CENTRALIZED OFFICES TAKE BIG BITE OF BUDGET.

Byline: Beth Barrett Daily News Staff Writer

About 25 percent of the city's budget goes to ``centralized expenditures'' - the cost of running the central government - that budget analysts say cannot easily be calculated for geographic fairness.

The city has never done a comprehensive study of these centralized services to determine whether they have a proportional impact across the city.

``People have suggested it, but it would be a huge job - even to do it once,'' said City Administrative Officer Keith Comrie.

``There would be constant debate what would be put in and what would be left out,'' Comrie said. ``Even when it was finished, people would disagree over its conclusions.''

There is no question that most city offices and services are centralized downtown.

For example, more than 90 percent of the city's 8,600 office workers are in the downtown Civic Center. Van Nuys Civic Center - the second-largest office complex in the city - has fewer than 400 office workers, according to the city's Office Facilities Master Plan.

Certain city departments - notably police, fire and city maintenance workers - have a larger percentage of employees in outlying posts, but regional offices still have far fewer employees than the downtown central government.

The mayor's budget analysts insist that it is inappropriate to put the central government costs on the ``rest of the city'' side of the ledger in calculating the percentage of the budget spent in the Valley.

Overall, the Valley gets about 22 percent of city dollars, according to the mayor's budget office - but that total does not take into account benefits the Valley receives from centralized city services.

When centralized services are factored out from the calculations, and the comparison is only of ``field resources,'' or city dollars spent in particular geographic areas, the Valley's share is about 29.8 percent.

The budget analysts also insist that it is a ``misconception that centralized services by their nature are inefficient (or) unaccountable.''

But one of the complaints of residents in outlying communities is that they are underserved by the central government - that it's harder for a resident of Lake View Terrace or San Pedro, for example, to do business with the city than it is for a resident of Hollywood or Bunker Hill.

Mayor Richard Riordan said he has supported a proposal by Councilman Marvin Braude to rebuild and expand the Van Nuys Civic Center complex, but stopped short of endorsing any wholesale decentralization of city government.

``There are a lot of functions (that need to be centralized) such as tax collection, personnel, fleet services, the city administrative office,'' he said.

``These are things we're looking at,'' Riordan said. ``We have to look at them from a service point of view.''

City managers defend the way they've handled the day-to-day operation of the city, saying they have had a ``sense'' of where the needs are greatest.

``There is an underlying reality that, overall, the physical plant needs of the newer part of the city are not as great as those in the older part of the city,'' said Deputy City Engineer Bradley Smith.

But even Smith acknowledges that the system is imperfect.

``The fairness judgment is the tough one,'' he said.

Centralized government not only reduces the number of city workers deployed in communities. In a city as large as Los Angeles, it also makes it tougher for residents in those cities to come to the government.

For example, there is only one building and safety office in the Valley, compared to four centers in the rest of the city.

Officials defend the service - including a one-stop permit center in City Hall - by saying that downtown case managers handle some of the Valley's load. But the trek downtown is an obstacle to outlying communities.

The Planning Department also has only one public counter inT the Valley, where about 15 percent of its staffing resources are allocated, said Larry Dick, a management analyst for the department. Other planners are assigned to work on Valley projects, increasing the region's staffing share to about 39 percent.

There are three planning centers in the rest of the city, as well as a couple of staff members who work part time out of Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas' office in central Los Angeles.

The City Clerk's Office has one tax and permit office in Van Nuys, five others in the rest of the city and one in Watts due to open soon, said Donald DeBord, chief of the city's tax permit division.

DeBord said the distribution of the offices is ``based on activity'' and said it was a service to Valley residents to have an office in Van Nuys.

``You can look at it that (Valley residents) don't have to drive 25 miles to downtown,'' he said.

Of course, the numbers suggest that on a proportional basis, one Valley office may not be enough. More than 40 percent of the department's public workload - including business tax registration and payments, fire and police permits and other requests - is handled out of the single Valley office.

The city has proposed moving 550 workers out of downtown to four satellite offices, including a proposed new Civic Center in Van Nuys that could be ready by 1999, said Daniel Rosenfeld, the city's assets manager.

David Fleming, president of the Fire Commission and leader of a charter reform initiative campaign, said that simply dividing up the central bureaucracy is no guarantee it will be any more efficient.

``Do they have to chop up the undergrowth and divide it up?'' Fleming asked. ``No, they have to downsize.''

Riordan's own office also is based and focused in downtown.

The Mayor's Office has a budget of nearly $5 million and nearly 60 full-time staffers - including three assigned to a satellite office in Van Nuys. In addition, one supervisor spends a day per week in the Valley.

The Mayor's Office Thas 17 other employees assigned to the L.A. Business Team, and four of them deal with Valley commerce matters from downtown. Another supervisor spends one day a week in the Valley.

Noelia Rodriguez, Riordan's press secretary, said the Valley is the only place where the mayor has a satellite office outside of City Hall.

``The Valley is the largest concentration of people, and geographically it's more convenient,'' Rodriguez said.

Riordan, who was elected with strong support from Valley precincts, has himself made a point of appearing often in the Valley and pledging improved services to Valley residents.

Several other semiautonomous city departments, including the City Attorney's Office, the Department of Water and Power, the Airports Department and the Harbor Department, are largely centralized as well.

The largest of those run by an elected official is City Attorney James Hahn's office, with an operating budget of about $55 million - nearly all of that in salaries. About 16 percent of the city attorney's staff works out of Valley offices in the Van Nuys Civic Center and in San Fernando, according to city records.

As for the DWP, three of the department's 15 commercial service branches, or 20 percent, are in the Valley - which consumes and pays for 40 percent of the city's water and 30 percent of the city's electricity. The DWP has a satellite headquarters in Sun Valley, where about 1,400 people work.

Kenneth S. Miyoshi, DWP assistant general manager and chief engineer, said the agency would prefer to consolidate even more - and last year tried to close down its San Pedro and Boyle Heights offices, only to be thwarted by council members from those districts.

``They will not let us take them out or consolidate,'' Miyoshi said. ``We've tried twice. It's not cheap to operate them.''

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: Centralization of services for Los Angeles, seen fro m City Hall, is defended by officials as a necessity for government.

Bob Halvorsen/Daily News