County to Spend Surplus on Buildings

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to spend the bulk of a $174-million surplus to fix crumbling county courthouses and office buildings.

The surplus from last year’s budget will pay for a variety of capital and deferred maintenance projects, from $3.5 million to improve modular courtrooms at the Santa Monica Courthouse to $2.8 million to build an aquatic center at Jesse Owens Park. Supervisors approved $10 million to expand the coroner’s offices and $19.8 million for upkeep of parks.

“Parks are not being cleaned,” Chief Administrative Officer David Janssen said, “because they do not have the resources to do it.”

The action came despite allegations from some county union members that the money had been divvied up in secret long before the meeting.

“Nowhere in the budget-related board letters is there a single mention of seeking public input,” said Doug McLellan, vice president of the union that represents about 6,000 sheriff’s deputies. “In fact, the documents specifically affirm a closed-door budget process.”

Although McLellan and others urged the board to wait two weeks before allocating the funds, the supervisors voted on Janssen’s recommended spending plan after an hourlong discussion, arguing that the issues already had been hashed out in hearings earlier this year.

The allocations do not include $22 million that Sheriff Lee Baca requested for additional staff and deputy training. Without that money, officials estimate, Baca’s budget could be $21 million in the red by year’s end.

Although the board agreed to give the Sheriff’s Department $12.5 million to build several stations, they delayed for 30 days his request for the additional funds, saying that they wanted more information. Janssen has warned the sheriff to curb his expenditures or face a county-imposed hiring freeze.

Board members were given $950,000 each to spend on their pet projects, representing a wide variety of programs, from helping community child-care programs to trying to erect sound barriers at Compton airport. The board gave the probation department $2 million to chip away at its backlog of cases.