After years of federal investigations, state oversight and consent decrees, the Los Angeles County Probation Department remains beset by turmoil.
 
This month, the pressure is ratcheting up again as the department is looking at triggering a fight with unions by laying off 200 employees - even though the agency might be forced to hire some 400 to 600 people in only a few months.
 
At the same time, it is closing three juvenile camps in Lancaster and is caught in the middle of a power struggle between the Board of Supervisors and county Chief Executive Officer William Bill Fujioka.
"Right now, things are - for lack of a better term - crazy all over, including at the state level," said Chief Probation Officer Donald Blevins. "It's a challenging time but it could ultimately wind up in better opportunities for probation staff."
 
Blevins is poised to go head-to-head with labor unions on Tuesday by recommending the layoffs of about 200 workers.
 
If approved by the board, it would trigger the county government's first mass layoffs during the economic recession.
 
Blevins said the cuts are needed to wipe out most of a projected $35.1 million budget deficit in the upcoming fiscal year.
 
Also, it would help shrink a work force bloated by hiring sprees for detention officers that began after the Department of Justice identified several problems at juvenile halls, such as overcrowding and unsanitary conditions.

Officials are now realizing that hiring spree went too far.
 
"A few years ago, as a response to the DOJ scrutinizing our juvenile halls, our department essentially overhired a number of bodies," said Blevins, who was appointed in February 2010. "There were about 165 individuals that we overhired just to staff at a higher level, to make sure that we met the mandates of the DOJ."
 
Blevins added "the need for those employees has been reduced," after improved screening procedures resulted in ensuring that only juveniles who had committed serious offenses were detained.
 
A recent state review showed the department's increased reliance on home supervision and electronic monitoring resulted in a 30 percent decline in the juvenile hall population over the last five years.
 
Blevins said the department has enough staff to supervise up to 1,824 youths when only about 1,200 are actually housed in its three juvenile halls at Sylmar, Downey and east of downtown Los Angeles.
 
Even with the proposed layoffs, Blevins stressed, the department will maintain the state-mandated ratio of one staffer for every 10 juvenile hall detainees.
 
"We will not compromise that," he said, but added that making the work force leaner could boost overtime.
Ralph Miller, president of the Deputy Probation Officers Union Local 685, which is associated with the AFL-CIO, warned the proposed layoffs could leave the department severely shorthanded to deal with an additional workload that might be delegated by changes at the state level.
 
"We don't think this is a well thought-out plan," Miller said.
 
He said Gov. Jerry Brown has a "realignment plan" aimed at reducing the state budget deficit by transferring parole services to county control, and by having Division of Juvenile Justice wards housed in county facilities.
"The department is thinking of laying off (at least) 150 people, but they may have to hire three times that number within the next few months because of realignment," he warned.
 
Blevins conceded the department may ultimately end up laying off and then rehiring employees, but said the pink slips still need to be handed out.
 
In a report to the board, he and Fujioka said the proposed layoffs of 159 "overhires" and 48 other staffers rendered unnecessary by the decline in the juvenile hall population, combined with the elimination of 211 vacant but funded positions, would save the department $31.8 million.
 
That amount would eliminate 90 percent of the department's projected 2011-2012 budget deficit, they said. Each month that the proposed layoffs are delayed would reduce the savings by $1.1 million.
 
The county's interim public affairs director, David Sommers, stressed that the proposed layoffs represent less than 1 percent of the county's work force of about 100,000.
 
However, more layoffs may be forthcoming.
 
"Additional funded positions will be identified for elimination as part of the Final Changes phase of the budget process to close the remaining $3.3 million shortfall," Blevins and Fujioka wrote in the report.
 
They said savings are crucial because the department could lose a significant amount of revenue - about $82 million - if the state vehicle license fee expires on June 30. To date, the governor has failed in his attempts to put a measure on the ballot that would extend the VLF and other taxes.
 
Blevins said if the state's budget crisis is somehow resolved, his department could get a boost in state funding to hire 400 to 600 workers under the realignment plan. Until then, however, he is recommending the staff cuts.
 
Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich warned, however, that the realignment plan will come with "hidden costs" to the county and have a negative impact on public safety.
 
"In a misguided effort to reduce their own costs, the state has kicked the can down to the county, which is already stretched thin with unfunded state mandates," he said.
 
Meanwhile, Blevins is taking other steps to make the department operate more efficiently, including closing three of the county's 16 juvenile camps - Skobee, Resnick and Smith, all located at the Challenger Memorial Youth Center in Lancaster - on May 27.
 
Probation spokeswoman Kerri Webb said concentrating the juveniles and staff into fewer camps would maximize taxpayer resources. Camps Skobee, Resnick and Smith will eventually be converted as venues for juvenile programs mandated by the state.
 
The reforms do not appear to be happening quickly enough for supervisors, three of whom voted last week to have Probation, along with the Department of Children and Family Services, report directly to the board instead of to Fujioka.
 
"These two departments are the most troubled departments in the county, and the board majority felt that we needed to get into a direct oversight role to monitor and help these two departments turn the corner and perform the way the public expects them to perform," Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said.
 
"In the case of Probation, we've had a series of major problems in that department, on the education front in particular, and the pace of reform has been slower than I would have liked."