Won’t Take Pay Cut, Sheriff’s Employees Declare : Finances: Two groups give notice they will reject Block’s proposed 8% slash. The sheriff says he will issue layoff warnings to up to 1,200 by the end of May.

Compounding budgetary worries, two organizations representing almost all of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s 12,000 employees have given notice that deputies and civilian workers will refuse to take an 8% salary cut proposed by Sheriff Sherman Block.

Consequently, Block said Thursday that he will inform about 700 of 7,300 deputies and between 300 and 500 civilian employees by the end of May that they may be laid off July 1. Earlier, he had said 400 employees might lose their jobs because of budget cuts.

Although final action on budgetary matters has yet to be taken by the state and county, Block said he has been told that his department can expect a 16% decline in its budget. Without the salary cuts, the department’s budgetary picture would be gloomier, he said.

“We have to proceed as if what we’re told by the county administrative officer is going to happen,” Block said.

Leaders of both employee groups, the Assn. for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs and the Peace Officers Protective Assn., said in separate interviews Thursday that their members believe that they have valid work contracts and that it is not their responsibility to bail out the Sheriff’s Department by voluntarily taking a salary cut.

At no time, they said, has Block formally sought to reopen contract negotiations to authorize such a cut.

“Our members have made it known for months that they don’t think the problem is theirs to solve,” said Art Reddy, a sergeant who is president of the Peace Officers Protective Assn.

Reddy suggested that the solution may be to cut funds from other county departments and transfer them to law enforcement.

“We think that it’s time that the elected officials re-prioritize, and we feel that the citizens of L.A. County think that public safety and health are probably the main priorities,” he said.

Shaun Mathers, president of the Assn. for Deputy Sheriffs, called layoffs “a management right” and added: “If the county . . . determines that they want a lesser level of law enforcement, we’ll have to abide by that.”

Noting that there is popular resistance to tax increases, he agreed with Reddy that the only option elected officials have--if they want to maintain the current number of deputies and avoid closing jails and releasing prisoners--is to take funds from other areas and give them to the Sheriff’s Department.

Block said he has heard reports that Gov. Pete Wilson may be about to compromise on proposed budget cuts, perhaps freeing up more money for the counties to spend on law enforcement.

But Block said he remains “absolutely at sea” as to how much money may be available and must prepare for the worst.