Sheriff Offers 2 Versions of Budget

Under criticism for previous bloated budget requests, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca unveiled streamlined spending priorities Thursday, offering the Board of Supervisors a choice between funding his three top initiatives by adding just $5 million to his department’s $1.4-billion budget or of financing all 22 of his proposed new projects with a $131-million boost.

Appearing before the supervisors Thursday, Baca said he has scrutinized his budget requests and identified three priority categories.

But even with the sheriff’s triage, some supervisors indicated they would be hard pressed to provide much new funding because the department still has vacancies in positions funded last year and because its budget has grown so much in the last five years.

Supervisors Gloria Molina and Zev Yaroslavsky suggested that the sheriff might do well to more carefully examine his existing funding and perhaps shift existing positions and funding as necessary.

“A little bit of that kind of thinking goes a long way,” Yaroslavsky said.

Baca was roundly praised by others, however, who said the sheriff must have gotten the message from last year, when he asked for about $300 million in new funding without specifying clear priorities.

“As the person who watches the money, I was very pleased with the way he presented his budget this year,” said David Janssen, the county administrative officer. “He’s doing a better job . . . much more professional, solid this year.”

Baca said his top priorities are to expand three programs: the department’s hate crime and gang enforcement task forces and a community-based policing “Town Sheriff” program.

Supervisors, however, questioned the sheriff’s choices for his spending proposal, seeking to find out why, for example, medical services in the jails--a source of concern to federal authorities--aren’t at the top of the list.

Baca said the department continues to work closely with the Department of Justice to show improvements in the jails’ medical and mental health services for inmates, but that those changes won’t happen overnight.

Still, he said: “They know we have done more . . . in the last year than perhaps in the last five or 10 years.”

Baca said later that he doesn’t believe he will face “a major fight” with the board. Rather, he said the supervisors have other, more pressing department budgets to worry about and that his ideas are reasonable and respectful of their potential fiscal problems.

“I was trying to assume what amount of money--realistically--they would allocate this fiscal year,” Baca said. “It was suggested to me $5 million” might be funded over and above the $1.4 billion granted to the department.

Additionally, Janssen has recommended that the supervisors allocate about $6.6 million to the Sheriff’s Department: about half to pay for increased training for deputies who spent only about 10 weeks at the academy because of budget cuts and the remainder to pay the salaries of deputies hired by a federal grant that is running out.

In a sharp exchange, Molina said the department needs to more strongly consider how it provides law enforcement to the unincorporated areas. The department polices dozens of cities that pay for contracts with the department, which Molina says appears to take priority over other parts of the county.

Molina said the services to those sections of the county are “inappropriate and unfair” and that a disproportionate share of the department’s vacancies occur in the staff assigned to those areas.

The Sheriff’s Department has about 1,500 unfilled sworn and civilian jobs.

Under his top proposals, Baca is seeking to add 18 “town sheriffs,” who oversee the deputies who respond to community concerns and gang activity rather than radio calls. Currently, the department has two deputies in those positions and Baca says he believes the program has been successful. Molina, who funded the positions from her discretionary fund, agreed.

Baca also is looking to create a hate crime task force, which he said would work as a clearinghouse to determine the nature and extent of those crimes. Deputies would work with other law enforcement agencies and the district attorney’s office to centralize investigations and share resources.

And, his anti-gang program, dubbed the Safe Streets Gang Enforcement Unit, would be expanded to the Antelope and San Gabriel valleys, where gang problems appear to be serious. Baca sought to separate his gang program from the Los Angeles Police Department’s now-defunct CRASH program, which was the source of the Rampart corruption scandal.

“Our approach is totally different from CRASH,” Baca said. “We do a lot of prevention strategy, intervention and diversion. . . .”