No Help in Sight, County Budget Meeting Canceled

With a growing sense that it will take a miracle for Sacramento to rescue Los Angeles County from its fiscal crisis, the Board of Supervisors canceled today’s budget session and launched a desperate search for ways to ease the pain of deep cuts, particularly in health services.

Board Chairwoman Gloria Molina, who canceled the meeting, acknowledged Wednesday that delaying the meeting was an effort to buy time.

“We’re trying to get the pieces together,” she said. “We need to know more than we do now. I am hopeful the next day will provide some better options.”

Nonetheless, there was a growing sense of dismay that despite lobbying efforts, the county could not rely on Gov. Pete Wilson and state lawmakers to provide a way out of the county’s $1.2-billion budget deficit.

“Unless a miracle happens in Sacramento, we’re not going to get anything,” said Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke.

By far the most dire problem that remains is health services. With demands on the health care system rising and financial resources shrinking, the county can no longer afford its vast network that serves more than 4 million residents who are poor or lack medical insurance.

With the county’s cash reserves dwindling, the supervisors must decide within days how to scale back the network of hospitals, comprehensive health centers and clinics while inflicting as little damage on the safety net for people who have no place else to turn for health care.

Burke said efforts to get more money from Washington are proceeding too slowly to be a factor in the decisions the board must make.

“All they are saying is, ‘We’re favorably inclined, but don’t expect an answer for a while.’ But our time has run out,” Burke said. “We have to bite the bullet and act Friday.”

Indeed, a spokesman for the Wilson Administration said state officials are examining the county’s request to waive federal law to allow the county to launch an experimental program to provide more outpatient care instead of expensive treatment in hospital emergency rooms.

“We want to be cooperative,” said H. D. Palmer, spokesman for state finance Director Russell Gould. “We’d like to see if we can make it work.”

In the meantime, Burke said: “Everyone is trying to find little pockets of money to minimize the impact” of cuts that now seem inevitable.

There was one bright spot Wednesday as the county’s employee pension fund reported sharply higher earnings on its $17 billion in assets. The additional earnings will provide the county with $144 million, which will reduce the county contribution to the fund by nearly half this year.

But it became increasingly clear that county supervisors, who delayed a decision on health cuts for the past month while a health crisis task force sought alternatives to closing County-USC Medical Center, now must act.

Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said his colleagues generally like the task force recommendation that all county hospitals be kept open for the time being. The task force urged the closure of most county health clinics on the theory that they could be reopened if additional funds became available.

But Yaroslavsky said the supervisors still have to digest the full impact of the task force’s recommendations.

Supervisor Deane Dana echoed his colleagues’ sentiments but said the task force proposal to privatize Rancho Los Amigos Medical Center in Downey is too ambitious to be achieved in two years.

Supervisor Mike Antonovich expressed concern that the task force hit his district too hard by urging the curtailment of inpatient services at High Desert Hospital, the only county facility for residents of the sprawling, remote Antelope Valley.

Antonovich said he plansto discuss those concerns today at a meeting with task force Chairman Burt Margolin. Like the other supervisors, Antonovich said he supports the task force’s call for the creation of an independent “health czar” to preside over the restructuring of the county’s beleaguered health care system.

Antonovich said he supports Margolin for the powerful post as a logical extension of his role as chairman of the advisory group.

“We need a person who is not married to the bureaucracy, a clear thinker and problem solver who can implement the necessary recommendations without being hogtied by bureaucracy. Burt Margolin is a strong, effective crisis manager,” Antonovich said.

He added that the board has discussions going on regarding whether to appoint Margolin as health czar.

“Time is of the essence,” Antonovich said. “We have to act quickly. . . . He is dedicated to resolving this issue. He put in a lot of time and effort. He along with other members of the task force would like to see their mission carried to a successful end.”