County Warned of Budget Deficit

As hundreds of angry sheriff’s deputies loudly demanded raises, the county Board of Supervisors got some bad news Thursday: It could face a budget deficit of about $460 million next year.

Additional fiscal problems arose in Sacramento as a legislative budget committee refused to endorse a proposed deal by Sheriff Sherman Block and Gov. Pete Wilson under which state taxpayers would help finance operation of the Twin Towers jail.

At the end of the special two-hour hearing, in which no committee member voiced support for the plan, state and county officials were asked to come back with a far less expensive proposal in two weeks.

The committee’s decision could eventually force the sheriff and county supervisors to spend millions of dollars they don’t now have to cement a deal to house state prisoners in the controversial jail facility on the eastern edge of downtown.

But the action in the state Capitol paled in comparison to the raucous budget hearing at the Hall of Administration, where Chief Administrative Officer David Janssen told the board it faces a deficit of at least $185 million, and potentially more than $460 million.

The supervisors could hardly hear Janssen’s remarks, which came amid loud jeers, catcalls and an occasional personal attack against some supervisors by the deputies. They chanted that they want raises next year of 5%. And they wore T-shirts poking fun of the Sheriff’s Department’s purchase of premium coffee, chickens and aged cheese, references to a series in The Times last year showing that the department had bought such pricey commodities for inmates.

Despite repeated interruptions, Janssen told board members that they have more immediate financial problems than labor negotiations, especially since they have spent the last two years cutting services and employees not deemed critical to running the county.

As the deputies grew ever louder, board Chairman Zev Yaroslavsky told them: “It is critical you understand that we are faced with a major, seemingly insurmountable gap that we need to close. . . . It is not a pretty picture indeed.”

Supervisor Gloria Molina grew angry, glaring at deputies and saying: “I’m not going to take this. You’re trying to intimidate us because you’re law enforcement officials. We’re trying to deal with a budget that affects all of us, and it’s not going to get you anywhere.”

That only made the deputies louder. Even the sheriff was greeted with boos.

The county’s 8,000 sworn personnel have been working without a new contract since mid-1994, agreeing to several extensions. The latest expired Jan. 31.

“We have been willing to work without pay raises because the county was broke,” Pete Brodie, president of the Assn. for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, told the board. “But we have waited long enough.”

After finishing their comments to the board, Brodie and other labor leaders--and the deputies--filed out of the meeting hall, leaving before Block presented his 1997-98 budget proposal. Before leaving, however, Brodie warned Yaroslavsky that the deputies will only get louder, and more bitter, if denied a raise.

“If we don’t get anything resolved,” Brodie said, “we’ll be back.”

Block encouraged the supervisors to approve a raise, but he would not say for how much. “Their salaries are no longer comparable to a number of law enforcement agencies in the Southern California area,” Block said.

Some county officials said that although they support the deputies’ call for a raise, other county employees haven’t received pay increases in more than five years.

In comparison, deputies have received salary increases totaling 24% between January 1990 and June 1994. A 5% raise would cost the county about $27 million.

At least four of the supervisors said in interviews that such a raise is unlikely, especially because the county is already facing considerable budget problems.

“The revenues aren’t there,” said Supervisor Mike Antonovich.

Yaroslavsky added: “I don’t think that given today’s financial facts that it’s realistic. You just can’t squeeze blood out of a turnip, and that’s what position we’re in.”

Much of the meeting was spent trying to gauge exactly how deep that financial hole is. By law, the supervisors are required to start the fiscal year with a balanced budget.

In each of the last several years, the board has been faced with a significant projected deficit. Two years ago, a budget crisis believed to be the worst in history led to a significant downsizing, including the elimination of thousands of county jobs.

Janssen sought to downplay the deficit, saying much of it relies on worst-case scenarios.

“You have no clues as to how we’re going to close that gap, do you?” Yaroslavsky responded.

“Not true,” Janssen said. “We will balance the budget. [But] we simply can’t add any further expenses.”

Janssen said the Health Services Department has a $114-million deficit and other departments are in the red by $71 million. He also said the county is bracing for an appellate court ruling that could order it to pay welfare recipients as much as $150 million in benefits that were cut by the supervisors in recent years.

The county has appealed another judge’s recent ruling that it must pay back $50 million that the state Legislature allowed it to take from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. And the county could have to absorb $63 million in fire protection and library assessments if voters reject a measure placed on the ballot because of Proposition 218.

In Sacramento meanwhile, budget committee chairman Sen. Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena) said Block’s plan for the state to lease space for 1,400 state convicts was too expensive, potentially costing the state $8.6 million a year.

Block has been pressing for the deal as a way of financing the opening of Twin Towers. But Thompson said it could cost state taxpayers $52.74 a day per prisoner compared with $37 if they were housed elsewhere.

One critic, Sen. Maurice K. Johannessen (R-Redding) denounced Block’s plan as “really nothing but a bailout for L.A. County,” which could prompt other sheriffs to seek similar aid.

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Times staff writer Carl Ingram in Sacramento contributed to this story.