COUNTY WORKERS UNDER INVESTIGATION COLLECT PAID LEAVE SOME SUSPENSIONS EXCEEDED ONE YEAR.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

Despite a budget squeeze, Los Angeles County paid $15.7 million in salaries since 1999 to more than 1,540 workers who were suspended with pay during disciplinary investigations while only 13 were suspended without pay, a report issued Monday found.

More than 170 were on paid leave for six months or longer, and 15 workers received their full salaries and benefits while staying home for at least a year.

Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, who ordered the report in September after learning that the county has no policy on paid leave during investigations, ``believes the numbers are excessive and we are undertaking an aggressive campaign to combat this exorbitant spending in the future,'' a spokesman said.

``Some of these employees ought to be reassigned while they are on leave, instead of sitting home collecting money,'' said Antonovich spokesman Tony Bell.

From January 1999 to May, the county paid $15.7 million in administrative leave for employees accused of misconduct while investigations were conducted, according to the report by the county Department of Human Resources.

Those employees were paid for 678,000 hours of work they did not perform. Only 13 employees were placed on unpaid leave.

Although the report didn't say how many of the employees were ultimately disciplined or fired, county officials said disciplinary action was taken against a ``good percentage'' of them.

``It seems to me that when somebody is on paid administrative leave because of a pending disciplinary action, they ought to be required to give back the pay they received if they are ultimately found guilty or negligent in the charges against them,'' said Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.

``And plus, you are also giving them an incentive to drag out the investigatory proceedings,'' he said. ``That doesn't make any sense.''

The department that paid the most was the Probation Department at $5.2 million, followed by $4.1 million paid to sheriff's employees, $3.5 million for health department personnel and $729,821 for child protective services workers.

The county report comes as state lawmakers have been monitoring the use of paid administrative leave by state prison guards. More than 100 guards - more than all other state departments combined - have been on paid leave for more than a month, including a Chino state prison guard on paid leave for 2 1/2 years, according to state reports.

Likewise, the county report found that 10 Probation Department employees suspended for up to a year were paid between $71,698 and $95,537.

Nearly 80 probation employees were placed on administrative leave with pay for six months or more. Four health department employees were paid between $118,593 and $130,480 while on paid leave for a year. One Fire Department employee was paid $77,083 while on paid leave for more than 11 months.

Antonovich's office is drafting a motion to bring the costs down by reassigning some employees accused of misconduct.

Chief Probation Officer Richard Shumsky said 10 of his employees should not have been on paid leave for a year. He said 83 percent of the cases involved misconduct.

``When someone is accused of excessive force in the juvenile halls or camps, we generally take them off work pending a determination,''

Shumsky said. ``In some instances, the investigation took us too long. But there is no question that we need to do a better job. In the last year, we have reduced it significantly.''

Although the Sheriff's Department had not prepared its report yet, showing the lengths of times employees were placed on paid leave, a summary report revealed that 213 employees were paid $3.5 million while internal affairs or criminal investigations were conducted.

Troy Anderson, [phone]

troy.anderson(at)dailynews.com

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SUSPENSION PAY

SOURCE: County of Los Angeles