O.C. Spending Plan Keeps Jail, Fire Stations

In a state where government at all levels has been consumed by budget fever, the temperature dropped dramatically in Orange County on Tuesday when the Board of Supervisors adopted a $3.6-billion spending plan that allows officials to cancel threatened closures of one branch jail and two fire stations.

The approval came only hours after the state Senate joined the Assembly in endorsing a budget plan that would shift $2.6 billion from local governments to fund California’s public schools.

Board of Supervisors Chairman Harriett M. Wieder said the state budget plan effectively stalls a “worst-case scenario that would have devastated” the county. She said threats to close the James A. Musick Branch Jail near the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station and two local fire stations were “real and not scare tactics.”

“This is the best news we’ve had in a long time,” county Deputy Fire Chief Ken MacLeod said.

The good news for the Orange County Fire Department slowly reached residents of the rural Santiago Canyon Road area, where one station was scheduled for elimination.

“It’s definitely good it’s not closing,” said J.R. Smith, a clerk at the bait and tackle shop at Irvine Lake, down the hill from Station 15.

More than 100 people a day patronize the lake, and weekends triple the crowds, Smith said. On several occasions, lake-goers have needed the assistance of firefighters for car accidents on the hilly road and other emergencies, he said.

While the transfer of local tax money to satisfy the state’s needs is sure to hit counties and cities hard, public safety appeared to escape unscathed.

Weeks of intense lobbying by public safety officials won their agencies the benefit of a six-month extension of the half-cent sales tax, which will bring Orange County law enforcers $70 million of the $725 million in new revenue statewide. Fire department funds, meanwhile, were excluded from the state’s massive revenue shift.

Orange County Sheriff Brad Gates was among the law enforcement leaders who have spent several weeks in Sacramento pushing for an additional 3% revenue hike for police, sheriff’s deputies, prosecutors, firefighters and jails.

“If we get out of here with these things intact, then the ship won’t have sunk,” Gates said Tuesday as he continued to comb the Capitol corridors lobbying lawmakers.

Among other state budget highlights affecting Orange County:

* The state spending blueprint contained $575,000 to finance a program to help save the California gnatcatcher, a tiny songbird that frequents coastal sage in Orange County and has been declared a threatened species by the federal government. Originally, the governor had called for more than $700,000, but the figure was reduced during budget negotiations.

Supporters of the program said the $575,000 will be enough to ensure that the state retains a role in the habitat conservation effort.

“We’re very relieved it’s in the budget,” state Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach) said. “It shows we’re serious about his program.”

* The state budget provided some relief for residents of the 45 or so beach cottages lining Crystal Cove State Park, south of Newport Beach.

Those residents were facing eviction at the end of the month because the state wanted to assume control of the cottages for rental to tourists.

But the residents’ Sacramento lobbyist managed to get language introduced into the budget that allows them to remain for another 2 1/2 years while the state spends $500,000 for surveys and renovations of the cottages.

* A vote was blocked on a key budget bill written by Bergeson that would have required lawmakers to dramatically rework the way California handles its finances or face a freeze on the ability of state government to collect and spend taxes.

The bill, which Bergeson expected to put up for a vote during the Legislature’s deliberations Sunday or Monday, was referred by Senate leaders to a committee for review, making it unlikely the proposal will take effect this year.

Although the county public safety departments won an apparent reprieve, there were still big losers Tuesday.

Among them were county libraries, which still face a massive 44% reduction in operating hours. For the estimated 800,000 county library cardholders, the bad news has been reduced to new operation schedules which have already been posted at all 27 branches.

“We’ve had people calling ever since the signs went up,” said Gladys Lorenzo, head librarian at the Mesa Verde branch in Costa Mesa. “We were prepared for it, though.”

The Orange County public defender’s office also is still expected to lose 6.2%, or about $1.1 million, from its budget of just over $17 million, officials said.

In anticipation of the budget cut, Public Defender Ronald Y. Butler last week began rejecting new criminal cases on a limited basis to reduce the department’s caseload.

“We’re not saying that policy is stuck in concrete,” Butler said. “That could change, and we are working with the (county administrative office) to determine what will happen in the future.”

Cases rejected by Butler’s office are being sent to private attorneys who contract with the court system, but some fear that the move may end up costing the county more money.

The Orange County Municipal and Superior courts expect an $18- million budget shortfall because of reductions in both county and state money for trial courts.

“It’s still too early to determine what the impact will be,” said Marlene Nelson, assistant executive administrator for the Orange County Superior Courts.

In March, officials believed that the potential shortfall would top $93 million from the county’s general fund alone. But on Tuesday, given the sales tax extension and the exemption of fire departments from the revenue shift, the shortfall was expected to be about $33 million.

“We are far better off than what has been anticipated,” Supervisor William G. Steiner said. “It’s good that we know where we stand so we can get on with life, or get a life.”

If all the necessary enabling legislation is passed to enact the state budget, about 291 positions would be lost. It was not known, however, how many actual layoffs would be required. Last year, 258 jobs were eliminated, resulting in layoffs of 20 people.

Although the mood in Santa Ana was somewhat optimistic, 400 miles away in Sacramento, county Budget Director Ronald S. Rubino was considerably more cautious.

“I’m up here and they are down there, and it’s not a done deal,” Rubino said. “There are still people trying to change formulas. Until the governor signs it, it’s not done. I don’t get excited about these things until the governor signs it.”

Even with the apparent budget approval, County Administrative Officer Ernie Schneider said it was nearly impossible Tuesday to gauge the full effect on county government.

“We still face a tremendous amount of uncertainty,” Schneider said, noting that about 15 bills must be passed by the Legislature to enact the various provisions of the state budget, including the half-cent sales tax extension.

If all enabling legislation is adopted without altering the formulas for distributing revenue, Rubino said, California voters still must approve the sales tax extension in November or Orange County will face a $69-million deficit in the last six months of the 1993-94 fiscal year and a $144-million shortfall the following year.

Wieder believes that it is unlikely that Orange County residents will vote for the extension.

“We live for six more months . . . that’s my attitude,” Rubino said. “I think throughout California, we need to let the public know what’s at risk and urge them to support continuation of the half-cent sales tax.”

Times staff writers Eric Bailey and Rene Lynch contributed to this report.