ORANGE COUNTY IN BANKRUPTCY : Popejoy Wants New Round of Cuts : Budget: Department heads are asked to slash another $20 million. More layoffs and service reductions likely.

SANTA ANA —  Setting the stage for more layoffs and deeper cuts in services, Orange County Chief Executive Officer William J. Popejoy on Wednesday asked department heads to slash an additional $20 million from next year’s county budget.

Even as the Board of Supervisors prepares to vote today on $188 million in proposed cuts for the coming fiscal year, sources said Popejoy is asking that more drastic reductions be made because the realities of the county’s bankruptcy crisis are even grimmer than previously portrayed.

Paul Nussbaum, an adviser to Popejoy, confirmed that further budget cuts were going to be made, but was unable to specify how large the cut would be.

“We’ve been open and clear all along that we were going to look for additional budget efficiencies,” Nussbaum said.

He said the county needed to make cuts as deeply as possibly, especially since county residents will be asked to shoulder the burden of a sales tax hike.

“They’re going to be deep and hurting,” Supervisor Marian Bergeson said of the cuts.

Several sources also said that Popejoy will propose eliminating most, if not all, of the remaining vacant positions in the county, whether they are currently funded or not. That could result in cutting up to 1,000 more jobs.

Earlier this month, Popejoy presented the board with a 1995-96 county budget that proposed cutting 41%--or $188 million--from the previous year’s $463-million budget. The plan called for more than 1,000 layoffs and the elimination of another 500 vacant county positions.

The unprecedented cuts are needed to help the county recover from the nation’s largest municipal bankruptcy, which was declared Dec. 6. The county lost $1.7 billion because former Treasurer-Tax Collector Robert L. Citron gambled on risky investments. Nearly 200 schools, cities and other agencies had money in the county’s investment pool, but the county has pledged to make good the losses they would have suffered in the pool’s collapse.

On Wednesday, labor representatives said they were unaware of the magnitude of the additional cuts Popejoy is seeking.

“We’ve been checking all day but haven’t been told anything. Nobody wants to say a word,” said John H. Sawyer Sr., general manager of the Orange County Employees Assn. “We understand there will be changes, though.”

Sawyer said that $20 million more in cuts “would mean a bunch more people” could be laid off.

“We heard that there might be more,” said Bill Fogarty, executive secretary-treasurer of the Orange County Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO. “We heard that they were going to go for a bigger piece of the pie. We just don’t know how much bigger.”

Popejoy couldn’t be reached for comment late Wednesday.

Tom Uram, the county’s Health Care Agency director, declined to comment on the new round of budget cuts. “I really can’t say anything about it,” he said. In fact, Popejoy has instructed all department heads to refrain from discussing budget cuts and their implications without receiving his approval first.

Many department heads have complained that the deep cuts are undermining the foundation of county government. The county’s top law enforcement officials have warned that the public’s safety is at risk, while social workers predict that programs to protect children, the sick and elderly will be demolished.

Although the cuts are going to be felt in virtually all county departments, social services have sustained the brunt of the reductions. For example, of the 1,040 layoffs Popejoy recently proposed, 725 of them were from the Social Service Agency.

After three days of budget hearings, the Board of Supervisors agreed with Popejoy that severe cuts, no matter how painful, had to be made. Supervisors, however, asked that about $10 million in spending be restored, including money for a youth detention facility, a work furlough center and about $4 million in social service programs.

Popejoy said he will try to reinstate those programs, but will have to make corresponding cuts elsewhere in the budget. The board is expected to approve the cuts at a special meeting today.

The board will also be asked to approve the additional $20 million in budget cuts today, sources said. If the cuts are implemented, the county’s general fund budget would be further slashed from $275 million to $255 million.

Even though the fiscal year begins July 1, Popejoy is asking that the cuts be phased in as soon as possible.