County, Tired of Being Bad-Mouthed or Ignored, Polishes Image

San Diego County government--the region’s largest but perhaps least understood public agency--has launched an aggressive effort to improve its image among the taxpayers who support its nearly $1-billion annual budget.

With an experienced publicist at the helm of a growing operation, the county has this year begun to rebuild an office that was among the first to be pared in the wake of property-tax-cutting Proposition 13 in 1978.

Public Affairs Manager Bob Lerner, since his hiring five months ago, has centralized the flow of information--routine and controversial--that comes from the county each day. And for the first time, Lerner has given top county officials a mouthpiece to speak for them when they wish to avoid the media.

Officially, Lerner’s job is simply to make county residents more aware of the services offered by their government. But county supervisors say bluntly that they hope he can counteract what they perceive as a mostly negative image of the county portrayed by the local news media.

“Because the press is always dwelling on the negatives, I think there’s a tremendous need for having some positives out there,” Supervisor Paul Eckert said. “The people feel supportive of their government when they know there’s some reason for supporting it.”

Supervisor Brian Bilbray, who a year ago unseated incumbent Tom Hamilton with a campaign that focused on a series of scandals and reports of mismanagement within county government, seems eager to avoid the same fate should he decide to run for reelection.

“We need to keep the public informed so the informed public makes the ultimate decision,” Bilbray said. “There’s a lot of misinformation or lack of information that is critical when the decision-making comes around every four years.”

Elected and appointed county officials have long had something of an inferiority complex about the amount of publicity directed toward the City of San Diego, attention that until recently was highly favorable.

“The media’s attention has been much more focused on municipal services in the city,” Supervisor Susan Golding said. “The fact is the county provides those services and a great deal more.”

“People think that we’re added on, that we’re just another layer of bureaucracy,” Eckert said. “We’re not. We are an historical part of this country’s form of government. We are a critical element of that.”

Lerner concedes that there is some inevitable political spillover from his effort to portray the county in a more favorable light. But he insists that the role he fills is a valuable one.

“There are a lot of people in the county who don’t even know there’s such a thing as county government,” Lerner said. “Some of my neighbors don’t even know what it is.”

Shortly after Lerner began his job here, he chose three high school civics and government teachers at random and called them to invite their classes to visit the County Administration Center. The response was favorable, but Lerner was disturbed by a common thread that ran through the teachers’ comments.

“They all said, ‘Oh, that’s terrific. What does the county do?’ ” Lerner said, paraphrasing the three educators.

“We’re a public agency, and I don’t believe a public government should have a low profile,” Lerner said. “The public benefits by being aware of the services it pays for with its taxes.”

Toward that end, Lerner has been collecting informational brochures produced by more than 50 county departments and agencies, and he plans to begin coordinating them at the first of the year. “County News,” once an occasionally published newsletter for the county’s 12,000 employees, now comes out monthly.

Lerner is also working on a “documentary” explaining for high school students and their teachers what county government does. A new speakers bureau will serve a similar function. And Lerner plans to introduce a news service to provide accounts of county government actions for suburban papers that cannot afford to send reporters to Board of Supervisors meetings.

The goal of all this is to somehow make county residents aware that, in addition to providing municipal services in unincorporated areas, the county runs a 1,000-officer police force (the Sheriff’s Department); is responsible for public health issues, including regular inspections of every restaurant in the county, and dispenses millions of dollars in welfare checks each year.

But Lerner’s is a job that went almost undone for more than five years.

After the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978 brought on budget cuts, the county’s Office of Public Information was among the first casualties. Law enforcement and health services were given top priority, and the county’s ability to project a positive image was considered less important. Eleven of the 12 positions in the office were eliminated.

But in 1984, Chief Administrative Officer Clifford Graves decided that the county’s sagging image was due in part to the lack of a solid public information campaign. He asked for and got permission from the Board of Supervisors to upgrade the position and hire an experienced public-relations professional to fill it.

Lerner, a veteran radio newsman who has spent most of his career in public relations for California State University, Los Angeles and the Parsons Corp., an international engineering company, was named public affairs manager in May at an annual salary of $47,000--about $20,000 more than the former public information officer was paid.

Although he originally shared a cramped office with a graphic artist and photographer, Lerner recently moved into spacious quarters of his own with a view of San Diego Bay. Last month, the Board of Supervisors agreed to spend more than $100,000 earned from cable television franchise fees on Lerner’s various public-relations projects. After the first of the year, Lerner will have a full-time assistant in the office.

There are some, however, who believe that no amount of money or number of staffers will be enough if the problems that have beset the county for the last three years continue. A scandal involving the letting of a $25-million telecommunications contract and mismanagement in the Office of Employee Services and the Department of Health Services have given county government a bad name--with those who are familiar with it.

“The purpose of public affairs is to create good public relations for the county,” Golding said. “I think the best public relations you do is provide efficient public services and do a good job and not have any scandals. That’s the best P.R. policy we can have.”