COUNTYWIDE : County OKs Budget That Adds 364 Jobs

Summer in Orange County government has nearly always been synonymous with budget fever, but this year officials have yet to break a sweat.

County supervisors passed a proposed $3.6- billion budget Tuesday without a peep from a single local resident or government official. In years past, people have packed the meeting chamber to decry the possibilities of layoffs and cuts to public safety departments.

“Incredible,” said Board of Supervisors Chairman Thomas F. Riley, banging the gavel Tuesday on perhaps the shortest budget hearing in recent county history. “In my 19 years, I don’t think this has ever happened.”

Officials said the apparent lack of interest could be attributed to a county financial plan that for the first time in three years does not threaten government jobs, nor does it pose significant service cuts in any department.

In fact, county government is actually planning to add 364 employees to the rolls this year, a 2.7% increase over last year. Many of the new employees will be paid for through city, state and federal program money flowing to the county.

Most of the additional workers will be deployed in either county health, social services or public safety departments. The largest single personnel increase--123 workers--is being proposed for the county Social Services Agency to deal with the burgeoning caseloads of welfare, Medi-Cal and food stamp recipients.

“Unfortunately, all of our programs are involved in a growth industry,” Social Services Director Larry L. Leaman said, adding that the number of local Medi-Cal recipients is expected to increase by 10,000 people next year, bringing the total to 80,000 cases. “It seems like we’ve been in this growth mode for five years now and that means more clerks, more counselors and more professionals.”

The proposed budget also contains 84 new positions for the county Fire Department, 53 of which are part of the county’s takeover of firefighting operations from the City of Buena Park. Under the new arrangement, the city will pay the county for the service.

Supervisor William G. Steiner said the budget plan approved Tuesday provided a comfortable scenario for the county, which in the past three years has been forced to trim more than 2,000 positions from its work force.

“We’re in a very good position this year,” Steiner said.

The budget plan still is very much dependent on how the state will attempt to balance its massive shortfall, recently projected at close to $5 billion. But Steiner and other county officials said they believed that cities and counties might be spared the loss of key revenue suffered last year.

A year ago, state officials helped balance a similar shortfall by shifting $2.6 billion in property taxes from cities and counties to fill holes in the California public education system.