BACA TO TOUT CRIME RATE DROP, ADDRESS BUDGET CHALLENGES.Byline: Jason Kandel Staff Writer VALENCIA - During a State of the Department speech scheduled for today, Sheriff Lee Baca Leroy David Baca (b. May 27 1942, East Los Angeles, California) is the Sheriff of Los Angeles County, California. After graduating from Benjamin Franklin High School (Los Angeles) in 1960, Baca worked his way through East Los Angeles College before starting with the L.A. is expected to tout Tout To promote a security in order to attract buyers. tout To foster interest in a particular company or security. For example, a broker might tout a security to a client in the hope that the client will purchase the security. Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County's declining crime rate while discussing the challenges of a $25 million budget deficit. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. an advance copy of the speech, to be delivered today to the 14th annual Contract Cities Managers Conference in Valencia, Baca considers the $25 million budget shortfall to be ``one of the biggest challenges'' of the last year. ``The budget shortfall caught us off guard,'' Baca said. ``We believed we had our budget predictions down to the penny.'' Baca, 59, who is being challenged in the March 5 primary by two of his sergeants, said his department is in the process of closing the funding gap. He said his 15,000-employee department is a victim of its own success, hiring 2,000 new deputies since he took office four years ago and adding hate crime and identity theft units. ``It costs money to grow,'' he said. He defended the purchase last year of a $2.4 million airplane airplane, aeroplane, or aircraft, heavier-than-air vehicle, mechanically driven and fitted with fixed wings that support it in flight through the dynamic action of the air. to help buttress buttress, mass of masonry built against a wall to strengthen it. It is especially necessary when a vault or an arch places a heavy load or thrust on one part of a wall. an aging fleet. ``I took some hits acquiring that plane, but it was worth every penny,'' said Baca, who added that he also hopes to replace an aging fleet of 10 helicopters. ``Taxpayers did not have to pay anything for the (plane). It was a good buy.'' He touted a year of accomplishments. Overall crime dropped 10 percent, with a decrease in every category except robbery. A Town Sheriff program in which a deputy acts as a community liaison has grown to 23 deputies in more than a dozen communities. Baca, who grew up in East Los Angeles East Los Angeles, uninc. city (1990 pop. 126,379), Los Angeles co., S Calif., a residential suburb of Los Angeles, in an industrial area. It has a large Mexican-American population. There is a performing arts center and a cultural center. A junior college is there. and began his career with the department in 1965, said his Public Safety Center for the Homeless, a downtown facility that would help get the homeless off the streets, is ``on its way to becoming a reality.'' The shelter would be staffed by deputies and mental health experts, he said. Baca's challengers, Sgt. John Stites and Sgt. Patrick Gomez, are making their bid for their boss's job in part by charging that he has mismanaged his budget, wasted money on extravagances and ignored the needs of his deputies on the streets and in the jails. |
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