County Will Contract Out Vehicle Work

Nearly 200 workers are faced with the decision of whether to change jobs, accept lower-paying positions, quit or retire from their Los Angeles County jobs after the Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to hire a private company to manage and maintain most county vehicles.

Despite objections from public employee unions, the board voted 3 to 2 to pay Holmes and Narver Services Inc. more than $80 million over the next seven years to take care of 6,000 county vehicles.

County officials said the contract is the largest awarded since the board began pushing in recent years to contract with private firms to do jobs now done by public employees.

Backed by Schabarum

In voting for the latest contract, Supervisor Pete Schabarum said it was in keeping with the county’s attempts to save money and culminates a three-year effort.

“It has been pursued as deliberately as you can describe and (will) result in not only dramatic savings but will provide for an effective and more efficient delivery of services,” said Schabarum, who was joined by Supervisors Mike Antonovich and Deane Dana in approving the pact.

Under the contract, the county will pay about $11.23 million annually for the fleet services plus another $534,847 contingency fund for emergency services. However, officials said the county will save more than $2 million annually over the next seven years by contracting the service out to the private sector.

In addition, the county is projecting another $2.6 million in the sale of existing parts inventories, officials said.

Despite those numbers, Supervisors Ed Edelman and Kenneth Hahn voted against the contract after raising concerns over the fate of the 192 county employees in the auto craft and materials management division who must consider whether they will join the new firm or not.

Edelman pointed out that many are veteran employees who would be paid less money if they took jobs with the private firm. “I don’t think that’s the right message to be sending our long-term employees,” Edelman said.

Jerry Lee, deputy director of the county’s Facilities Management Department, said his agency is helping workers--ranging from garage helpers to power equipment mechanics--retrain for other jobs as well as find other county positions.