Sheriff’s Budget Cut as Libraries Are Spared

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors cut at least $60 million from the Sheriff’s Department on Wednesday but spared the library system from significant reductions as it approved a mostly austere budget for the coming fiscal year.

“We’re really grateful to the board and relieved,” County Librarian Margaret Donnellan Todd said. “We did not want to close libraries or reduce hours, and we know the board didn’t want to either.”

The budget proposed by the county’s top administrator and adopted by the board in May recommended $8.4 million in cuts to services and books to cover waning revenues.

Officials estimated that the library would have to cut a third of its hours or close 15 branches and reduce hours at other branches to make up the shortfall.

On a motion by Supervisor Don Knabe, the board agreed to restore $7.2 million to its budget.

The county health department was by far the biggest loser, suffering cuts that will save the county $150 million when fully implemented.

Another was Sheriff Lee Baca, who had held a number of news conferences to warn of dire consequences if the board did not fund all his programs.

But on Wednesday Baca seemed resigned to the outcome.

He said he will close the Century Detention facility and end a popular community policing program.

“This is what I have to do to make my budget next year,” Baca said.

To ease his pain, the board postponed repayment of $12.7 million that the county lent him when he overspent his budget last year.

The mental health department sustained $28.9 million in cuts, which will result in fewer services to low-income, mentally ill residents.

Supervisors produced a flurry of motions in last-ditch efforts to save favored programs--the vast majority of which were voted down or deferred.

“I’ve had a pleasant day, thank you,” joked Knabe after two of his motions to increase funds for law enforcement were voted down by the three Democrats on the five-member board.

Supervisors on Wednesday passed $14 million in new funding to restore programs that had been cut in May.

They included the probation department’s work furlough program, mental health services for the indigent, and an embalming program at the coroner’s office to address a problem of rats gnawing bodies.

The additions barely moved the bottom line of a $16.4-billion budget.

“It’s inappropriate,” Supervisor Gloria Molina said as she voted down one of the many proposals, pointing out that the same group had just hours earlier voted to close 11 health clinics.

“Have you ever heard the song: ‘Hey, hey big spender’?” she said.

The budget does not address the almost certain loss of money when the state’s budget is approved.

Chief Administrative Officer David Janssen said the county stands to lose between $140 million and $300 million in state funds.

Camp Rockey, one of a number of detention facilities for juvenile offenders, was one of the popular programs targeted for cuts in May but was saved through the identification of more funds.

Supervisor Mike Antonovich made a last-ditch effort to save some programs but was voted down.

Among those were the district attorney’s environment crimes and sex crimes units.