Mounting Drug Concerns Prod Cities Toward Tests

Mounting concern over drug abuse in the workplace has prompted at least half a dozen Orange County cities to consider mandatory drug testing similar to the program the Tustin City Council has voted to impose for new employees and those suspected of using illegal drugs, authorities said Wednesday.

“The attention being focused on the drug problem is something that is sweeping over society in a wave,” Newport Beach personnel director Duane Munson said Wednesday. “Virtually everybody is looking at it.”

Drug-testing programs are being evaluated by city officials in Anaheim, Brea, Cypress, Fullerton, La Habra, Newport Beach and Santa Ana.

But most of those cities are approaching the idea with “a degree of caution,” said Munson, who heads a committee of personnel managers for Orange County municipalities and agencies. The concern, he said, is over the questionable accuracy and costs of drug tests, as well as employee rights to privacy, an issue being litigated in the courts.

Santa Ana City Manager David Ream said he has “no plans” to submit a drug testing proposal to the City Council until he can study how well such plans have worked in the relatively few cities that have tried them.

On Tuesday night, Tustin became the second Orange County city--after Fountain Valley--to impose mandatory drug testing for prospective employees and current workers who show signs of drug abuse.

Mayor Donald J. Saltarelli, who proposed drug testing in answer to President Reagan’s call in early August for a national crusade against drugs, said the city will have a screening program in place by October.

The program will affect applicants for about 30 to 40 city job openings that come available annually, said Betty Correa, who oversees employee recruitment for Tustin.

Saltarelli said Wednesday that he is determined to broaden the program to include testing of all Tustin city workers, a delicate issue that is in the discussion stage with two labor associations representing the bulk of the approximately 190 city employees.

Council’s Efforts Praised

“I applaud them for their efforts,” state Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim) said Wednesday of the council’s action.

“Obviously drug abuse has become the No. 1 issue concerning people today,” said Seymour, who in April proposed sweeping legislation that would enable all employers in California to conduct periodic tests for drug or alcohol abuse by employees.

Seymour withdrew his bill within days, after strong opposition surfaced in the Senate Industrial Relations Committee. But he is convinced that it is an idea whose time has come, citing the use of drug testing in the private sector among 26% of the Fortune 500 companies.

“Public opinion polls show strong support of testing for drugs in the workplace,” said Seymour, who will hold five fact-finding hearings across the state next month to gather ammunition for a second legislative attempt next year. The first hearing will be Oct. 7 in the City of Orange.

Some cities have been testing police and firefighting job applicants for years. Lakewood and Paramount were among the first cities in the nation to test prospective employees, beginning a year ago. Glendale began the practice Aug. 1, and the Bellflower City Council decided last month to begin voluntary testing of current workers.

Fountain Valley Personnel Director Bill Ackerman said comprehensive drug testing of prospective employees has been under way in that city for “about two months.”

Occasional testing of prospective firefighters dates back to last August, when an agreement was reached with the city’s firemen’s association, the first of five employee bargaining groups to approve the policy, Ackerman said.

Contract Permits Testing

Where there is a reasonable suspicion of drug abuse, the city’s contract with firefighters permits testing of current employees, Ackerman said. None of the remaining four labor groups has agreed to such “probable cause” testing of existing workers, he said.

In Fountain Valley, Ackerman said, the idea a drug testing program came from the city staff over a year ago as a further tool for screening new job applicants.

“We didn’t propose it as a reactive measure at all,” he said. “To be honest, drug abuse has not been perceived as a problem here . . . The primary goal is that it provides us with another piece of information prior to making a decision to hire someone.”

The City of Fountain Valley uses a local medical clinic for its employment physicial examinations. The clinic sends urine specimens to Central Diagnostic Laboratory in Tarzana.

The same lab handles drug testing for the Orange County Transit District, which has tested nearly all new employees since 1978, district spokeswoman Joanne Curran said. The district employment policies also permit testing where there is “probable cause” to suspect drug abuse.

All district drivers involved in accidents in which injuries occur must be tested for drug use regardless of who is at fault. Curran said the provision is required to protect the district from lawsuits.

Tustin City Manager William A. Huston said Wednesday that it had not been determined yet which drugs would be looked for in that city’s testing.

Ackerman said laboratory tests are capable of finding amphetamines, barbiturates, cocaine, Demerol, methaqualone (popularly known as quaaludes), morphine, phencyclidine (commonly known as PCP or Angel Dust), Darvon and others, including marijuana.

98% Accuracy Claimed

Newport Beach personnel director Munson said various companies claim accuracy rates of 97% to 98%, providing the urine specimen has not been tampered with or tainted and high-quality equipment is used. Opponents of drug-testing programs say those claims are on the high side.

And labor unions and civil rights attorneys have expressed concern about the use of often unreliable drug tests in making hiring and firing decisions.

Munson agreed that there are many questions that must be answered about the reliability of tests and test procedures, saying that the technology of today’s sophisticated drug testing dates back only to just before the 1984 Olympics.

“Since this is a costly program,” Munson said, “you’d better make sure the decisions you make you can be comfortable with in determining someone’s career future.”

Ackerman said Fountain Valley officials are sensitive to that concern. For that reason, “we don’t make an ultimate decision based solely on the test results,” he said. “If there was a positive result, we would definitely want to explore it with the prospective employee. They may want to have their own tests taken.”

Munson said Newport Beach will take a wait-and-see approach.

“Considering we are talking about spending public money, it might not be a bad idea to wait and see what the courts say,” he said.