Probe of Parks Chief Handled by His Friend

A top-level Deukmejian Administration official investigating charges that Parks and Recreation Director William S. Briner made racist remarks is a longtime acquaintance of Briner, recruited him for the state post and once had a lobbyist-client dealing with him.

The official, Deputy Resources Secretary Terrence Eagan, made what he acknowledged was an “offensive” ethnic comment in 1983 and was directed to make a public apology.

Although Gov. George Deukmejian pledged Oct. 7 that the probe of Briner’s conduct would be completed “shortly,” Eagan said Thursday that he has been given no deadline by the governor’s office and does not know when the inquiry will be finished.

Deukmejian called for the investigation after the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission charged that Briner “openly and routinely” used racist language and forced his department’s highest-ranking black employee to quit her job. A report by the federal agency alleged that Briner frequently used such terms as “nigger, spear-chucker, nip, broad, wop and spic.”

Briner has denied the commission’s allegations and suggested that they were motivated by election-year politics.

Boss Consulted

Eagan said in an interview that he was concerned enough that his long association with Briner could hamper his investigation that he raised the issue with his boss, Resources Secretary Gordon Van Vleck.

“I have pointed out to the secretary that I have probably known Bill Briner longer than anyone else around here. . . ,” he said. “The advice to me was that if I attempted to mislead the decision by distorting the facts, that would not go well for me.”

Eagan said he found himself in hot water in 1983 after he told a Sacramento Bee reporter that he had sought “blond-haired Aryans” for Deukmejian to appoint to a vacancy on the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency. After apologizing to Van Vleck and Steven A. Merksamer, the governor’s chief of staff, he was ordered to send a letter of apology to the newspaper, he said.

“I meant it as a joke, and it wasn’t,” he said. “I had to apologize for it publicly. It’s something I’m certainly not proud of.”

Eagan said he has known Briner for about 15 years since they both served as members of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency. At the time, Briner was a Placer County supervisor and Eagan, an official of then-Gov. Ronald Reagan’s Administration, represented the Resources Agency on the panel.

In the late 1970s, when Briner was general manager of the Tahoe Public Utilities District, he hired Eagan’s lobbying firm, the California Institute for Industrial and Governmental Relations, to work on a regulatory issue involving water, Eagan recalled. Eagan said the work was actually performed by his partner, Ford B. Ford, who was later named by President Reagan to be an assistant secretary of labor.

Suggested Briner Apply

In 1983, when Deukmejian was searching for a candidate to replace Carol Hallett as parks and recreation director, Eagan said he suggested to Briner that he consider applying for the post.

“I asked him if he wanted to be director,” said Eagan, who also served on the Administration’s panel that screened applicants for the job.

Briner’s confirmation was temporarily blocked by the Senate Rules Committee because of allegations at the time that he had made racial slurs in conversations with department employees. He won the committee’s approval after he issued a general apology.

Deukmejian told reporters last week that he did not know whether the investigation into the latest charges against Briner would be finished before the Nov. 4 election. “I don’t know exactly. I can just tell you it has not been completed,” he said.