‘Cooling Off’ Time Delays Affirmative-Action Report

Concerned over persistent tensions between black and Latino employee groups over Los Angeles County’s hiring and promotion policies, the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday held off adopting a controversial affirmative action report and voted instead for a “cooling off” period.

The 264-page report, which delves deeply into how minorities have fared in county government over the last decade, shows that officials have fallen short of achieving their affirmative-action goals for Latinos in nearly every county department.

That finding has been hailed by Latino activists as evidence that the county has unquestionably failed in its efforts to hire and promote Latinos, who argue that county officials have concentrated their minority efforts on helping blacks.

Leaders of black employee organizations, in turn, have denounced the county study as based upon “skewed statistics” reflecting “a favoritism” toward Latinos. They argue that because the affirmative-action goals seek percentages matching the ethnic breakdown of the county as reflected in the 1980 Census, the goals are unreasonable.

Figures Challenged

Among other things, black leaders say, the census counted illegal aliens, which inflated the county goal for hiring Latinos. Latinos number 18.3% of the county work force; according to the census, they represent 27.6% of the county population. Blacks compose 30.5% of the county work force, although they make up only 12.6% of the county population, according to the study.

Although other groups, notably the county’s Filipino employees and Local 660 of the Service Employees International Union, have also criticized the report issued last month by Robert Arias, the county’s affirmative action compliance officer, blacks and Latinos have been the most vociferous.

With a dispute developing between the county’s two largest minority groups, county supervisors Tuesday were wary about exacerbating matters.

Although representatives of Latino and black employee groups were ready to testify, Chairman Deane Dana quickly persuaded his colleagues to delay any vote on the report and refer the matter to the county’s Affirmative Action Committee for a monthlong study.

‘We Want Peace’

In going along with the delay, several board members alluded to the disagreements between the ethnic groups. “We don’t want a division here in the county of Latinos versus the blacks or Asians versus the Latinos,” Supervisor Kenneth Hahn said. “We want peace, harmony and good will.”

After the vote, Dana acknowledged that the delay would be part of a “cooling-off” period to ease any racial tensions.

“I am concerned about it, and I think we should attempt to have the groups attempt to get together. . . . Obviously, there’s going to have to be compromise on both sides,” he said.

Supervisor Ed Edelman added that the county officials are wary that one group appears pitted against another. “I know that the Hispanics look upon us as not doing enough, and the blacks think we’ve done too much for Hispanics. It’s crazy. These perceptions are not healthy for the entire community.”

Mixed Feelings

While the board had hoped to placate both sides, black and Latino officials had mixed feelings about Tuesday’s decision to refer the matter to committee.

Clyde Johnson, president of the Black Employees Assn., said his group believes that the report remains fundamentally flawed and should be discarded. “It’s no good unless we have an independent study done by someone outside the county,” he said.

The county’s affirmative-action goal should be based on how a minority is represented in the total county work force, including private industry, rather than on raw population figures, Johnson and other black leaders maintain.

They also said that while the report shows that blacks have largely exceeded the county’s affirmative-action goals, based on the 1980 Census, that conclusion is misleading because most of those employees are filling low-paying, non-managerial posts.

Study by Black Groups

Furthermore, Johnson said, during the last 10 years, 45% of all people hired in the county have been Latinos. He said this figure was based on a study by the black employees’ association that he would divulge in full later.

Alan Clayton, a consultant with the Chicano Employees Assn., disputed Johnson’s claim that Latinos have been hired in such numbers and called such figures “a smoke screen” designed to obscure the fact that Latinos are under-represented in the county work force.

“Our concern is not to get into a fight with any ethnic group, but we also do not intend to back off from the need to get more representation of Latinos in county government,” he said.

Both Clayton and Johnson serve on the oversight committee of the county’s Affirmative Action Committee, composed of representatives of women and minority groups, which will now review the affirmative-action report.