COURT LAYOFFS ARE DELAYING WORK CHECKS CRITICS DECRY RECENT BUYS OF DESKS, MONITORS, SOFAS.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

Layoffs in the Los Angeles County court system resulted in two-week waits for private employers seeking criminal background checks on prospective employees, but officials say they are working to reduce the backlog.

After student court workers who conducted the searches were terminated during a budget crunch in September, the waiting period for a background check went from about two days to two weeks. Officials say that's now been cut to about one week to check the criminal history of a prospective employee.

``There was a special reallocation of some employees to try to cut that backlog down,'' court spokesman Allan Parachini said. ``We're aware of it, and it's clearly directly related to the budget cuts. We're trying to do something about it.''

Court spokesman Kyle Christopherson said before the budget cuts the court had 30 people assigned to the fifth-floor Clerk's Office at the downtown Clara Shortridge Criminal Justice Center to conduct background checks for $5 each.

The court conducts 90,000 to 100,000 criminal background checks a year.

But after the court executive committee voted to cut $57.3 million from its budget, the court laid off seven student workers, causing the wait to extend to two weeks.

Last week, the court was allowed to move five student workers to the division, reducing the wait to a week.

Damian Tryon, a business representative for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents 1,500 court employees, said the court needs to reprioritize its budget so the cuts are not affecting the public.

Tryon criticized the court in September, saying during tight budget times the court continued to purchase exorbitant items, such as a $40,000 desk in Compton, $1,200 flat-screen monitors for every judge, and leather couches for judges' chambers. He said the court spent $2.1 million to furnish a jury assembly room in Santa Monica.

The court intends to spend an additional $2 million this year on similar purchases, he said.

``Until they reprioritize their spending and cut back in areas that don't decrease the number of people who work there, the public is going to suffer,'' Tryon said. ``The backlog in services is not just in criminal background checks. It's also in people waiting for mediations in divorces and in child custody evaluations.''

Tryon said people waiting on evaluations in child-custody battles were waiting up to six months before the cutbacks. Now, it's even longer.

``You have divorced parents at each other's throats, who have restraining orders against each other and a backlog of up to six months before someone can even look at the situation and make a recommendation to the judge on custody,'' he said.

``Not every case involves abuse, but oftentimes it's dangerous for the family and the child to let this drag on.''

In September, the court laid off 230 employees, eliminated 26 judicial positions and closed 29 courtrooms and three court lock-up facilities.