Hiring to fill vacancies in slightly more than half of the county's 2,575 jobs was banned last Wednesday at a meeting of county department heads, Arty said this week.
However, neither the hiring freeze nor the potential deficit were announced by county officials.
Arty said the freeze, combined with a new ordinance increasing revenue the county's earns by disposing of commercial waste, should eliminate any budget shortfall.
About 1,200 of the county's 2,575 jobs are exempted from the freeze. They include 117 correctional officers' positions at the county jail, about 1,000 jobs at Fair Acres, the county geriatric center, and about 51 jobs in emegency communications.
Asked why the freeze was never formally announced, Arty replied that the county's department heads were told of the step.
"It's happened before and it will happen again," said Arty. Officials said they believed the last county hiring freeze was in 1983, when a $3 million shortfall was projected.
Arty was also reluctant to disclose the amount of the potential budget shortfall - "No, I can't, I don't want to be pinned down on a number," she said - but after repeated questioning, she confirmed a $5 million figure offered by William Lovejoy, the county's public relations director.
Arty and Lenoard J. Maloney, county personnel director, said the overtime - $200,000 more than budgeted in March alone - resulted from a variety of causes, including overcrowding at the county jail, homeless protests during the winter and anti-abortion protests at a clinic in Upland. The latter two events have required overtime by the county police.
"Some of these things I don't think anyone could have forseen," said Arty.
Precise figures on the overtime costs were not available.
