Sheriff Draws Fire Over Plan to Hire Travel Agent

In a move that has raised eyebrows among some county officials, the Sheriff’s Department is seeking to hire its own travel agent at a time when it doesn’t have the money to open the new Twin Towers jail and is releasing convicted inmates who have served less than 25% of their sentences.

Sheriff’s budget analysts say the plan might result in savings for the financially stressed department. But officials led by Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky say the notion is ridiculous.

“I ain’t voting for no travel agent to be in the Sheriff’s Department when we can’t open the jail,” Yaroslavsky said at a Board of Supervisors meeting last week.

Action on the sheriff’s proposal to hire a full-time employee was postponed until next week. Sheriff’s budget director Fred Ramirez, acknowledging that the board is opposed to adding an employee to the county payroll, said Wednesday that he will return instead with a plan to contract for the services of a travel agent to do the job.

“That way,” he said, “they could be terminated on 30 days’ notice.”

The finances of the Sheriff’s Department will again be on the board agenda this morning when Sheriff Sherman Block makes an appearance to discuss his department’s 1996-97 budget.

Block’s visit comes in the wake of stories in The Times on the escalating crisis in the county’s overcrowded jails, which the sheriff blames on budget constraints. The new Twin Towers jail, with 4,100 beds, sits unused for lack of operating funds. Meanwhile, Block has shut down four other jails in the last three years.

Public officials from Los Angeles to Washington have reacted by calling for reforms and new financial expenditures to ease jail overcrowding and to ensure that inmates serve longer portions of their sentences.

State Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles) plans to announce a proposal today to sell Twin Towers to a private firm. Polanco said such action would free more jail beds, cut down on early releases and ease financial pressures on the county.

Meanwhile, Yaroslavsky has suggested that Block look more carefully for savings within his $1.1-billion budget in order to make use of additional jail beds.

At the board meeting last week, Ramirez suggested the department hire its own travel services specialist. Ramirez said the law enforcement agency spends $1 million a year for its employees to travel.

He estimated that the department would save $50,000 to $75,000 a year by taking care of its own travel arrangements. “We’re trying to do a [two-year] pilot program to see if we can save money,” Ramirez told the supervisors.

But the plan has run into a buzz saw of opposition. Yaroslavsky questions why the Sheriff’s Department would spend $30,000 a year plus benefits to hire a new employee when the county already has a contract with American Express for travel services.

Besides, the supervisor said, the Sheriff’s Department purchased only 16 plane tickets a month from the agency last year.

“It seems to me to be ludicrous to hire a $30,000 employee to coordinate 16 tickets a month,” he said. “My kid will do it for you for less than that.”

Ramirez agrees with Yaroslavsky that most plane tickets are purchased by the sheriff’s employees themselves, who are reimbursed later. He says the county would end up saving money by hiring an agent because it could recoup the commission now received by the travel agency and seek discounts from airlines.

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Times staff writer Eric Lichtblau contributed to this story.