County to Air Plan for Drug Test Task Force

A task force to study the possibility of a drug and alcohol testing program for Orange County’s 12,000 employees will be proposed to county supervisors today, Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder said Monday.

Wieder, who is suggesting the task force, said she had not yet “decided conclusively” that such a program is needed and had found no evidence that drug or alcohol abuse was a pervasive problem among county employees.

“I’m making the assumption that Orange County government is only a microcosm of the society in which we find ourselves,” Wieder said. “We don’t really have a policy. . . . It’s incumbent . . . to not turn our back or sweep it under the rug if it is a problem.”

The task force, Wieder said, would determine if there is a need for drug and alcohol testing and would study the financial and legal constraints of a testing program.

“It’s such a sensitive issue,” Wieder said. “There is a very fine line between providing a . . . drug-free work environment and protecting the individual’s right to privacy.”

The county administrative office, the Health Care Agency and the Personnel Department would be represented on the task force, Wieder said.

Seven of the county’s 26 cities have some kind of drug-testing policy, and San Diego and Riverside counties are studying the issue, Wieder said. The seven cities that have policies are Cypress, Fountain Valley, Fullerton, Huntington Beach, Westminster, La Habra and Tustin. Thirty percent of Fortune 500 companies have testing programs, she said.

“If the concerns regarding drug and alcohol abuse . . . are valid, and we must assume they are, the County of Orange is not an island and . . . should develop a policy on drug and alcohol testing,” Wieder wrote in her proposal to fellow supervisors.