County Official Warns of 5,000 Health Layoffs

The county’s personnel chief told the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday that barring a last-minute miracle, 5,000 employees in the vast Department of Health Services will be laid off and an additional 10,000 will be demoted when the county’s fiscal crisis forces most health centers and clinics to shut down Oct. 1.

“Approximately one-fifth of the department is going out the door” in less than six weeks, county personnel Director Mike Henry said in an interview after the meeting. He added that health department layoff notices will go out in about two weeks, and that half the staff will be hurt by the cuts.

With just three of the five supervisors in attendance, the board voted to create a second task force of outside experts to help them avert fiscal crises like the one they now face.

Unlike the Health Crisis Task Force assembled in late June, this advisory body, sponsored by board Chairwoman Gloria Molina, will focus on long-term economic recovery and government efficiency efforts.

The board also heard from several contract workers who said the county was making a mistake Tuesday by canceling their contracts with the health department and laying them off while keeping what they said were more expensive and often less-trained unionized employees.

“No one will be able to replace me,” said epidemiologist Laura Knowles, citing her nine years of experience in fighting the spread of communicable diseases such as tuberculosis.

Also, the county’s two top health services managers briefed the supervisors about the status of last-minute efforts to have private health care providers take control of public health centers and clinics that otherwise are scheduled for closure. In all, 28 of 39 county health clinics and all six comprehensive health centers are scheduled to be closed Oct. 1, and remaining outpatient services at the county’s six hospitals are expected to be severely curtailed.

Health czar Burt Margolin said many private health care providers have shown “an extraordinarily strong response” to the efforts to create such public-private partnerships. But health services Director Robert C. Gates cautioned that the health care system will not be able to handle 1.3 million annual visits unless Margolin’s partnership efforts are successful immediately.

After hearing that, Molina offered perhaps her grimmest assessment yet of the imminent impact of the county’s efforts to close its unprecedented budget deficit by slashing services and jobs.

“We are going to be eliminating most of health care services as we know them,” Molina told colleagues Deane Dana and Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, and the small audience. “Many, many people will be losing their jobs and most people will be dealing with little or no service whatsoever. Those that do have some form of service are going to have to wait in extremely long lines.

“It really is sad what is going on, but it is reality,” she said. “The cutbacks are going to be very dramatic.”

Molina continued to place the blame on legislators in Sacramento for failing to bail out the cash-strapped county in recent months.

“Until the Legislature wakes up and decides to provide some leadership, we are going to see a decimation of most of our health care system as it is known today,” she said.

The supervisors said Tuesday that state legislators--even those from Los Angeles County--are offering little in the way of help for the state’s most populous county.

Burke in particular expressed concern about whether the county will ever see $50 million that it is seeking to seize from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for health care needs. Gov. Pete Wilson must also approve such a shift, which has been opposed by Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan and others.

The MTA is set to meet today to discuss whether to approve a one-time transfer of funds, which it has vehemently opposed.

In fact, even as the supervisors sought help from the local delegation of state legislators, Assemblywoman Diane Martinez (D-Alhambra) said she will introduce a bill that would weaken Los Angeles County’s fiscal independence by forcing it to submit to biannual audits of its finances by the state auditor general.

Martinez said she wants to find ways of saving money and cutting waste and unneeded bureaucracy within Los Angeles County government.

“They are continually running at a deficit and they don’t give us time to respond to it,” Martinez said, adding that county officials have pleaded for help far too late in the game. “This would set up a process that would allow us to respond to their needs much earlier.”

Already, Assemblywoman Debra Bowen (D-Marina del Rey) has introduced legislation that would create a “control board” with the authority to take over the county’s finances under certain circumstances. Bowen said the county needs such external control because it lacks the fiscal discipline and accountability to get its financial situation under control.

In an interview, Burke said she supported the concept of an outside audit, but only if it did not duplicate the many auditing efforts under way within the county bureaucracy. “We’re auditing up to our ears,” she said.

Molina said the new task force could help avert such state intervention.

The panel, which will consist of two people appointed by each supervisor, will look at ways to downsize county government and secure more permanent funding from state and federal government.