Budget Cuts Prompt County to Curtail Beach Restroom Hours

The county's Department of Beaches and Harbors, which oversees two dozen beaches from Malibu to San Pedro including beaches in Manhattan Beach, has announced plans to cut back on restroom hours and other services due to budget constraints.

The beach service curtailments will begin May 1 to help the department stay within its budget.

A new cleaning schedule will have beach restroom cleaning starting at 7 a.m. and the later start time may mean that some restrooms may not open year-round until as late as 11 a.m., the department said in a statement. The later start time will allow crews to work further into the afternoon when bathroom use is at its peak.

 In the winter, maintenance crews will only perform one "heavy" cleaning of the restrooms each day. Some Los Angeles County beach restrooms will be closed on weekdays and possibly some weekends, which also has been the case in past winters.

The department has 45 of 58 budgeted maintenance worker positions filled and has 20 vacancies, said department spokeswoman Debbie Talbot on Tuesday. Over the past two years, Beaches and Harbors used 33 workers from the county's Transitional Subsidized Employment program that provided subsidized jobs for workers as part of the American Recovery Reinvestment Act of 2009. The program ended at the end of the federal fiscal year on Sept. 30, 2010, which also reduced beach cleaning staffing, Talbot said.

Beaches and Harbors maintains 52 restrooms, 36 parking lots and has landscaping and trash removal duties at county beaches.

Volleyball net replacement, parking lot cleanup, weed abatement, landscaping and large debris cleanup will occur only when daily staffing levels allow.

"The curtailments are due to the state’s historic budget crisis and the overall local economy severely hampering the department’s ability to sustain beach maintenance services provided in the past," the department said in a statement.

The department said it would post information on beach restroom closures on its Facebook and Twitter accounts.