SHERIFF'S DEPT. AUDIT RELEASED; FEWER MANAGERS, LESSONS FROM PRIVATE SECTOR SUGGESTED.

Byline: David Bloom Daily News Staff Writer

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department could save $16 million to $22 million a year by cutting the number of managers and converting some sworn positions to civilian jobs, according to an audit released Monday.

The six-month review by the accounting firm of KPMG/Peat Marwick LLP looked at several areas of the department's $1.07 billion budget, particularly its business and administrative functions, and compared them with large private organizations and six major law enforcement agencies.

``On most measures of our comparison, the department is well within law enforcement industry practices,'' according to the audit, which called the department a leader in risk management and performance assessment.

But the audit also cautioned that ``significant improvements are required'' if the department is to upgrade its services and pay for badly needed new stations and jail space.

The report calls for using many techniques that are increasingly common in the private sector, but less so in public quarters, such as eliminating a central warehouse operation and relying on so-called ``just in time'' purchasing and delivery systems.

The report also recommended using more civilians to handle jobs that don't require more expensive sworn personnel, such as working as custody assistants or desk clerks.

The audit recommended that the department consider contracting with outside firms to provide at least some prisoner medical care and food services and using the Men's Central Jail kitchen to prepare food for the neighboring Twin Towers Correctional Facility for a savings of $1.7 million per year.

The department also must improve its processing of information through more efficient computerization, a key to saving money and improving operations, the audit found.

Undersheriff Jerry Harper said the department welcomed the audit as a way to pay for badly needed jail beds, many of which have remained empty because of budget cuts.

``We think all those moneys should be plowed right back into the department to take care of needs we haven't been able to finance,'' Harper said.

While it generally agreed with the recommendations, the department may differ on the rate at which the changes can take place, Harper said. ``The real question mark is officer safety and opposition from unions.''

According to the audit, the changes should be fully realized within five years, though many can be done within one to three years.

County supervisors said the audit appeared to have some useful suggestions that they planned to implement relatively rapidly.

``If you look at the savings over a period of years, it's pretty significant,'' said Supervisor Don Knabe.

Just-in-time delivery techniques have been used successfully at the county's Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance and contracting out holds much promise as well for helping the department, Knabe said.

``It's opportune that we get this just when we're moving into budget deliberations,'' Knabe said.