O.C. Supervisors Slash Environment Staff 20% : Government: As county’s building activity dwindles, the plan envisions up to 340 fewer staff jobs by 1995.

SANTA ANA —  In a move that reflects the dramatic building slump in Orange County, the Board of Supervisors Tuesday approved a blueprint to shrink by 20% the staff of its Environmental Management Agency by 1995 and to consolidate a range of services.

“It’s a sign of the times,” said Supervisor Don R. Roth. “We have to become more efficient and increase the amount of production we can get out of our existing work force.”

The behemoth EMA, with a total budget of $860 million and staff of nearly 1,600 people, oversees a wide range of planning and land-use issues in Orange County, from beaches and parks to wildlife protection and flood control.

But the agency has focused most intensely on the development industry, and its tremendous growth since its creation in 1975 closely paralleled Orange County’s building boom in the 1980s. EMA is responsible for everything from planning approval to inspections of grading for new building in unincorporated areas of the county, taking in millions each year in developer fees.

Building has now slowed drastically, however, with new permits dropping 60% since 1987. And some critics--chiefly, Supervisors’ Chairman Roger R. Stanton--have questioned whether EMA has grown too big for its own good.

A former management professor, Stanton has made the “right-sizing” of county government one of his top priorities during a year of fiscal uncertainty. And he made EMA the first target in a streamlining process that he plans to expand to other county agencies and departments as well.

“We don’t want to reach the point five years from now where we’ve having employees (at EMA) looking for things to do to keep busy,” Stanton said after the board’s unanimous vote.

As a result, the EMA plan calls for a general shift in priorities--away from development and toward environmental issues. Such areas as endangered species protection, water quality, and regional park operations will get increased attention--at the expense of building and grading permit processing, inspections, land-use clearances and other areas, according to the report.

But while the board action met with support from the building industry, reaction was more skeptical among environmentalists, who have often been at odds with the EMA over development issues. They said a pledged de-emphasis on development issues at EMA would not be enough to win them over.

Sherry Meddick, an activist with the Rural Canyon Residents’ Assn., said any shift in focus at EMA would be mere “semantics.”

“I don’t know what the county means when they say ‘environment’ because their history has been in direct contradiction to my understanding. It’s been last on their agenda.” And she suggested that having fewer inspectors might only give the building industry greater freedom in its operations.

Said Michael Phillips, director of the Laguna Canyon Conservancy: “From our standpoint, no one believes the county has had a desire to do what’s best for the environment. . . . But if they’re headed in another direction, I applaud that.”

The plan approved Tuesday, up for review in six months, will cut up to 340 staff positions by 1995 through attrition, early retirements, relocation and possible layoffs. Officials say the cutbacks will mean a savings of $5 million this year, with undetermined savings in years ahead.

Among the key elements approved by the supervisors:

* Turning the Featherly Regional Park in Anaheim over to private operation by 1993 and stepping up efforts to privatize staffing at other parks as well.

* Negotiating a possible end to EMA’s multimillion-dollar contracts to provide public works and building safety services for five recently incorporated South County cities: Dana Point, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Lake Forest and Mission Viejo.

The plan notes that while the county’s costs for these services are covered by the cities, the county is still saddled with “potential (legal) liability.” And the services “were never anticipated as a permanent county function,” the report says.

The proposal has worried the affected cities, and Laguna Niguel City Manager Timothy J. Casey wrote the supervisors this week praising the contracts as “a positive and successful partnership.” He urged the board to “be cautious and prudent” before ending that partnership.

* Eliminating the Fish and Game Commission and reassessing the needs of other boards and commissions as well. EMA spends almost a half-million dollars a year to staff 31 county boards, committees and commissions on issues ranging from history to parks and beaches. Panels that have been inactive for 18 months will now be disbanded under Tuesday’s plan, and staffing may be reduced.

* Consolidating a range of administrative and planning functions.

The reduction plan was the result of months of talks and occasional turf wars within and outside EMA, but agency director Michael M. Ruane said the process was worth it.

“We could either react to change, or we could manage it,” Ruane said in an interview. “We’d rather manage it.”

Added Chief Deputy Director John Sibley: “Change is traumatic, and you go into the valley of despair and you ask, ‘Why are we doing all this?’ But you come out better for it. . . . This is all a reflection of the economy.”

Christine Diemer, executive director of the Building Industry Assn.’s Orange County region, said BIA officials met with Ruane and offered suggestions of their own on EMA reorganization and are generally satisfied with the results.

“We’ve been pretty pleased with the recommendations we’ve seen,” she said. “Our only concern is that we get the services we need . . . but we know we won’t see a building boom like we had in the ‘80s again.”

An Agency in Retreat

Officials at the Orange County Environmental Management Agency issue building permits, conduct inspections and regulate new developments in unincorporated parts of the county. The agency was created in 1974 to avoid duplication in land-use issues than handled by existing county agencies. But the work has withered away in recent years, as the sharp decline in new building permits shows.

EMA Up Close

What It Does: Oversees new development, flood control, harbors, beaches and parks, environmental laws, public works and transportation planning for the county.

Budget: $860 million in 1991-1992.

Work Force: Has grown from 965 to 1,577 in current fiscal year.

Headed by: Director Michael M. Ruane, 34, a county employee since 1980. A UCLA graduate, he headed EMA’s planning division before moving to his current post in December, 1989. He became the youngest person to head a county department and earned a salary of nearly $98,000 last year.

Changes: Under the plan approved Tuesday by the Board of Supervisors, EMA will undergo wholesale consolidations of some departments and a 20% reduction of its staff in response to the sharp drop in local development.

Building Permit Trend 1992-’93: 6,300 (projected) Staff Reductions

The agency, which employs nearly 1,600 people, may lose nearly a quarter of its staff during the next few years.

Proposed Personnel Cuts

Cumulative Fiscal year Reductions Reductions 1991-’92 77 77 1992-’93 85 162 1993-’94 65 227 1994-’95 65 292 1995-’96 38 330 1996-’97 10 340

Source: Environmental Management Agency