BUDGET FIGHT LOOMS FOR BACA.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

As Los Angeles County government braces for deep cutbacks in state and federal funding, the county supervisors are treading lightly with Sheriff Lee Baca in preparation for a battle over his budget in December.

The supervisors have been cautious in handling the sheriff's budget in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, even giving Baca and District Attorney Steve Cooley $1.6 million last week to hire 16 sheriff's investigators and two district attorney investigators for anti-terrorism efforts.

But nervous about how much state officials will cut revenues to the county because of the economic downturn, the supervisors voted to wait until Dec. 4 before acting on other budget requests from Baca and Cooley.

``We're trying to deal with all the issues of Sept. 11, but we'll have bigger issues down the road as the economy goes south and our caseloads (for health care and social services) go up,'' Supervisor Don Knabe said. ``We have the ultimate responsibility to provide those services.''

While the supervisors last week approved spending $10 million countywide over two years to combat terrorism - and hope to obtain another $93 million in state and federal funds - they also face problems with Baca's department, which is $33.7 million over budget this year and, at this pace, will run $55.3 million in the red over the next two years.

The Board of Supervisors controls how much money the Sheriff's Department gets, but it has relatively little say in how Baca spends it.

That got Baca in hot water recently after the supervisors discovered he purchased a $2.4 million executive aircraft in August without their knowledge. This month, the supervisors voted to tighten controls over the purchase of fixed assets by the county's 37 departments, requiring departments to get the board's approval for purchases exceeding $250,000.

Baca also has come under fire from critics who contend he made the department top heavy, gave 300 unmarked cars to department executives and volunteers to use as ``take-home cars,'' allowed overtime costs to multiply, approved questionable new expenses and now is proposing some questionable cost-cutting steps.

``He's talking about not hiring as many deputy sheriffs,'' said sheriff's Sgt. Patrick Gomez, who is running against Baca in the March primary. ``We are already short 150 to 200 deputy sheriffs. He's also talking about not purchasing supplies.

``The bottom line is the men and women of this department will have to pay for his overspending and poor fiscal management with less equipment, less resources and less personnel.''

Meanwhile, Baca wants the supervisors to add $22 million to his $1.6 billion budget to hire extra staff at the Malibu, Quartz Hill, Altadena and San Dimas sheriff's stations, more jail medical staff and 68 civilian investigators to help detectives with burgeoning caseloads.

The sheriff also has requested an extra $16 million to resolve a medical care crisis among the county's 20,000 jail inmates. The U.S. Department of Justice is considering citing the Sheriff's Department for civil rights violations unless it spends more money to meet the medical needs of inmates.

Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky suggested last week that Baca could use $60 million in his inmate welfare fund - made up of money generated from inmates making collect calls and buying items from the jail canteen and vending machines - to take care of the medical and mental health needs of jail inmates.

``He's got $60 million sitting there in his budget that he hasn't accessed for these very purposes that he's asking us for,'' Yaroslavsky said. ``That's outrageous.''

Yaroslavsky said he examined the account. ``It's been a slush fund, and I don't like it. Not when we have a health system on the verge of collapse and we're facing a recession.''

Sheriff's Lt. Carl Deeley said the department is awaiting a legal opinion on whether the money can be used for the medical and mental health needs of inmates.

``There is pretty tight controls on what the money can and can't be spent on,'' Deeley said. ``They watch it very carefully and make sure all the money is spent in the way prescribed by the rules in the fund.''

A grand jury report last year found the fund - originally developed in 1949 for the benefit of inmates - had grown exponentially over the last decade to $43 million in 1998-99 and was not being used directly for inmates' services.

The convergence of stresses on the county's $16.2 billion budget couldn't come at a worse time.

With the state facing a possible $14 billion deficit, county officials fear the state will cut a variety of revenue sources, including a portion of the $654 million in vehicle license fees the county gets. That makes up a large part of the 6 percent of the budget the supervisors have discretion in spending.

And the county faces trouble on another front - the health system.

Officials are grappling with ways to deal with a $900 million deficit expected by 2005 as a result of the expiration of federal bailout funds. The picture is further complicated by another possible hit on the health department's budget that would take away $150 million in federal funds.

County officials expect to have plans completed in the next few weeks as to whether they will have to lay off health care workers and make other cuts in health services beginning next fiscal year.

The officials hope to avoid a repeat of the crisis that nearly brought the county to bankruptcy in 1995 and resulted in hundreds of layoffs and massive cuts in health and other services.