Let the Light Shine on Sheriff Block’s Budget

For years, Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block held all the cards when questions arose about his department’s huge annual budget, now $1.1 billion. The county Board of Supervisors, loath to take on or even question the politically powerful sheriff, got nothing that even resembled a clear accounting of expenditures. So when Block warned that patrols would have to be cut back if his budget took a fiscal hit, the supervisors might have been skeptical but they failed to get much more information. The same was true when Block came up with complicated reasons why his de- partment could not open the new high-security Twin Towers jail on schedule.

Well, now we know one of the reasons such information has been so difficult for the public to obtain. The disclosure comes in a long-awaited, initial audit of the Sheriff’s Department budget by the county auditor-controller. The audit was sparked in part by a Times series that indicated several areas in which savings could be found.

The county’s largest and most complex departments, according to the audit, operate with several small budget “units” rather than one overall budget. The Department of Health Services, for example, has nine general fund budgets and six hospital enterprise fund budgets. But the Sheriff’s Department operates with just one budget and internally allocates resources to various tasks. What does that mean? In the words of the auditors, “these internal allocations are not approved by the Board [of Supervisors] and not necessarily discussed during budget deliberations or other- wise made readily available to the public.”

For that and other reasons, the audit suggests that the sheriff’s funding should be broken down to a minimum of seven distinct budgets, thereby “increasing the amount of budgetary information that is readily available” and giving the county supervisors more of the information they need to monitor and control spending.

Can the department and the county do better fiscally? Oh, yes. Just consider the following: More than $2.4 million is owed to the department by cities that contract for department services. The worst shirkers? Paramount, Palmdale, Artesia and Malibu, and they ought to pay interest on their debts.

The county loses an additional $3 million annually from failure to bill the state for the cost of medical care for state inmates held in local jail wards. The sheriff has an uncollected balance of $800,000 for security services for filmmaking and special events and in training and witness fees. There’s also a $40,000 annual loss in interest revenue on bail fund accounts.

Somehow, the auditors found spending $18,661 for furniture for an assistant chief’s office and $28,000 for video rentals reasonable or justifiable. Well, it’s safe to say that a far better deal could be had at the nearest Ikea or Blockbuster store.

It’s welcome news that the sheriff has embraced the audit’s primary findings and recommendations. Still to come is an important audit review of the department’s payroll and procurement functions, and more. Stay tuned. This was just the first step in determining how the big department spends its funds.