Angry County Workers Rally : Protest: Police arrest 20 during demonstration. Crowd includes employees of High Desert Hospital in Lancaster.

Twenty people were arrested in theatrical protests outside the Hall of Administration on Thursday as the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors continued to grapple with an unprecedented budget gap that may grow by another $123 million.

In their second day of public budget hearings, the supervisors faced an openly hostile auditorium of county union workers and militant union leaders who threatened to fight any layoffs with “massive resistance.” Another 1,500 angry protesters clamored outside the building amid a phalanx of Los Angeles police and county sheriff’s deputies.

In the midst of the turmoil, board Chairwoman Gloria Molina announced that the county’s dire financial situation may take another significant turn for the worse.

“Sacramento is killing us,” she said to gasps from the audience of 700 onlookers. “Instead of assisting us, they [may] hit us with another $125 million in cuts. It is dreadful what is going on.”

She disclosed that legislators in Sacramento have put that plan “on the front burner,” even though the county was relying on those funds as it tries to close a $1.2-billion deficit and balance its budget by the end of July.

Continuing a monthlong action, the angry crowd included employees of High Desert Hospital in Lancaster, a target for closure to pare the budget gap.

Shortly before police moved in to make arrests, Marcella Hylan, 65, of Lancaster, protested that some Antelope Valley residents will die if the hospital is closed.

“This is my third trip down here,” she said. “We are out in the desert, but we’re important people. Our patients are important people. They shouldn’t be forgotten in all of this.”

Outraged that their cries for help from Sacramento continue to be ignored, the supervisors are finalizing plans for a strategy session they hope to hold early next week in the state capital with the 41 members of the county’s legislative delegation. Molina said the unusual meeting, tentatively to be attended by two supervisors while the other three continue budget hearings in Los Angeles, demonstrates the potentially catastrophic state of the county’s fiscal situation.

In addition, Supervisor Mike Antonovich said he plans to travel to Sacramento today to meet with other county leaders from around the state to discuss plans to lobby together for more “legislative relief and assistance.”

While the supervisors make plans to turn up the heat on state legislators, activities in their own hearing room Thursday put them on notice that organized protests will continue unless alternatives to slashing jobs and services are found.

Molina and other supervisors told union leaders that cooperation is needed now more than ever to squeeze more money out of Sacramento and Washington. The union leaders agreed but said flatly that they will not accept wholesale layoffs of county employees--especially not the elimination of the 18,255 jobs that Chief Administrative Officer Sally Reed has proposed.

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John Sweeney, international head of the union representing more than half the county’s workers, said that if the supervisors go forward with Reed’s proposal, he will mobilize his million-plus union members, including 200,000 in Los Angeles.

“We will put our money and our resources and our people behind a movement of massive resistance and political retributions,” Sweeney, president of the Service Employees International Union, told the board.

Amid thunderous applause from union members, Sweeney added: “We know there is a problem. But . . . we will not tolerate 18,000 families ripped to their roots. We will not stand silent while the experts that got us into this mess in the first place make choices that could destroy our futures.”

That resistance effort got under way by noon when protesters faced off against police outside the Hall of Administration. Earlier in the day, more than 1,000 union members had targeted Gov. Pete Wilson’s local office in Downtown Los Angeles as part of a campaign to pressure the state into helping bail out the financially beleaguered county.

Thursday’s demonstrations were by far the most boisterous that the union’s Local 660 has held since Reed proposed the layoffs and cuts--and closure of County-USC Medical Center.

Alerted by the union, sheriff’s deputies and county security officers significantly beefed up their patrols, fearing that the demonstrators might charge into the supervisors’ meeting.

Instead, the protesters--led by a police escort--walked to Temple Street and Grand Avenue about noon. They began noisily blowing whistles, banging drums, singing, chanting and calling for alternatives to layoffs.

One held aloft an effigy of the county’s fiscal manager, with the name “Sally Greed” painted on it.

After snarling traffic, the protesters were told to disperse, and some refused. The 20 were arrested after sitting down in the middle of the busy intersection. Police wound up taking them into custody and issuing traffic citations before releasing them.

Rusti Morgan, 54, a social services investigator, was among the people arrested.

“I am one of those who will get bumped,” Morgan said, holding hands with other demonstrators. “I’m fighting for my job.”

She was escorted down Temple in her wheelchair by two officers.

Throughout the day, county social service workers and members of the public told the supervisors that the proposed cuts would have dramatic impacts. Carlos Perez-Carillo, a social service employee in the department’s Panorama City office, said a 20% cut will not only make it more difficult for the agency to provide service for the poor, but would also make his own job more difficult.

“We deal with people who are angry, who sometimes take things out on us,” Perez-Carillo said. “People waiting in long lines for service will create more problems. We’ve had rival gang members get in fights in lines before.”

Betty Fisher, who runs Haven Hills, a domestic violence shelter in Canoga Park which receives some county funding, told the supervisors that it was important that the shelter’s hot line be spared.

The 24-hour hot line allows domestic violence abuse victims to get help, Fisher said.

“We know there will never be enough beds, enough money,” she said. “But [the hot line] helps us circumvent the need for more shelters we can’t afford anyway.”

Tim Farrell seemed to reflect the attitude of many of the protesters.

“We need to get people’s attention,” said Farrell, a social worker. He said the county has enough money to avoid the huge cuts pushed by Reed.

Bart Diener, a Local 660 spokesman, said it was the first time members had been arrested in a budget-related demonstration. He said workers involved in the sit-in took civil disobedience courses in anticipation of budget protests.

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Union members vowed more civil disobedience.

“This is just the beginning,” said Marisa Pina, a Department of Children and Family Services eligibility worker from Covina, who was not arrested. She wore a button that said, “I will strike to protect my pay.”

The union threats and actions came during a day when the supervisors were hearing comments from the public on proposed cuts in the Department of Public Social Services, which runs the county’s mammoth welfare program.

Reed has proposed $13.7 million in cuts and more than 1,800 layoffs for the agency. The department is one of many for which the supervisors already have approved cuts.

Social services employees said the proposed 20% cuts in food stamp, general welfare, Medi-Cal and other programs will all but eviscerate the county’s safety net for the poor and disabled.

County welfare offices are staffed by what department head Eddy S. Tanaka described in a July 5 budget report as “an already ravaged work force.”

Employee after employee testified Thursday that they are overwhelmed and demoralized, forced each day to confront angry, desperate, hostile and even gun-wielding people demanding financial benefits.

If the cuts are imposed, the employees said, 191 social workers and 22 supervisors will lose their jobs right away. Those left behind will face jobs that are nearly impossible because of increased workloads, many said, and potentially dangerous.

“Safety officers are taking weapons and quelling disturbances already,” said Carlos Perez-Carillo, a welfare eligibility employee in Panorama City. “For those of us left, there will be total chaos.”

Others said small programs, such as In-Home Supportive Services, need to be spared because they are the lifeline of shut-ins who cannot fend for themselves, including senior citizens and the disabled. A proposed cut of several million dollars would only save taxpayers $2.32 per month per client, said social services worker Wilma Cadorna.

Such cuts also would be unwise, said Charles Wedlin, a welfare fraud investigator. By eliminating such “welfare police,” he said, the county would not be able to prevent tens of millions of dollars in annual welfare fraud.

Even with the $257 million in cuts ordered at the social services department and other agencies, the supervisors still need to cut almost $1 billion to balance the budget. And that does not include the additional $123 million in welfare costs that Molina learned the state may want to shift to the county.

Staff writers Timothy Williams and Jeffrey L. Rabin contributed to this story.