BUDGET SHORTFALLS MAY FORCE CUTS IN POLICE, OFFICIALS SAY.

Byline: Rick Orlov Daily News Staff Writer

The city of Los Angeles is in a precarious financial situation and might have to make cuts, including the number of new police officers to be hired this fiscal year, officials were warned Tuesday.

While revenues are coming in about as expected, the City Council's Budget and Finance Committee was told that the city could face an $8 million to $10 million deficit in this year's $4 billion budget.

City officials said they might have to look at reducing the number of new police officers hired, but only as a last resort.

``It's always in our list of options, but right now we don't think we have to reduce police officers,'' said City Administrative Officer Keith Comrie. ``We are monitoring our financial situation and everything, so far, appears to be coming along.

Police spending is the largest part of the budget and has come in for criticism in the past for taking money out of other programs.

This year's budget by Mayor Richard Riordan reduced the rate of the Los Angeles Police Department buildup, calling for only 165 new officers beyond replacing those leaving through retirement or attrition. In previous years, Riordan had asked for 600 to 700 additional officers each year.

In a related development, Police Chief Bernard C. Parks has asked the Police Commission to approve a $2.5 million interim budget plan to finance his reorganization of the command staff and the crime-tracking system being used in the San Fernando Valley.

Almost all of the $2.5 million is transferring grant funds from one budget item to another, so it is not expected to add to the LAPD's budget shortfall, officials said.

More than half of the budget is to pay for staffing and computers for the crime system, which provides up-to-the-minute computer analyses of crime problems so that field officers can develop better strategies to combat crime.

The interim budget also includes money for a senior city attorney to be assigned to the Police Department to improve the legal services it gets.

As for the budget problems, Ed Corser, assistant city administrative officer, said the city is more concerned that the Fire and Sanitation departments will be running shortfalls of $2 million to $4 million each, because of increases in salaries and tipping fees paid at landfills.

In addition, he said, revenue from parking ticket fines are below what was expected and the city has not made as much money in interest on its investments as hoped.

Another factor has been the delay in the adoption of a street deterioration fee, which would reimburse the city when construction crews cut up recently paved roads to lay pipe and make other improvements. The fee was expected to bring in $10 million this year.