County Will Once Again Seek Its Own Caltrans Office

Orange County transportation officials said Monday that they will ask that the state open a local California Department of Transportation office to speed the administration of freeway projects in the county.

The county Transportation Commission said it would both seek legislation creating the Caltrans district office and ask Gov. George Deukmejian to establish the office by executive order.

Last week, several Orange County political activists met with John Geoghegan, Deukmejian’s secretary of business, transportation and housing, to press for an executive order, according to sources involved in the discussions.

Currently, Caltrans’ projects in Orange County are directed and supervised from the agency’s Los Angeles office, which oversees all state transportation work in Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties. The office oversees about 42% of Caltrans’ work statewide but has 25% of the agency’s staff.

Caltrans officials have rejected previous requests for an Orange County office, arguing that the agency cannot afford the extra administrative costs.

The chairmen of the Assembly and Senate transportation committees previously said they would support Orange County’s request for a separate Caltrans office.

Caltrans Deputy District Director Don Watson, a non-voting, ex officio member of the county Transportation Commission, denied charges leveled by Board of Supervisors Chairman Roger R. Stanton that Caltrans’ own “inertia” is responsible for its staff’s opposition to creation of an Orange County office.

“It’s not inertia,” Watson said during Monday’s meeting, adding that many Caltrans employees already live in Orange County and would want to work here as well.

“There’s no other explanation for it . . . It’s inertia,” replied Stanton, clearly angered. “If this was a private company, we’d have an office here because this is where the market, where the demand for products is, and Caltrans is not responding to that market.”

Supervisor Thomas F. Riley, a commission member, said the county has supported Deukmejian so strongly in the past that the governor should create a new district office by executive order.