County Workers Look to Own Welfare

Diane Holden, the single parent of an 8-year-old, makes $10.55 an hour working for the county and pays $63 a month for medical insurance. She told county supervisors she needs more money.

Lola Tapie works in the same Anaheim office as Holden, checking applicants’ eligibility for county welfare benefits. She said the building is “so filthy” that after a day’s work, “you feel you have to take a bath.” She asked supervisors for a cleaner office.

Holden and her son, Matthew, as well as Tapie and two other eligibility technicians in the county’s Social Services Agency and the business representative of their union, Ann Imparato, on Tuesday took their plea for a raise directly to the five people who control the purse strings--the Board of Supervisors.

One of 8 Unions in Negotiations

The eligibility technicians’ union is one of eight battling the county for more money and new contracts this year. Imparato said the county had offered members of her union a 2.25% pay raise next April, an additional 3% in October of 1988 and 3% more in January of 1989. She said negotiations have broken down and no new talks are scheduled.

Only last June, the county told 50 eligibility technicians that they would be laid off because the number of welfare applicants had dropped. Others faced dismissal because of the county’s bleak budget picture.

But the caseload increased, the county found extra money and some workers left their jobs voluntarily, making the layoffs unnecessary.

Still, the remaining workers say they need more money. Negotiations for a new contract are stalled, but the employees who appeared at Tuesday’s hearing wanted to be sure that the supervisors got the story directly.

Ellie Zucca, a county employee for 13 years, said “the people that we serve have little power.” She said some eligibility technicians have quit their jobs because of low pay and others who stayed have low morale that could turn them into the “cold and indifferent bureaucrats so often caricatured in the media.”

Holden said after the meeting that, while welfare recipients had received cost-of-living increases this year, the eligibility technicians had not.

Although other workers pay less for insurance, Holden said, her plan lets her choose the doctors for herself and her son. She said the county estimates that her $63 monthly payment may increase to $100 in January.

Harlan Royce, who also testified before the supervisors, said the county recently withdrew dental insurance for dependents of eligibility technicians and lengthened the waiting period before a technician can receive long-term disability payments.

In her presentation to the supervisors, Tapie concentrated on working conditions.

Gone are the days when county janitors took good care of her building on Homer Street in Anaheim and the other county welfare offices, she said.

Now, private firms do the cleanup because it is cheaper. But she said it can take one or two months to change a light bulb; bathrooms are “plain disgusting,” and a basement toilet that overflowed two weeks ago was not fixed for days.

Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder told Tapie to prepare a written list of the problems and complaints and promised to discuss them with county officials.

Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez said he made an unannounced visit to the Homer Street office several weeks ago and “did not see some of the things that were described” by Tapie. But Imparato told Vasquez that “you may have come there on a very lucky day, the day after the facility was cleaned.”

Spoke During Public Comment Portion

The eligibility technicians spoke during the public comment portion of the supervisors’ meeting.

Imparato said afterward that, as a result of the workers’ appearance, “I’m sure someone will be out to check the facilities,” but “I have no idea what the effect on negotiations will be.”

The county’s General Services Agency is responsible for the maintenance of county buildings. GSA Director R.A. Scott said that, while there was a problem with an overflowing toilet at the Homer Street office and it occurred over a weekend, it was fixed when GSA learned of it.

“We from time to time make inspections” of that building and others, Scott said. “We’ve had no unusual number of complaints from that building, and we recognize that the eligibility workers are deeply involved in labor negotiations for a new contract.”