BACA WARNS OF SAFETY CUTS BUDGET HURTS DEPARTMENT, SHERIFF SAYS.

Byline: Michelle Rester Staff Writer

An angry Sheriff Lee Baca said Thursday that his department will face a crippling $100 million deficit next year if a Los Angeles County spending plan is implemented, resulting in fewer deputies and community programs.

``We either stop fueling our cars, flying our helicopters, answering our phones, or we turn to personnel,'' Baca said during a news conference at Sheriff's Department headquarters in Monterey Park.

Baca, who called the proposed budget ``Mission Impossible'' for public safety, also announced he was sending a letter to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors spelling out his concerns and asking for an independent audit and reform of the budget process.

Chief Administrative Officer David Janssen defended the budget process, saying that staff members from each of the county departments, including the Sheriff's Department, are involved in the entire budget proposal process.

That process began earlier this week, when the board received the proposed budget. More than a week's worth of public hearings will begin May 15 and then changes will be made before the budget is actually adopted at the end of June.

``This isn't just about the sheriff, it's about the economy, state cuts, a bad economy,'' Janssen said. ``I appreciate the sheriff is advocating for his own department - that's his job - but I don't appreciate his attacking the process that has always worked very well in this county.''

``I can't imagine that in a budget of $16 billion that because of a $49 million shortfall that he would run out of bullets,'' Janssen said. ``It would be his choice.''

Public safety accounts for about 10 percent of the county's budget. The Sheriff's Department serves more than 2.5 million people in the unincorporated areas and 41 contract cities, officials said.

Janssen also took issue with some of the sheriff's figures.

Baca says the county is forcing him to cut $100 million from his total budget. But it was Baca, Janssen said, who moved $31 million from supplies and services to pay for overtime. The sheriff is also going to have to pay for an increase in salaries and employee benefits, money that Janssen says he took out of the services and supplies budget because the sheriff would not specify how he wanted to make those payments.

``Frankly, he should be justifying his expenditures,'' Janssen said. ``They're overspending their overtime budget again this year.''

Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich - who says he cast the sole vote against accepting the proposed budget earlier this week because of its cuts to public safety - has offered his support to Baca in his latest requests.

The CAO, for example, doesn't take into consideration that departments like the Sheriff's, the Public Defender, Probation and the District Attorney's Office pay more in workers' compensation costs because they have more employees in physical jobs, said Jean Huston, a spokeswoman for Antonovich.

``The CAO's projections don't adequately cover them for the actual cost of workers' comp,'' Huston said. ``By forcing them to take these cuts, they're cutting back essential services.''