Block, Deputies Take Their Case to the People : Law enforcement: Sheriff and employees try to head off budget cuts, seeking support in areas such as Antelope Valley and Valencia.

Continuing an aggressive campaign against cuts in his office’s budget, Sheriff Sherman Block, accompanied by hundreds of off-duty deputies, visited shopping malls and parks during the weekend, asking citizens to sign petitions backing him.

Block and the deputies, wearing “Save Our Streets” T-shirts, collected “thousands of signatures” on petitions to Gov. Pete Wilson, the legislature and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to spare Block’s department from cuts, Cmdr. Bill Stonich of the Sheriff’s Department said Monday.

It was the latest in a series of moves by Block to stave off the threatened budget cuts, including the brief shutdown and evacuation last week of one county jail in the Antelope Valley and other measures.

“We realize that the people want public safety to be No. 1,” said Lt. Tim Peters of the department’s Santa Clarita substation. “Our message is that elected officials should listen to their pleas.”

To accomplish that goal, more than 130 off-duty Sheriff’s Department personnel and community volunteers combed shopping centers, parks and supermarkets throughout Santa Clarita on Saturday, passing out flyers describing the proposed cuts and garnering signatures on the petitions, Peters said.

Hundreds more deputies took part in similar events at nine other locations throughout the county, including the Antelope Valley, the Lost Hills area, East Los Angeles, Ladera Heights, Norwalk, Lakewood, Ladera Heights and Lomita, Stonich said. Block, who was unavailable for comment, visited six of those sites as well, Stonich said.

Stonich described the petition drive as “unusual.”

“In my 25-year career I have never seen anything like it,” Stonich said. “You have literally hundreds of department members who gave up a good portion of their weekend to get out the word on this very important issue.”

If the cuts survive upcoming negotiations, said Stonich, the public can expect a reduction in SWAT units, gang task forces and mountain and rough river rescue teams.

Stonich said Block is expected to present Wilson with the petitions some time in the next two weeks.

“The proposed budget cuts could be devastating to the department, which in turn could manifest themselves by endangering the community,” Stonich said.

Block has said he expects a 16% cut--about $100 million--in his department’s budget in the fiscal year that begins July 1. He maintains that the reductions would require the closure of four jail facilities and nine of the department’s 21 stations, as well as the layoffs of nearly 700 of 7,300 sworn department employees.

The sheriff closed Mira Loma Jail at midday Tuesday, saying his department did not have $5 million it needed to keep all the jails open. County supervisors threatened to sue, but hours later, Block agreed to keep the jail open under a compromise in which the supervisors agreed to provide $4 million in emergency funds for the jail if Block comes up with $1 million in cuts.

Block’s concern is based on Wilson’s proposal to shift $2.6 billion in property tax revenues from local government to the state as part of his budget proposal for fiscal 1993-94. County officials are trying to pressure state legislators to oppose the revenue shift, which they say would force a drastic reduction in service levels.