Budget Crisis Is Real, O.C. Officials Say

SANTA ANA — Some of Orange County’s most popular programs and organizations could be eliminated in the government’s scramble to overcome a $67.7-million budget shortfall, officials said Monday.

“We were told this morning that we are up for elimination,” said Carol Hatch, executive director of the Commission on the Status of Women. “We were bracing for cuts, but this came as a complete surprise.”

The Orange County Human Relations Commission, a 20-year-old panel that is in the midst of discussing the county’s recent spate of hate crimes, also is considered a candidate for elimination, leaders of that group and other county officials said. In addition, cuts are contemplated in programs that provide mental health care to emotionally disturbed children, depressed or suicidal jail inmates and the county’s most chronically troubled adults.

Even volunteer programs such as the county’s “Operation Santa Claus,” which delivers Christmas presents to needy children, could be axed in an effort to make ends meet.

“It’s not going to be a picnic,” Supervisor Don R. Roth said. “Just about everybody’s going to take a big hit. This is devastating.”

An array of programs, services and commissions are being considered for recommended cuts by the county administrative office, according to various county officials who received budget updates Monday. The final decision on each of the recommendations--some of which were changing throughout the day--will be up to the County Board of Supervisors. The board begins hearings on its 1991-92 $3.5-billion budget today.

As programs are cut, hundreds of county workers could lose their jobs, officials said. Estimates of potential layoffs vary widely and change hourly, though Roth and other officials said they expected about 370 positions to be lost in the new budget if the administrative office recommendations are implemented.

Many of those jobs already are unfilled, however, so actual layoffs could be fewer than that.

Although he declined to speculate on layoffs, Board Chairman Gaddi H. Vasquez said the budget will leave few areas unscathed.

“The financial resources available to the county have been greatly reduced,” he said. “Our mission will be to reduce the size of government where appropriate.”

Other areas could suffer as well: The long-anticipated opening of the Theo Lacy Branch Jail expansion, originally slated for October, may be postponed until January, partly to save on operating costs, Roth said.

Overall, the Sheriff’s Department may have to absorb a 5% cut from its budget request, according to estimates being circulated Monday afternoon. Sheriff Brad Gates said about $5 million will have to be cut.

“That will mean a cut in service to the public--delayed time in answering calls” as well as delays in processing paperwork and conducting investigations, he said.

Gates said he expects that the supervisors will allow him to determine where to trim his budget.

“I’m an elected sheriff,” he said. “I don’t want some bean counter making decisions about how I make the cuts.”

The district attorney and the public defender also are expected to suffer a 5% reduction in their budget requests. Their departments spend almost all of their money on salaries, so reductions would likely mean layoffs or elimination of positions.

In the public defender’s office, for instance, a 5% reduction could translate into the loss of nine attorneys.

Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi said the proposed cuts would force him to cut about 30 employees and “would have a very, very dramatic impact on our ability to prosecute criminal violations.”

Even volunteer programs may be cut, officials added, because they are overseen by county staffers, and therefore cost the taxpayers. Because state law does not require those services, several volunteer programs administered by the Social Services Agency are candidates for elimination. Included are services that provide mentors for welfare mothers, companionship for homebound senior citizens and an array of tutoring, reading and other help to youngsters at the Orangewood Children’s Home.

“Operation Santa Claus,” which distributed nearly $500,000 worth of Christmas gifts to needy children last year, also is considered a candidate for elimination.

The Social Services Agency volunteer programs cost the county about $150,000 to administer, and they delivered about 43,000 hours of unpaid labor to the county. Social Services administrators say the value of that labor is roughly $430,000 a year.

But all those programs fall within the category of “non-mandated” government services, meaning that they can legally be abolished or trimmed under state law.

“These are things that can be cut because they’re not mandated,” said Larry Leaman, director of the Social Services Agency. “But they’re something that makes life better for people of this county.”

The prospect of eliminating or curtailing a large number of the county’s non-mandated programs worried other county and community workers as well.

“In years past, I’ve been very jaded,” said Jean Forbath, who chairs the Human Relations Commission. “They (the county supervisors) always seem to find the money in the end, and they come through. But this year I believe them when they say it’s different. This is very serious.”

The grim roll of proposed program cuts grows out of a combination of circumstances, some of them driven by economic conditions, some by the state government.

Recession and the incorporation of several Orange County cities have taken a toll on the county government’s revenue, and the recently enacted state budget did little to help.

Administration of some state programs was shifted to the county. At the same time, state officials all but ignored local government pleas for help. And though the county will receive the trial court funding it requested, even that money leaves the county facing the worst budget problem local officials can recall.

What complicates the county task of budget cutting even further is that most county programs are mandated under state or federal law. Welfare payments, for instance, cannot be trimmed by the local government, nor can the government relax air quality enforcement.

That forces budget-cutters to focus on non-mandated programs, those that the county has created and that it therefore can abolish or reduce at will. But eliminating those programs will not be easy, as many have their own constituencies.

Nina Hull, who chairs the Commission on the Status of Women, noted that previous attempts to disband that group have provoked outcries.

“When they tried to do this a few years ago, the supervisors’ offices were totally inundated with telephone calls,” she said. “If this goes through, they’re going to hear from a lot of angry people.”

Possible Budget Victims

In an effort to close a $67.7-million budget gap for the 1991-92 fiscal year, the Orange County administrative office has recommended that different departments reduce their budgets by 2.5% to 15% and has suggested that some “non-mandated” programs be eliminated.

Endangered programs and their 1990-91 budget:

Commission on the Status of Women: $118,000

Human Relations Commission: $271,000

Mental health programs, county share of funding (approximate): $1.8 million

* Emotionally handicapped children

* Mentally ill offenders, either in jail or on probation

* Chronically ill adults

Social service volunteer programs: $150,000

* Operation Santa Claus

* Orangewood volunteers

* Campership program (sends needy young people to camp)

* Mentor programs for children, welfare mothers

Source: County departments, county administrative office, county supervisors’ offices.