LOSING ALL TRACK OF TIME? NO RECORDS AVAILABLE ON SHERIFF'S DEPT. COSTS.

Byline: Troy Anderson and Jim Skeen Staff Writers

Sheriff Lee Baca has no idea how much it really costs to provide service to contract cities like Lancaster, Palmdale and Santa Clarita, so he can't determine whether his department is getting too much money from them - or not enough, says a new audit from the county Auditor-Controller's Office.

The audit comes as the sheriff is facing up to $143 million in budget cuts in his $1.7 billion budget and is in the process of releasing 2,600 jail inmates to reduce costs.

The audit found that the Sheriff's Department does not keep accurate records on whether the 41 cities to which it provides law enforcement services are underpaying or overpaying the department for those services.

The central problem is that the Sheriff's Department has chosen not to use time cards, arguing that it would take an average of 15 minutes per day per employee to fill out a time card, the audit said. Auditors said their experience with employees performing multiple tasks is it takes 30 seconds to a minute to fill out a time card.

Auditors found that the system used to track the amount of time patrol deputies work is not accurate and cannot be used to bill contract cities for the actual services provided, noting that the lack of accurate records could result in the Sheriff's Department subsidizing contract cities for law enforcement services.

``This practice will continue to result in the county either subsidizing the cities or overcharging them,'' auditors wrote.

Lancaster and Palmdale officials said Monday that they believe their cities are getting their proper share of law enforcement services, though Palmdale's mayor said his city has raised questions in the past.

``We aren't getting some benefit we're not paying for,'' said Dennis Davenport, Lancaster assistant city manager. ``We're getting what we paid for.''

Lancaster is spending $11.7 million this fiscal year, which ends June 30, on its law enforcement contract.

Palmdale is spending approximately $12.1 million on law enforcement this fiscal year, with about $11.1 million contracted to the Sheriff's Department.

``We had concerns about this a year ago,'' Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford said. ``We talked with the station. They seemed to think they had a good accounting. This (audit) gives us reason for pause.''

An aide to Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, who represents the Antelope Valley, said sheriff's officials are trying to change their practices to provide better accounting of deputies' time.

``The Sheriff's Department is putting in a good-faith effort to implement the recommendations,'' said Jean Huston-Walker, justice deputy for Antonovich.

But the finding alarmed county administrators, who said the audits meant that the Sheriff's Department could be providing more services to the cities than the county is paid for, while taking deputies away from unincorporated areas such as Littlerock, Acton or Lake Los Angeles.

``I can't believe this,'' said Chief Administrative Officer David Janssen. ``The problem that triggered this audit had to do with Pico Rivera. They concluded that they had overprovided services for certain months.''

Janssen said the Board of Supervisors was concerned that funds used to pay for Sheriff's Department services in unincorporated areas were being used to subsidize services in contract cities.

``Because we have a contract with (each) city, the Sheriff's Department will make sure that all vacancies are automatically covered, either by overtime or assigning a deputy,'' Janssen said. ``If they are short a deputy, those will come out of the unincorporated areas because they don't have a contract for services in the unincorporated areas.''

More than a year ago, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors ordered the Sheriff's Department to log response times and minutes spent patrolling Antelope Valley unincorporated areas after citizens' complaints about long waits and lack of services.

Soon after the department began logging response times and service minutes, it was evident that Lancaster and Palmdale were receiving their required patrol time, but that the unincorporated areas were receiving two-thirds or three-quarters of their share, the reports showed.

As of January, according to the report released in March, Lancaster had increased patrols to 98.86 percent of the required time in unincorporated areas and Palmdale was up to 103.13 percent.