Mayor Asks LAPD to Cut Budget Despite Growth Plan : Police: Riordan requests trims of up to 6%. His aide says the move isn’t incompatible with the goal of increasing force.

Mayor Richard Riordan has asked Los Angeles Police Department officials to cut their budget by as much as 6% in the coming year, even while they continue working toward Riordan’s goal of expanding the department by nearly 3,000 officers by 1997.

In a memo sent to the Police Department last week, mayoral budget director Christopher O’Donnell made a variety of suggestions for savings in such areas as expense accounts, jail and helicopter operations, overtime and salaries.

O’Donnell’s memo followed Riordan’s directive last month that every city department develop a plan to cut costs for fiscal 1996-97, in the face of a projected deficit of $220 million to $250 million, administration officials said.

“There’s a lot of opportunities. There’s always puts and takes in any departmental budget,” O’Donnell said Thursday. “What would be nice is if the Police Department could help, overall, in funding the Public Safety Plan, by finding savings internally that, in turn, allows us to hire additional police officers.”

Police Department representatives were not available for comment late Thursday.

Following up on a campaign promise that he would not run for reelection before expanding the LAPD by 40%, Riordan launched a plan in October, 1993, to hire thousands of new officers, and has increased LAPD budgets by about 14% since he took office in July, 1993.

Last year, the department’s budget increased by about 6%, to more than $1.1 billion, more than a quarter of the city’s overall $3.9-billion budget.

Although O’Donnell and Riordan spokeswoman Noelia Rodriguez insisted Thursday that public safety remains the mayor’s No. 1 priority, some at City Hall were shocked to learn that LAPD was included among the targets for savings.

“I’ve been asking, ‘How does the department do all of the things that we’ve demanded and meet all of the mandates that we’ve heaped on it with its current budget? How do we make complete magic with telling them to do all these things with $68 million less?’ ” said City Councilwoman Laura Chick, who chairs the Public Safety Committee. “I don’t see how we can go forward with full speed on all the things that this department must have to serve its citizenry with less money. I just don’t see how it’s possible.”

Chick said she is “completely supportive” of Riordan’s goal of streamlining government, including the Police Department. But “that’s a whole different ball game than cutting $68 million,” she said, adding, “Are we asking impossible tasks of the LAPD?”

Privately, several City Hall insiders called the proposal “mind-boggling” and accused Riordan of “speaking out of both sides of his mouth” by asking the LAPD to grow in number but shrink in expense.

But Rodriguez and O’Donnell noted that the department recently received a $48-million federal grant to hire more officers, and that the Mayor’s Alliance for Public Safety has raised nearly $15 million in private funds to aid the department. While the mayor expects the LAPD budget to expand in areas of staffing and community police substations, they said, he believes it can be slashed elsewhere.

In the memo sent Oct. 3, O’Donnell questions whether overtime dollars are actually increasing the number of police officers on the street, and suggests that a management reorganization and civilianization of various positions could cut costs. Several aspects of the detective operation are also questioned.

“When we talk about the budget, we don’t see it as only field force. We’re talking about efficient LAPD operations, whether that means deployment, whether that means helicopter operations or salary savings,” Rodriguez explained. “We haven’t said, ‘We’re going to cut you across the board, LAPD, 6%.’ We’re telling them, ‘You tell us how you can realize improvements that equal 6% of your full budget.’ ”

Rodriguez stressed that public safety remains Riordan’s top priority but said the city’s economic outlook demands that no one be spared.

“We have not made any decisions,” she said of next year’s budget. “Anything is possible at this point.”