he wrote to Janssen in June, “the Sheriff’s Department is suggesting that the only way to solve the jail overcrowding crisis is to transfer control. Responding to these continual attempts to increase the Sheriff’s Department is becoming increasingly tiresome.”