Countywide

Final authority on approving county contracts with private firms would be taken out of the hands of the county Civil Service Commission and granted to the county’s chief administrative officer if a charter amendment placed on the June 3 ballot Tuesday by the county Board of Supervisors is passed by voters.

The controversial proposal, giving the county CAO’s office rather than the five-member commission the right to review the board’s selections of companies to receive county contracts, is one of the first proposed charter changes expanding the responsibilities of the county administrator since passage of Proposition A in November, 1984. That voter-approved charter amendment centralized administrative power in the office of the chief administrative officer and prohibited supervisors from interfering in the day-to-day operations of county government.