Los Angeles Police Department officials vowed today to do everything they can to avert proposed layoffs of civilian employees, but some of the city's budget analysts expressed skepticism amid a growing deficit.

"I can't afford to let anybody else go," Assistant Chief Sandy Jo MacArthur, head of the LAPD's Personnel Department, told the City Council's Budget and Finance Committee during a meeting which had several department mechanics in the audience.

City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana had proposed eliminating 225 civilian positions in the department and moving firefighters out of HazMat squads as part of the "2010-2011 Operational Plan" prepared by his office to get out of a $87.84 million budget hole in the current fiscal year.

The department initially proposed eliminating 450 civilian positions, said Santana, who eventually decided to halve that number.

It is unclear how many layoffs would result from the proposed elimination of civilian positions, as some positions may already be vacant.

Gerald Chaleff, who helps manage the LAPD budget, said he did not want to see any layoffs.

"It was never the department's intention to lay off people. We didn't want to do that," he told the committee, adding that the department was continually trying to reduce expenses by negotiating with its labor unions, delaying promotions and other measures.

Chaleff said he presented the idea of eliminating 450 civilian positions when Santana asked him what the department would have to do "if all else fails."

"The Police Department is going to try to keep every single position that was in the report, and not lay anybody off," MacArthur said. "That's our position.

"When we started this fiscal year, we were in the hole to begin with and we've been able to close that gap, and we really believe -- without laying anybody off -- that we're going to able to close it all the way and keep every single person we have," she added.

"We can't get our police officers in the car, on the street, without the mechanics and everybody else that's here. They're critical."

However, a budget analyst, who declined to be named, told City News Service it would be difficult for the LAPD to eliminate its deficit during this fiscal year and the next without layoffs, noting that personnel costs account for 98 percent of the LAPD's $1.2 billion annual budget.

The department's attempts to cut costs is complicated by the requirement that it give raises to its civilian employees in the next fiscal year. That cost-of-living increase, which had been deferred for two years under an agreement with the Coalition of Los Angeles City Unions, is due to be paid out.

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

"To consider any further reduction of the already severely understaffed civilian positions in the Police Department is ludicrous," said Goff, whose union represents the employees threatened with layoffs.

"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."

Only the City Council -- by a majority vote -- has the authority to eliminate positions.

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.

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.