County Considers Giving Up Control of Beaches to State : Finances: As part of budget-cutting options, Los Angeles officials have developed contingency plans. Lifeguards and maintenance would be affected.

With the peak summer beach season approaching, severe budget problems have forced Los Angeles County officials to develop contingency plans for cutting back lifeguards and giving up control of some prized beaches from Malibu to the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

As part of a series of budget-cutting options to be presented to the Board of Supervisors next week, the county would return to the state the responsibility for providing lifeguards and maintenance at five beaches in Malibu, plus Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach. Responsibility for Hermosa Beach would be returned to that city.

Eric Bourdon, director of the Department of Beaches and Harbors, said the county would continue to operate beaches in Los Angeles and Santa Monica under contracts with those cities. But he said the department, like the rest of county government, is faced with severe budget constraints because of the state’s financial problems and must look for ways to save money.

Bourdon, who is retiring next week, said he can recall “nothing this drastic” during his nearly 25 years in county government. “I don’t think any level of government is going to be spared some serious kind of curtailment,” he said.

The budget woes also have prompted Supervisors Gloria Molina and Mike Antonovich to propose that the search to replace Bourdon be postponed indefinitely while a study is done on whether to merge Beaches and Harbors into the county Department of Parks and Recreation.

Faced with the prospect of deep cuts in state funding, county departments have drafted contingency plans to curtail a broad range of services from county hospitals to law enforcement.

Acting Chief Administrative Officer Harry L. Hufford is to provide supervisors with a detailed budget overview Tuesday.

Although the dollars involved in Beaches and Harbors are small by comparison to major county programs, officials nonetheless have developed a contingency plan for cutting the department’s 1993-94 budget by at least 16%.

Most of the $6.1 million would be saved by returning to the state Parks and Recreation Department responsibility for five beaches along the Malibu coastline--Point Dume, Dan Blocker, Malibu Surfrider, Las Tunas and Topanga--as well as Manhattan and Redondo beaches and Royal Palms Beach on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

More than 14.8 million people visited those beaches last year, with the heaviest usage at Malibu Surfrider and the South Bay beaches.

Stan Wisniewski, deputy director of Beaches and Harbors, said county lifeguards who watch beach-goers were involved in 4,475 rescues at the nine beaches last year.

While stopping short of warning that there are potential life-or-death consequences for beach-goers, Bourdon said there is “more risk if a beach isn’t guarded at the appropriate level or at all.”

Don Knabe, chief deputy to Supervisor Deane Dana, said the county would prefer to maintain control of the beaches. But in the absence of some certainty about funding from Sacramento, he said, the county must put the state on notice that it may be unable to continue providing lifeguard and beach-cleaning services.

“It’s something we will try to avoid at all cost,” Knabe said.

As part of the supervisors’ budget deliberations, he said, the county will try to determine “how we can maintain the safety and cleanliness of the beaches through the summer.”

The prospect of handing control of the beaches back to the state was not welcomed by the state agency that would have to provide the services.

“It’s quite a concern,” said Daniel Preece, superintendent of the Angeles District of the state Department of Parks and Recreation. “We’ve really valued our partnership.”

He said the county has provided “an invaluable service.” But with the state also facing budget cuts, Preece said it would be “difficult to absorb any kind of new workload.”