County Slices Health Care, Jail Camps, Then OKs Budget

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors reached agreement Wednesday on a $1.9-billion budget for fiscal 1991-92, plugging a $30.6-million gap with cutbacks that include the closing of two jail honor camps, the Vista Health Center and most of the beds in its new psychiatric hospital.

But the board refused to go along with a $700,000 cut in the Sheriff Department’s ASTREA helicopter unit or a nearly $1.5-million reduction in the department’s special gang and drug unit, agreeing to allow Sheriff Jim Roache find about $3 million in savings necessary if he is to live within the confines of his nearly $136-million budget.

Roache and the board will meet in a special September session devoted to determining how the department can increase its revenues or trim its hefty overtime costs, according to Mike Coffield, division chief for Chief Administrative Officer Norman Hickey’s financial management office.

The board gave Roache’s agency a last-minute infusion of $300,000 in unanticipated business license fee revenue, Coffield said.

In all, the supervisors adopted most of Hickey’s suggested $20.4 million in recommended cutbacks and saved another $10.2 million in fiscal maneuvers such as delaying spending and maintenance until later in the budget year.

The cuts at the 2-year-old San Diego Psychiatric Center will leave just 22 beds, eight “holding” beds and the emergency room open for the acutely mentally ill patients who use the facility, said David Janssen, assistant chief administrative officer. The hospital contains 110 beds, of which about 105 were occupied, he said.

The county also will attempt to contract for 13 beds at private mental-health facilities.

The closure of the La Cima and Morena honor camps in Julian and Campo will save more than $2.5 million, and the closure of rented space for the Vista Health Center will reduce spending by $86,000.