SUPERVISORS PUT SQUEEZE ON SHERIFF CHAIRMAN, BACA GO TOE-TO-TOE OVER UNAUTHORIZED JOBS, BUDGET.

Byline: TROY ANDERSON

Staff Writer

With their chairman calling the Sheriff's Department a "rogue operation," Los Angeles County supervisors called Tuesday for an investigation into excessive overtime expenses and whether Sheriff Lee Baca has misused funds designed to upgrade the jails.

Board Chairman Zev Yaroslavsky said the supervisors have invested more than $250 million in the $2.1 billion county Sheriff's Department in the past three years to hire deputies to staff overcrowded jails.

But Yaroslavsky said a recent confidential audit indicated that some of those funds may have been redirected.

In addition, the department's overtime costs are projected to hit a record $213 million this fiscal year -- $135 million over budget, according to Yaroslavsky and county documents.

Officials said the department created nearly 300 unfunded positions, then filled them by paying deputies overtime to work at all seven county jails.

"This is a rogue operation," Yaroslavsky said. "You simply can't be creating phantom positions, creating 300 positions, and paying for them with overtime without getting any authorization to do that in county government, especially when we appropriated the money and you did not use the money for jail purposes.

"I know this is a shot across everybody's bow. This could be just the tip of the iceberg. You can't have that kind of management breakdown and not potentially have other problems in other aspects of the organization."

Sheriff fires back

Baca did not return a call, but spokesman Steve Whitmore defended the agency against Yaroslavsky's accusations.

"It's an operation where we report regularly to the board about our budgets and what is going on," Whitmore said. "We are there every week, and (the supervisors) are fully aware of what we're doing with our business. ... The sheriff has long said the Sheriff's Department has nothing to hide."

During the supervisors' meeting, Baca denied the allegations and asked Yaroslavsky to prove his charges.

"It's real easy to get up in front of all of us and say this is what we think is happening and let's create a big storm out of smoke and mirrors," Baca said.

In a letter last month to Chief Administrative Officer David Janssen, Baca wrote that an increasingly violent jail population has challenged the department.

And in an effort to avert federal court intervention in the crowded jails, Baca wrote, managers created 285 unfunded positions, then filled them by paying deputies to work overtime at all seven county facilities.

"You have to understand the word 'unauthorized,'" Supervisor Gloria Molina said. "That's significant and important. The sheriff, even though he's an elected official, does not create his own budget. He's not allowed to create unauthorized positions. Only this board can do that."

Baca wrote that creating the unfunded positions helped quell jail violence. Without paying deputies overtime to do the work, the department could risk federal court intervention.

From 2005 to 2006, the number of inmate assaults dropped from 2,527 to 2,158, he said. Meanwhile, jail homicides decreased from six to three, and inmate-staff assaults decreased from 301 to 255, he said.

Baca also wrote that he stopped paying overtime for the 285 unfunded jobs Feb. 15.

To resume paying overtime, Baca asked Janssen for an additional $12.8 million this fiscal year and $34.4 million more next fiscal year.

Yaroslavsky said he was irked by the letter, noting that the board had given Baca $250 million more in the past three years to address jail problems.

He noted that Baca's budget has grown from $1.6 billion in the 2003-04 fiscal year to $1.9 billion last year. He said Baca's budget has outpaced the overall county budget in the past 10 years, growing an average of 6 percent a year compared with 5 percent.

In a follow-up letter to Janssen on Tuesday, Baca wrote that he had identified $7 million in cuts in services and supplies and $6 million in fixed assets to help balance the department's budget.

After emerging from a closed session Tuesday with Baca, Yaroslavsky said Baca also intended to close the budget gap by freezing some expenditures.

"He's not going to come to the general fund for money," Yaroslavsky said. "That's the commitment he made to the board and CAO."

Baca defended

During the earlier discussion, member Michael D. Antonovich said the Board of Supervisors was to blame for the problems because it had not adequately funded the Sheriff's Department in prior years.

"Due to the failures of this board, we've had a large exodus of deputies," Antonovich said. "Secondly, we have overcrowded conditions in the jails, and it's not a secret that we had to pay additional overtime."

Antonovich said county supervisors should continue to increase the Sheriff's Department budget to improve response times in unincorporated areas and to protect the public.

"Public safety is the first responsibility of this county, and we need to support public safety and make additional cuts in areas where they impact our ability to ensure public safety," Antonovich said.

Despite efforts to hire 1,000 deputies last year, officials said the department still has 800 vacancies, and every sheriff's deputy has been working overtime.

Floyd Hayhurst, vice president of the Association of Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, said the supervisors should focus on public safety first.

"I don't know where (Baca) is spending his money, but I know we can't cut back on the budget when it comes to staffing levels," Hayhurst said.

"It's going to create a situation where somebody is going to get hurt."

troy.anderson(at)dailynews.com

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