Supervisors Approve Drug Testing for Those Seeking ‘Safety Jobs’

Orange County supervisors Tuesday unanimously approved a plan for drug and alcohol testing of those applying for jobs as county firefighters, law enforcement officers and heavy equipment operators.

The tests, said the plan’s sponsor, Board of Supervisors Chairman Harriett M. Wieder, will begin as soon as a contract can be negotiated with a firm to administer them.

“As a major employer with public health and drug enforcement responsibilities, we need to take this step,” Wieder said in a statement before the board vote. She cited a 1985 study that showed drug use among Californians to be 2.5% higher than the national average in certain age groups.

Wieder said later that there are no plans to extend the testing beyond applicants for “safety jobs.”

The board’s action grew out of a recommendation by the county Personnel Department after random, voluntary testing of applicants for all categories of county jobs indicated that 5% of those tested were using some kind of illegal or prescription drug.

No Consensus Reached

The voluntary tests were begun last year after a board-created task force made up of union representatives and county officials failed to reach a conclusion about the extent of drug use in the 12,000-member county work force or a consensus on employee drug testing. None of the union task force members agreed to random testing of current employees, but some indicated that they would not oppose testing of job applicants.

County Personnel Director Russ Patton said about 250 people seeking county jobs took part in the voluntary, random testing, in which no names were used.

Of drugs identified in the tests, he said, some were illegal street drugs and others were prescription drugs.

“Because the tests were anonymous,” he said, “we had no way of knowing if the prescription drugs had actually been prescribed.

The Personnel Department made its recommendation to the supervisors without consulting employee unions because, he said, “it’s the county’s position that testing for employment is really not negotiable.”

Robert MacLeod, general manager of Assn. of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs and a member of the county’s drug and alcohol abuse task force, said Tuesday that his union does not oppose such testing for specified job categories as long as the tests were in controlled environments and accurate results could be ensured.

What it would oppose, he said, is any plan to randomly administer drug tests to members already on the payroll.

“If they wanted to institute random testing,” he said, “they’d have to negotiate that.”

The board vote Tuesday, in addition to authorizing the county Personnel Department to seek bids from a drug-testing firm, allowed an $18,000 appropriation to set up a drug abuse education program for county workers. The supervisors also directed personnel officials to continue monitoring court cases involving drug testing of employees suspected of drug abuse.

Patton said that no lawsuits have been filed against the county but that several national cases involving private firms are expected to go to the U.S. Supreme Court.