Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Police Protection Would Rise in New Palmdale Budget : Finances: Four civilian employees, including an anti-drug officer, would also be added under plan facing City Council.

Halting three years of staffing cuts, Palmdale officials have recommended no further employee layoffs in the proposed 1995-96 budget, which was unveiled Monday.

The financial plan calls for $31.2 million in general fund spending to cover day-to-day city operations, such as public safety and parks and recreation programs--up 6.2% from the current fiscal year.

Under the budget, covering the 12-month period beginning July 1, Palmdale would pay for additional sheriff’s deputies to handle traffic enforcement citywide and crime incidents at the Antelope Valley Mall.

In a written message accompanying the proposed budget, City Manager Robert W. Toone Jr. said the plan will allow departments to maintain service levels without layoffs.

“Due to a modest increase in general fund revenue and careful management of our expenditures, we have not found it necessary this year to cut back in staffing, as we have in the past three fiscal years,” Toone said.

Palmdale was one of California’s fastest-growing cities during the 1980s, and the city work force also grew--to more than 200 full-time employees, many of whom were needed to process plans for new neighborhoods and businesses and to oversee the construction of new roads and other projects.

But then growth slowed, and the city has laid off more than 40 employees in recent years, including six last June. Most of them were in development-related departments.

The current city budget would pay for 199 full-time employees. The proposed 1995-96 budget would add four more full-time workers, including a civilian public safety officer to conduct anti-drug programs in local schools and employees in personnel, finance and landscaping.

The proposed spending plan also earmarks $8.3 million for law enforcement, primarily for the city’s contract with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which provides police services in Palmdale.

The new budget would add two traffic-enforcement cars, each staffed by one deputy working 40 hours a week. It would also assign one full-time deputy to the Antelope Valley Mall. The mall’s operators have agreed to pay $50,350 toward this expense, city officials said.

City Council members will conduct a public study session on the proposed budget, beginning at 7 p.m. Wednesday at City Hall, 38300 Sierra Highway. The council is slated to consider adoption of the budget at its May 10 meeting.