Golding Seeks County Hiring Freeze : Proposals Would Transfer More Services to Private Sector

San Diego County Supervisor Susan Golding on Monday called for a freeze on most county hiring and a dramatic increase in the number of government services provided through contracts with the private sector.

Golding said the hiring freeze --from which public safety would be exempt--should take effect immediately and remain in force until a detailed study of private contracting can be completed.

At that time, she said, private companies and agencies should be allowed to bid competitively on any services the county is not legally bound to provide with public employees.

Golding’s proposals, which she introduced at a news conference and vowed to pursue throughout the county’s budget deliberations, were the most dramatic of several changes board members have proposed in Chief Administrative Officer Clifford W. Graves’ $942-million budget.

Supervisor George Bailey suggested that a separate Department of Environmental Health Protection be created to manage programs--including restaurant inspection, insect control and hazardous waste management--that would be severed from the existing Department of Health Services.

Supervisor Brian Bilbray recommended that 20 to 70 beds be added to the 30 proposed for the Rancho del Campo youth probation camp.

Golding’s proposal, however, called not for tinkering with a single department or program, but instead for a sweeping change in the way the county does its business. Many county services are already provided through contracts, but Golding said she envisions a level of contracting that would be “much more massive” than anything the county has yet done.

She had no list of departments or services she believed would best fit into her plan. But she mentioned parks and recreation, data processing, road maintenance and janitorial services as among the most likely.

“I’m not talking just about contracting out when someone on the staff says, ‘Why don’t we contract out because we don’t have the staff to provide the service,’ ” Golding said. “I’m saying we ought to allow competition wherever it is legally possible.”

Allowing private enterprise to provide what have traditionally been public services is not a new idea. Counties across the country have for years been trying to save money and increase efficiency by farming out services to private industry. Not all of those attempts have been successful.

Several years ago, San Diego County, at the prodding of then-Supervisor Roger Hedgecock, looked at contracting out more services, but enthusiasm for the philosophy has waned since Hedgecock left to become mayor of San Diego and the county suffered through a scandal involving a $33-million telephone system contract.

Twice in the last three years, the county grand jury has criticized the county’s ability to manage its contracts. That management could be done more efficiently and safely if it were centralized rather than spread throughout the various county departments that have contracts with private industry, the jury said.

And as their counterparts have elsewhere, San Diego County’s public employees have protested the use of private businesses to do jobs traditionally performed by government workers.

“Contracting out is normally the panacea of people who feel they are incompetent to run the organization,” Randy Prevo, general manager of the County Employees Assn., said Monday. Then, referring to Golding’s oft-stated dissatisfaction with Chief Administrative Officer Graves, he added: “It looks like she’s trying to throw the baby out with the bath water.”

Golding said that if the board does not accept her proposed hiring freeze, she will vote against as much as $15 million worth of staff increases included in Graves’ budget for the 1985-86 fiscal year.