Los Angeles County Government Agencies

Seething parents vented their anger at Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti's child support office at a public hearing Thursday while businessmen said they could help the troubled agency to do a better job. A handful of employees in Garcetti's unit took the microphone to defend their office but were drowned out by a steady parade of mothers and fathers. "This operation is woefully inept," said Calvin Ray Murphy, who said that for 16 months he has received bills intended for another man with the same name.

By the time he died, Danzel Bailey's full cheeks had hollowed. His ribs, facial bones and the knobby bones of his spinal cord all protruded. The skin of his buttocks and thighs hung in deep folds. There were bald spots on his head. He had no teeth. Danzel was 11 months old. He weighed 12 pounds--the average weight of a 2-month-old. He had wasted away in a child welfare system intended to protect him and the county's other 40,000 foster children.

Here are numbers to call to request cleanup services or to report illegal dumping: * To have debris cleared from streets, alleys or lots within the city, call the Bureau of Street Maintenance: (213) 485-5661. * The city Bureau of Sanitation offers free curbside pickup for large items, such as couches, TVs and household appliances that city garbage trucks won't take. Crews will not pick up bulky construction material, auto parts or large pieces of wood.

Los Angeles County's continuing deficiencies in child-support collections threaten to cost California tens of millions of dollars in federal funds, state officials told a county panel Thursday. Just days before the Board of Supervisors selects the head of a new county agency on child support, two top officials of the state's Department of Child Support Services said the county's performance in everything from establishing court orders to collecting money lags far behind the rest of California.

Delivering good and bad news, county officials announced Wednesday that a long-awaited juvenile dependency court will open Tuesday in Lancaster, but said local families with existing cases will continue to have to travel to the main court in distant Monterey Park.

Instead of walking precincts today, rivals in the runoff for Los Angeles County's 1st District supervisorial seat will be sitting in a federal courtroom hoping that a judge will not throw out Tuesday's election results. Sarah Flores, seeking to become the first Latino on the Board of Supervisors, said Wednesday that she will petition U.S. District Judge David V. Kenyon to allow her to argue that the election results should be allowed to stand.

The mental patient had been terrorizing his Carson neighborhood with a lead pipe--smashing cars, banging on the sidewalk. A call went out to Richard Russell, a member of the Los Angeles County Psychiatric Emergency Team. By the time Russell arrived, the troubled man had retreated indoors. Russell stepped into the house along with a sheriff's deputy and the patient's worried mother. The man saw them, raised an ax and charged. "Insane anger," the veteran psychiatric worker recalled.

The night of his brother's stabbing will forever burn in the mind of artist Willie Herron. He wanted the world to remember too--to have the image of his 15-year-old brother, John, stabbed by gang members, permanently inscribed on the wall of the Eastside alley behind his family's home. So on that night in June 1972, after taking his brother to the hospital and saying a quick prayer, he painted a mural, guided by friends holding flashlights, on a building owned by his uncle.

Drive down 3rd Street through East Los Angeles, and you can't help but notice Belvedere Park, with its tranquil lake and sloping grass field. Less eye-catching, however, is the row of county buildings on Fetterly Avenue just outside the southwestern edge of the park. Some buildings have no signs, and confused visitors often circle the block, unsure where to go or where they can park.

There are dozens of commission and committee meetings every week in Los Angeles County's massive Hall of Administration, but in only one will you hear serious discussion of members being slipped a mickey through air-conditioning vents. At meetings of the Ritual Abuse Task Force, a corps of well-meaning men and women use the clout of county authority to warn of satanic abuse they claim forces thousands of young people into unholy rituals including human sacrifice, torture and orgies.

A Los Angeles County coalition of business, educators and government agencies launched a Web site portal Friday to better link job seekers--including welfare recipients--with training, education, social service and employment opportunities.

Probation officer Randall Gallegos has a sixth sense about the drug-addled ex-offenders he supervises, and all kinds of alarms were going off recently when a young woman and her two children sat down in front of him. She had tried to wriggle out of the appointment as best she could. The kids were withdrawn and wouldn't accept the candy he tried to offer. It was a sign of trouble at home and, just as he thought, 26-year-old Anita tested positive for methamphetamine use.

As Los Angeles County's delivery of services returned to normal for the first time in a week Thursday, thousands of government workers returned to their cubicles and desks, some seething over their leaders' abrupt suspension of the first countywide strike since the 1960s, others simply relieved. The leaders of Local 660, Service Employees International Union, stunned their rank and file late Wednesday by announcing they would honor Cardinal Roger M.

A south Los Angeles County water district that was accused by state auditors of overspending, overcharging customers and lax management would undergo tough financial reforms under two bills approved Thursday by state lawmakers. The bills to reform the Water Replenishment District of Southern California, one by state Sen. Martha Escutia (D-Whittier) and another by Assemblywoman Sally Havice (D-Cerritos), were overwhelmingly approved by the Assembly and the Senate. Gov.

The new district office of the county assessor, the first in years in the San Fernando Valley, will hold its grand opening ceremony today in Sylmar. Los Angeles County Assessor Rick Auerbach said the office, which has been in operation since April, makes it easier for Valley residents to gain information about property values and ownership, besides providing access to maps commonly used by real estate professionals.

School nurses saw bruises. Teachers were so worried about bone-thin Lindsay Gentry that they brought her extra food and weighed her every day. They reported their suspicions of child abuse at least 15 times to social workers, who investigated but found nothing wrong before the severely disabled girl died in 1996. On Tuesday, a jury held her parents responsible for her starvation and neglect.

Five public-interest law firms filed a class-action lawsuit Wednesday against the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and the director of the Department of Children's Services, charging that the county is not adequately protecting the majority of the approximately 30,000 children under its care. Patricia L.

County Film Director Fired: Stephanie Hershey Liner, director of the Los Angeles County Film Office, was abruptly fired after she sent the city of Los Angeles a report on the pros and cons of merging her department with its city counterpart. Liner said her opinions were requested by Keith Comrie, the city's chief administrative officer. She had been in the position since October, working to persuade the film and television industries to remain in the area.

Three Los Angeles County departments leased 210,000 square feet of office space in the San Gabriel Valley in one of the largest leases signed in Southern California in recent weeks. The L.A. County Sheriff's, Health Services and Public Works departments will consolidate 700 employees at 1000 S. Fremont Ave. in Alhambra in July in a 10-year, $50-million lease at the former headquarters of C.F. Braun Engineering, according to an announcement from Los Angeles-based Ratkovich Co.

Continuing his assault on Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti's record, challenger Barry Groveman on Monday accused the top prosecutor of failing to take on thousands of child abuse cases, thus putting children at risk of continued abuse. He demanded that Garcetti stop waiting "until children are killed" before prosecuting abusive parents. A Garcetti spokesman defended the incumbent's record, while declining to respond to Groveman's charges in detail.