CITY SERVICES MAY MERGE TO CUT COSTS.

Byline: Mariel Garza Staff Writer

Having added 400 jobs over the past six month despite a hiring freeze, Los Angeles officials are now weighing whether to consolidate city departments so they can save money in the face of a budget crisis.

City officials expect to receive some $300 million less from Sacramento over the next 18 months. They say they could save million for instance, combining the fleet services of various departments into a single operation or all the grant offices into one.

``We need to restructure city services,'' City Administrative Officer Bill Fujioka said Wednesday, adding that city government has grown by seven or eight departments in the past decade.

``We don't want to do this again next year,'' Fujioka said. ``We need to do structural changes now to allow us get over this budget-deficit exercise every year.''

Fujioka and other city officials stopped short of saying consolidations would result in layoffs, but they did not rule out job lo Julie Butcher, general manager of Service Employees International Union, Local 347, which represents some 8,000 of the city's blue-collar workers, said consolidations would not necessarily mean layoffs.

``We are always interested in helping figure out more effective ways of doing what we do. I don't think anything is sacred,'' But Although the actual proposal is still weeks away, Fujioka gave a preview of coming cuts Wednesday to the City Council's Budget and Finance Committee.

The governor is anticipating a state shortfall of almost $35 billion, which could mean $92 million in cuts to the city budget during the rest of fiscal 2002-03 and about $209 million next fiscal year.

City officials also are preparing for other revenues to drop by as much as $180 million next year because of the sluggish economy Under Fujioka's plan, the hiring freeze, interdepartmental transfers and cuts in expense accounts could slash spending by $28.7 million.

City officials will hold to the ``hard'' - no exemptions - hiring freeze announced by Mayor James Hahn last month.

City government has been operating under a hiring freeze since fall 2001, but still spent $22 million to add 400 workers to its payroll in the past six months.

In the coming weeks, Fujioka said, he will return to the council committee with specific proposals for consolidating departments.

``I think it always makes sense to look at making things more efficient, more streamlined,'' said Councilman Eric Garcetti, a member of the committee. ``We've got overlap in a number of areas - economic development, some of our facilities management.''

``Everything's on the table,'' said Deputy Mayor Matt Middlebrook. ``(Fujioka) is going to make a number of recommendations. That's possibly one of them.''

Among the less-popular suggestions was to slow down the hiring of officers for the Los Angeles Police Department, which is operating at 1,000 below its full complement of 10,000 officers.

Right now, the LAPD academy runs a full class every month. If the department reduced that by half until the summer, it would save as much as $17 million, officials said.

Recognizing that beefing up the police force is a top priority, Fujioka assured officials this would not mean a halt in hiring.

Mayor James Hahn's budget director, Christa Binder, said the mayor is not interested in a reversal of the police-hiring trend.