Barbs Aimed at Gates in O.C. Budget Talks

Calling for Sheriff Brad Gates to cool his rhetoric, the Orange County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday blasted the sheriff’s proposal to close a minimum security branch jail and asked his department to look elsewhere for budget cuts totaling $6.4 million.

On the first day of their formal hearings for the 1993-94 budget, county officials focused much of their attention on law enforcement and health-care funding, exploring such money-saving options as whether prisoners can be commanded to repay the county for the food they eat in county jails.

“I would implore the sheriff not to tweak up the rhetoric too much about the jail closing,” said Supervisor Roger R. Stanton, echoing the sentiments of his four colleagues.

Added Board Chairman Harriett M. Wieder: “This discussion points up a need for increased dialogue between the sheriff and this board. . . . Closing jails would be totally out of the question.”

Last week, Gates’ staff said they would be forced to close the James A. Musick Branch Jail near Irvine and halt the planned staffing of a 400-bed expansion of the Theo Lacy Branch Jail in Orange if planned budget cuts were approved.

Gates, who has sole authority to close jails, was in Sacramento Tuesday, but Assistant Sheriff Walter Fath said he was not optimistic that other cuts totaling $6.4 million could be found.

“We’ve cut a lot of programs already,” Fath said. “What is being recommended are piecemeal-type cuts. We’ve already done that.”

The exchange between board members and the Sheriff’s Department came against the backdrop of what County Administrative Officer Ernie Schneider called an “unprecedented” financial crisis for Orange County, one that will require at least $80 million in cuts to programs and special services such as libraries and fire protection by July 1. The cuts are necessary to satisfy state demands for larger shares of local government property tax money.

In early discussions Tuesday, Budget Director Ronald S. Rubino likened the county’s financial shape to the increasingly desperate position of the Los Angeles Kings hockey club.

“We’re in the Stanley Cup playoffs,” he told supervisors, “we’re playing well . . . but we’re down three games to one. The state is on a power play and we’re seriously undermanned.”

Rubino’s preamble seemed an appropriate start to discussions in which supervisors reviewed calls for deep reductions from a variety of areas of local government, including:

* Nearly $5 million, or 11.5%, from health care services, with the elimination of at least seven positions. About $300,000 would be sliced from public health programs, reducing staffing to such things as AIDS education programs.

* At least $2 million from funding for operation of local trial courts. Those cuts are likely to be much deeper when the Legislature acts to close the state’s $8-billion budget shortfall.

* A combined $3 million from the district attorney and public defender’s offices, largely through the loss of about 44 positions.

Similarly Draconian reductions will be discussed today, when the supervisors take up funding for special districts that govern libraries and county fire services. The districts have been targeted for $40 million in cuts. The Orange County Fire Department alone would lose nearly 20% of the full-time work force.

Supervisors are not scheduled to take action on the recommendations until June 22, but the budget hearing Tuesday and those planned for today provide the first good glimpse at how the county would deal with its current shortfall. The cuts could force the elimination of about 450 jobs, Rubino said.

Although no formal action was taken Tuesday, Wieder did get support for a resolution that would refuse any future directive by Gov. Pete Wilson to shift more local property taxes toward the funding of state public education.

Under the worst of conditions, officials have said, the county could be forced to make another $120 million in cuts on top of the $80 million, depending on the proposed state action that would shift $2.1 billion in property taxes to schools.

“We must take a more aggressive stance to protect our interests,” Wieder said. “The cuts proposed here are painful. The results are serious, and in some cases dire.”

Health officials said current budget recommendations represent a continuous decline in funding priorities that has seen allocations drop from 38% of the county’s budget in 1979 to 16% today.

Tuesday, a long procession of speakers urged supervisors to restore health service funding to prior levels.

“Again this year, health care programs are receiving more than their share of . . . reductions,” said Dr. Melvyn Sterling, president-elect of the Orange County Medical Assn. The cuts come “at a time when the demand for health care is increasing,” he said.

Of the departmental budgets reviewed Tuesday, supervisors seemed most displeased with the sheriff’s plans to close the Musick jail and forgo the staffing of the Theo Lacy jail to absorb the recommended cuts.

Even before Tuesday’s meeting, supervisors expressed their frustration with Gates’ position and have been sharply critical of the sheriff’s inaccessibility for private budget talks.

Gates, who was in Sacramento lobbying for additional law enforcement funding, was represented at the hearing by Fath and Assistant Sheriff Jerry Krans. To a member, supervisors said jail closures could be averted by asking department officials to seek funds from cities which use the sheriff’s $1 million per year helicopter and studying how the department could recoup various inmate costs, including up to $1 million in fees for the booking of California Highway Patrol prisoners.

Supervisor Stanton also asked for a study of whether the county could possibly seek reimbursement from inmates for the food they eat while in county jail facilities.

“Let ‘em buy their own food,” a clearly frustrated Stanton said.

Ironically, the budget hearing came on the same day that an Orange County Grand Jury report called for county officials to begin study of how additional jail facilities can be built and staffed by private companies.

Although the proposal has been discussed in the past, grand jurors Tuesday said they were “distressed” by the lack of plans to increase jail facilities that have been plagued by overcrowded conditions for more than a decade.

Fath said he was not familiar with the grand jury report or its future effects on the costs of maintaining the county’s five jails.

In addition to the $6.4 million in recommended cuts, Fath said the department has also been asked to absorb higher annual costs of as much as $4 million in overtime payments to deputies, jail food costs and contributions to the employee retirement fund.

“I don’t think you are getting a true picture of what our costs are,” Fath told the supervisors.

While the supervisors debated the dreary budget prospects, Gates and Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi were in Sacramento lobbying Orange County legislators and other state politicians.

The pair urged lawmakers to retain the half-cent sales tax that is scheduled to expire at the end of the month, but the idea was hardly greeted with open arms by some members of the Orange County delegation.

Assemblyman Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach) suggested that Republicans would agree to extend the sales tax only if Democrats scrap some of the “mandates” now shouldered by local government. Among the mandates being targeted for tightening or abolishment are general assistance payments to the indigent, certain types of health services and requirements to pay prevailing wages to government workers.

Gates declined to talk about any of the comments in Orange County, saying that he is focusing on “trying to get the money to keep us alive for another year.” Local law enforcement and legal officials statewide need $700 million next year to maintain their current level of service, he said.

“We’ve got a ship that’s full of holes and water is coming in and we’re trying to bail it out,” Gates said. “If we have to accept additional cuts, the ship is splitting in half.”

Times staff writer Eric Bailey contributed to this report.