A Budget morass for public safety
By Sheriff Lee Baca
There was justifiable uncertainty about the direction of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department when I was elected as your sheriff more than three years ago. That uncertainty is gone.
Today, it is clear the Sheriff’s Department is an organization that embraces change, openness, independent review, accountability, reform and crime-fighting innovations involving vast and diverse communities. In fact, we have become a role model for numerous law enforcement agencies throughout our state and the nation.
Most, if not all, of these significant accomplishments that have propelled us to the forefront of public safety are in serious jeopardy of being eliminated. Strong language, I know, but I assure you this is not merely a negotiating tactic designed to attain a better budget result from the Board of Supervisors. No, this is real and serious.
Let me explain. The Board of Supervisors, except Mike Antonovich, has recommended an unprecedented shortfall of $100 million in the Sheriff’s department budget, which is designed to directly and indirectly protect 10 million people. As proposed, this budget is shameful, irresponsible and short-sighted.
If this budget is passed, drastic cuts will certainly have to be made. I do not raise this as a hollow threat, but as a harsh reality. Some of these actions will include: Closing the Century Regional Detention Center, which houses about 2,000 inmates daily; closing our Sheriff’s Academy, resulting in the suspension of all new hires and training; closing the Family Crimes Bureau; closing down Community Policing, including our VIDA program for at-risk youths; closing the Hate Crimes Unit; closing Safe Streets Bureau and our gang units; closing the Asian Crime Task Force.
And that is just a partial list.
Needless to say, I strongly oppose the passage of this budget, not just because it is going to make our job more difficult, but because it severely encroaches on my Constitutional duty to adequately provide public safety to the citizens of Los Angeles County. In other words, I am required by law to provide public safety services to Los Angeles County residents. The Board also is required by law to provide the necessary funding to allow the Sheriff’s Department to meet its legal requirement. This budget does not meet that legal requirement.
I need to make one thing perfectly clear at this juncture. The Supervisors voted to take away $100 million from my budget. This is not new money over last year; this is keeping our budget nearly status quo.
Furthermore, our budget allocation from the Los Angeles County general fund has decreased by $117 million over the last decade. In 1992, the county general fund gave us $775 million. This year, the County has proposed to allocate $648 million from the general fund to our budget. The rest of the $1.6 million we generate through our own resources, such as contract revenues and a percentage of statewide sales taxes through Proposition 172.
In a point of fact, Proposition 172, approved by the voters in November of 1993, was designed to give public safety an added financial boost, not to be used as a replacement. The County, however, has done exactly what the voters did not want it to do with Proposition 172. The County, has, indeed, used Proposition 172 funds as a way to decrease its financial obligation to the Sheriff’s Department. This is not right and should stop.
I have a solution that, I believe, will fix this budgetary high-jinks once and for all. I propose an independent audit and subsequent reform of the Los Angeles budget process as it specifically relates to the Sheriff’s Department. I am more than willing to open my books for an independent review and I urge the County to do the same. If the Sheriff’s Department can have an Office of Independent Review, then so can the County.
We need to do what is right for the nearly 10 million people who call Los Angeles County their home. Don’t cut the Sheriff’s Department budget. Public safety must be an unequivocal priority. It has to be. Especially now.
Sheriff Lee Baca was elected sheriff of Los Angeles County in 1998 and re-elected in March. He has a doctorate in public administration and is a 37-year veteran of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.