Supervisors Question Baca’s Purchase of Jet

Los Angeles County supervisors are questioning a decision by the Sheriff’s Department to purchase a $2.4-million airplane at the same time the agency says it does not have enough money to ensure adequate medical care for jail inmates.

The 10-seat turboprop is a replacement for an aging Cessna that has been used by the department for years to ferry investigators to remote state prisons, witnesses and suspects to Los Angeles, and the sheriff and other department officials to the state Capitol. The new plane costs about $383 per hour to operate, according to the agency.

Sheriff Lee Baca defended the purchase, saying the department saves time and money by using its own plane instead of commercial airlines. He invited supervisors and other county officials to take advantage of the plane.

“I think the taxpayers should consider this a good decision,� Baca said. “I want my investigators, myself and my executives who have important business to be able to go somewhere, do what they need to do . . . [return quickly] and get on with their work.�

The purchase comes when the department is already $25 million over budget. Sheriff’s officials also have informed the Board of Supervisors that the department is at risk of being cited by the federal government for civil rights violations unless it spends more money to improve its medical treatment for inmates.

Supervisors, who say they never were told of the plane until after it was bought, were incensed last week when Baca sent them a letter demanding $5.5 million more to pay for health care for his department’s roughly 20,000 jail inmates.

“Medical Services Bureau has been neglected for a long time and as a consequence, it is now at a point where without immediate action, it will not be able to meet the needs of the county’s inmate population,� Baca wrote.

Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said Baca needs to prioritize his expenditures. Speaking of inmate health care, he said, “this is a No. 1 priority, first because it is right and because we have to deal with first things first.�

Last week, county supervisors ordered their budget staff to examine departmental finances. At their weekly meeting Tuesday, supervisors are scheduled to move toward requiring all equipment purchases of more than $100,000 to be approved by the board.

Supervisor Gloria Molina said Baca must run the department efficiently and that the board will watch over his shoulder. “The honeymoon is over,� she said. “We have to scrutinize that budget.�

Baca, who blames his budget deficit on factors outside his control, said the money for the airplane could not fix the problem in the jails and that he could not sacrifice one need for the other. “I don’t think it’s wise to downgrade one level of service to support another level of service,� he said.

A proponent of new ideas in areas such as crime prevention and inmate counseling, Baca has drawn criticism for proposing more new programs than he can fund.

This year he busted his $1.6-billion budget by $25 million. The department’s spending included an extra $1 million to provide security for the 2000 Democratic National Convention. The department says it will absorb the deficit without an extra burden to the taxpayers.

It also reached a $27-million class-action settlement last month over illegally holding inmates in jails. The cost of that settlement will be paid out over two years.

At the same time the department was asking supervisors for approval for the massive settlement and warning about the overspending, it was moving to buy the new plane.

The department has two single-engine Cessna 210s that it uses primarily for surveillance. It also had a third Cessna that it used to transport its staff.

The 1978 Cessna could fly only limited distances and needed a costly overhaul, said Capt. Jim DiGiovanna. The department shopped around on the Internet until it found the 1990 King Air turboprop plane. “Aircraft, like automobiles, have a [limited] life and need repairs and replacement,� DiGiovanna said.

As an independently elected official, the sheriff controls his department’s personnel and policy but gets his money from the Board of Supervisors, who have final say over his budget and approve all contracts of more than $100,000. County code allows the sheriff and other county agencies to purchase needed equipment through the Internal Services Department without formal competitive bidding or approval by the supervisors.

The department had nearly $1 million on hand from a series of insurance settlements and rebates stemming from a helicopter crash earlier this year. It sold the Cessna for about $200,000 and dipped into money seized from drug dealers to make up the difference. It hopes to recover that money by signing a deal with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department giving it a 49% stake in the plane in exchange for covering that share of the $2.4-million cost.

DiGiovanna said the department had tried to find money that it normally would not use elsewhere to buy the plane. “The sheriff very prudently used the money,� he said.

But critics say the purchase makes no sense. Sheriff’s Sgt. Patrick Gomez, who is running against Baca in the March election, called the vehicle “an executive plane� and a waste of money.

Like the Sheriff’s Department, the Los Angeles Police Department has a King Air turboprop plane it uses to fly investigators to prisons and, on rare occasions, to ferry brass to meetings, said Sgt. John Pasquariello. He said the LAPD paid nothing for the plane--it was donated several years ago by the military as surplus.