Schabarum Effort to Reduce Dixon’s Powers Reported

Los Angeles County Supervisor Pete Schabarum is expected to press today for a restructuring of county government that would significantly reduce the authority of county Chief Administrative Officer Richard B. Dixon, an aide to the supervisor said Monday.

Schabarum will ask the Board of Supervisors to strip Dixon of his control over three county departments that have been assigned to him by the board over the last two years, assistant Tom Hageman said in an interview.

Schabarum believes Dixon “has gone beyond the scope of his authority,” Hageman said. “There’s a difference between the role of policy makers and the role of the CAO.”

Schabarum is also expected to criticize Dixon for failing to speed a settlement of a disability claim under which George Tice, director of the Facilities Management Department, has collected about $150,000 in salary over the last two years, even though he has not worked a day since early 1987, Hageman said.

The veteran supervisor has been a persistent critic of Dixon, who rose through the ranks of the county bureaucracy to become chief administrative officer in 1987.

Target of Criticism

Schabarum has criticized Dixon’s handling of investments of county funds in stocks and other securities and last week attacked him for blocking a plan--advocated by the supervisor--to move some of the more severely disturbed teen-agers from the county’s facility for abused and neglected children to a privately operated facility in East Los Angeles.

The chief administrative officer is the key appointive official in the county bureaucracy. Appointed by the board, he writes the county budget, negotiates with the state for aid and watches, but does not direct, the operation of county departments ranging from health services to flood control.

Both the Tice matter and the restructuring issue are on today’s board agenda.

Tice left work nearly two years ago, saying he was suffering from dizziness and disorientation caused by stress, county officials said. Hageman said Schabarum believes Dixon should have settled the disability claim much more quickly.

“Dixon took over (Tice’s) department. It was directly under his authority and responsibility,” Hageman said, adding that Dixon has administered the case “poorly at best.”

In response, Dixon said he closely monitored progress in the Tice case but by law could not recommend that Tice be fired until medical experts agreed that he could no longer work. Doctors finally reached this conclusion in a report to Dixon on Dec. 21, he said.

On restructuring, Schabarum will be armed with a report by the county Economy and Efficiency Commission, which recommends that the facilities, purchasing and data processing departments now run by Dixon be consolidated and removed from his control.

The commission supports the new structure because the chief administrative officer’s role as principal adviser to the supervisors conflicts with the duties of department heads, which include lobbying the supervisors for support of their agencies, according to its report.

Supervisor Mike Antonovich, although supportive of Dixon, said he will introduce a motion to form a new Internal Services Department from the three smaller agencies.

Dixon said he has no vested interest in running the three departments.

“I think they are two equally workable forms of organization,” he said. “I don’t think this is an argument over authority.”

Supervisor Deane Dana said he thinks Schabarum “is pretty much alone” among the board’s five members in his criticisms of Dixon.