Mayor Unveils Proposed $3.9-Billion Budget : Government: Document adds 600 police officers, stresses efficiency at City Hall. Council reaction appears guarded.

Betting that he can squeeze big savings out of City Hall without hurting services, Mayor Richard Riordan on Thursday unveiled a $3.9-billion budget that continues his drive to beef up the Los Angeles Police Department, adds some new programs, provides tax relief for businesses and eliminates 1,200 jobs.

Riordan’s proposed spending plan for the 1995-96 fiscal year, dubbed “Blueprint for a Better Los Angeles,” represents the businessman-turned-mayor’s latest run at reshaping municipal government, with an eye toward greater efficiency.

“This is a customer-driven budget,” Deputy Mayor Mike Keeley said in outlining the mayor’s goals. In an afternoon briefing for reporters, Keeley used slides, graphs and a colorful new corporate-style budget summary document to make a case for the mayor’s proposals.

Riordan aides said the mayor plans to use the document in coming weeks as he stumps for his budget proposals citywide. The council will spend the next few weeks considering the mayor’s budget.

A prominent feature of this year’s spending package is the mayor’s effort to work with department heads and council members to set goals for the coming year. The goals will be used to help determine how well administrators are doing their jobs, a key part of the mayor’s drive for greater employee accountability. Last week, voters gave Riordan a powerful tool--greater powers to fire department heads who do not perform.

The ambitious document calls for 600 more police officers--and is banking on the federal government paying half the costs--a move that aides said will put the mayor on track to fulfill a campaign promise to put 2,855 more officers on the streets during his first four-year term.

The budget would avoid layoffs by offering a voluntary “buyout” program for about 300 employees in positions targeted for elimination. Another 900 jobs already are vacant because of a continuing hiring freeze.

While offering financial incentives for voluntary employee departures has become common in private corporations to cut costs--and has been used by Los Angeles County and some other public agencies--such a program would be a first for the city, said City Administrative Officer Keith Comrie.

Most of the lost jobs will be in the bureaucracy’s support services or in departments, such as building and safety and engineering, that have experienced a reduced demand for services.

At the same time it trims costs in some areas, the budget adds money to create a commission for children, youth and families and calls for $7.7 million in technological and communications improvements to bring City Hall into the computer age. Both additions were recommended by volunteer task forces of citizens appointed by the mayor.

The budget, which the mayor will deliver to the City Council today, funds 14 new or refurbished libraries, repairs and reopens 11 damaged swimming pools and resurfaces 220 miles of city streets, to make good on the mayor’s promise to make the city more livable. It also adds workers to the city animal shelters and sets aside $1 million more for trimming trees.

Further, the budget closes a $170-million deficit with a combination of one-time funding, including $58 million from the sale of airport lands, and savings from eliminating jobs and making productivity improvements.

Overall, the mayor’s budget proposal cuts general fund spending by $98 million, enabling an overall reduction from the 1994-95 spending package, which totaled almost $4 billion.

“The budget’s brilliant,” enthused longtime Councilman Joel Wachs, chairman of the council’s Government Efficiency Committee. “It’s exactly what the doctor ordered--more police without new taxes or cuts in services.”

Wachs credited Riordan’s use of private-sector analysts to examine city procedures and recommend ways to improve on them.

“We’ll be getting more for our bucks,” Wachs said Thursday.

Council President John Ferraro was more guarded.

“He is doing everything he can to fulfill his campaign promise of increasing the size of the Police Department,” Ferraro said, adding that he preferred to reserve further comment until he had finished reading the voluminous document.

Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas said the mayor’s focus on safer streets, government efficiency and more livable neighborhoods was proper, but said he wants to see more details. “He’s got the right categories. Now the question is the content,” Ridley-Thomas said.

Councilman Richard Alatorre, the recently appointed chairman of the council’s key Budget and Finance Committee, was on vacation and could not be reached for comment.

Comrie, the city’s veteran top fiscal officer, said, “I think it’s pretty impressive.” He said the savings identified are genuine, including $9.8 million in workers’ compensation savings to be realized in part through changes in state law and hiring a private administrator for the program.