Facing an $87.84 million deficit over the remainder of the fiscal year, the city's top budget analyst today recommended eliminating 225 civilian positions in the Los Angeles Police Department and moving firefighters out of Haz-Mat squads.

City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana told City News Service that not all the position eliminations will lead to layoffs, as some of the positions may be vacant.

The cuts are part of the "2010-2011 Operational Plan" prepared by his office to put the city back in the black.

The president of the American Federation of State, County, & Municipal Employees Local 3090's Clerical and Support Services Unit, Alice Goff, called the proposal "ludicrous."

In an e-mail to City News Service, she said, "To consider any further reduction of the already severely understaffed civilian positions in the Police Department is ludicrous."

"Police officers are currently performing duties of critical vacant civilian positions," Goff said. "The city/department continues to hire police officers only to take them out of the field to do civilian jobs.

"Support staff allows calls to be answered, vehicles to be ready for service, jails to be operational, reports to the processed to solve crimes and on and on, as the department cannot function on officers alone."

A recent LAPD report showed at least 237 police officers are spending all or part of their time performing the work of civilians -- including data entry and answering phones -- because the department's civilian workforce has been depleted by budget cuts.

Only the City Council -- by a majority vote -- has the authority to eliminate positions, and its Budget and Finance Committee will consider the matter on Monday.

Santana said the city began the fiscal year on July 1 with a balanced budget but has since opened up an $87.84 million gap.

The Police Department is accountable for 29 percent of that deficit; the Fire Department, 23 percent. Santana said both had excessive overtime.

Another chunk of the deficit was mostly in the City Attorney's Office and General Services Department. Santana recommended about a dozen position eliminations in the latter.

The rest of the gap was created by early retirement incentive payouts; the reduction of furlough days for the Engineers and Architects Association; and delays in implementing cost-cutting measures.

Since Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa set a policy of maintaining the ranks of the LAPD at 9,963 police officers, department officials proposed eliminating only civilian positions -- 450 of them. Santana decided to reduce that number to 225.

"(LAPD) originally recommended more than 400 position eliminations," Santana said. "We think that's a difficult number to do at this point in time, so we're recommending half of that."

"We're not being specific on how the LAPD should make up the deficit, but we recommend that (the position eliminations) don't have a direct service impact and that they be in the clerical arena," he added. "Instead of every person having their own secretary, you would have to share. That sort of thing. Other departments have had to do that."

There have been 50 to 60 position eliminations in the LAPD over the last several months because of budget cuts, Santana said.

As for the Fire Department, Santana recommended reassigning HazMat squad personnel, Emergency Medical Services captains, and staff assistants to fill vacancies in the field. If the proposal is adopted, those firefighters would no longer be specializing in certain tasks; instead, they can be deployed to take the place of absent firefighters.

Santana said a large chunk of the Fire Department's deficit was created by the suspension of the modified coverage plan for seven weeks during the fire season.

Against the wishes of the Fire Chief Millage Peaks, Villaraigosa in October decided to reactivate 15 fire trucks that been idled for over a year due to budget constraints.

The cost of restoring the LAFD to full strength was supposed to be offset by taking away the staff assistants assigned to the department's top brass, and putting them back out on the field. However, Santana said "the staff assistants are still there."

Santana said it is critical that the Operational Plan be adopted, and soon.

"We need to move quickly," Santana said. "We need to make sure that we have a balanced budget and that we're reporting that to our investors and to the bond rating agencies."

"If the Operational Plan is adopted by the council and mayor, it would eliminate 100 percent of the deficit," he added. "Our goal has been to not allow the deficit (in the current fiscal year) to expand, because we know that we're now facing over a $350 million deficit for next year."

Since March, according to the city's Personnel Manager Maggie Whelan, the city has eliminated 2,500 positions through early retirement; laid off 368 employees; transferred 767 other employees to proprietary departments not dependent on the city's general fund; and demoted 105 employees.