Plan Would Avert $40-Million Probation Agency Cut : Finances: County will tap sales tax, state sources for additional revenue. Funding is contingent on labor agreement.

Completing a series of budget moves designed to bolster law enforcement, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors crafted a plan Tuesday to save the Probation Department from a proposed $40-million budget cut.

The supervisors said they would tap two sources to provide $20 million for the department: $13.7 million from a projected increase in sales tax revenue slated for public safety use and $6.3 million from state disaster reimbursements.

The funding is contingent on probation officials reaching agreement with labor representatives to save $12 million, possibly through deferral of overtime pay or other benefits. The county is pursuing additional funding sources that could further reduce the gap.

If all of the funding comes through, the department will be able to maintain current levels of service, said Chief Probation Officer Barry J. Nidorf.

“We would be able to maintain crucial adult and juvenile services . . . and it puts us even with other justice agencies in the county,” he said.

Chief Administrative Officer Sally Reed presented the supervisors with a proposed $14.7-billion budget last month that included substantial cuts for law enforcement, parks, museums and libraries. But the board, which is scheduled to formally deliberate the budget next month, immediately signaled that law enforcement would be a funding priority, and substantially reduced cuts proposed for the Sheriff’s Department and district attorney’s office.

Reed initially proposed a $39.8-million cut for the Probation Department, which would result in 588 layoffs, elimination of the Municipal Court investigations program, reductions in investigations provided for Superior Courts, and elimination of the work furlough program and the Long Beach and San Pedro crime suppression programs.

Even with the restoration, the department remains seriously understaffed, Nidorf said.

A coalition of civil rights groups, churches and probation officers last month filed a federal lawsuit charging that the Probation Department provides inadequate services in low-income neighborhoods and discriminates against black probation workers in job assignments and promotions.

The suit also contends that procedures designed to relieve overworked probation officers result in “releasing disproportionately large numbers of essentially unsupervised people convicted of serious felonies into urban core communities.”

Nidorf said the bias allegations are untrue and contended that past budget cutbacks have hampered the provision of services throughout the county.

“We are not providing what anybody--by any stretch of the imagination--would call probation supervision,” he said. “I’m not satisfied with the level of service in (low-income) communities; I’m not satisfied with the level of service in any community.”

On the same day that the board decided to give more money to the Probation Department, it wound up five days of public hearings on the proposed budget with yet more pleas from county department heads and citizens to restore programs slated for cuts.

County Assessor Kenneth P. Hahn told supervisors that the proposed $20-million cut to his department could cost the county $177 million in uncollected property tax revenue.

Hahn said the cut would result in laying off 419 people, coming on top of a $10-million cut last year and the loss of 109 employees.

Several supervisors expressed concern. But the board put off any action to restore funds until it begins its budget deliberations, scheduled for July 11.