Supervisors Oust Dept. Head After 2-Year Absence

A department director who has received nearly $150,000 in salary, even though he has not worked in nearly two years, was removed from office Tuesday by Los Angeles County supervisors.

The board removed George Tice, director of the Facilities Management Department, after quizzing Chief Administrative Officer Richard B. Dixon about why it took so long to determine that Tice’s stress-related illnesses made him incapable of returning to work.

In another matter, the supervisors also restructured county government by removing three county departments from Dixon’s control and combining them into one new department.

Money-Saving Move

Most supervisors said the action was not a slap at Dixon but rather a consolidation designed to save money and make the departments more efficient.

Even Pete Schabarum, a persistent critic of the chief administrator, said he saw the shift of authority as a structural change. He would not elaborate on statements made Monday by an aide that the supervisor believes Dixon has “gone beyond the scope of his authority” and infringed on the policy-making powers of the board.

“I would not have asked (his aide) to make those comments,” Schabarum said in a brief interview. Such things “are best discussed” privately between Dixon and himself, Schabarum said.

Official Questioned

Schabarum subtly pressed Dixon, however, on why the Tice disability claim had not been settled more quickly.

“We seem to do a better job of not moving swiftly” on disability claims than others, Schabarum said.

“From my discussions with other public and private employers, I don’t think that is true,” Dixon responded.

Dixon said cases like that of Tice--who left work complaining of dizziness in February, 1987, and never returned--are common. Many off-duty workers continue to receive full pay for months or years while their disability claims are being decided, he said.

Dixon said in an interview that he kept abreast of the Tice case and tried to move it along but was frustrated by a slow-moving state workers’ compensation system under which a disability claim by Tice was being processed.

By law, Dixon said, he could not recommend that Tice be fired until medical experts agreed that he was capable of returning to work or that he was incapable of reassuming his duties.

In December, doctors finally concluded that Tice is “permanently incapacitated.” The doctors--a psychiatrist and an internist--concluded that Tice should not return to direct facilities management “because of the emotionally stressful nature of that position,” Dixon said in a report to the board.

The restructuring proposal--which merges the facilities, purchasing and data processing departments now run by Dixon into an independent Internal Services Department--was approved unanimously.

Supervisor Mike Antonovich’s motion said the change would save money, streamline operations “and restore proper lines of authority” in county government. His comment reflected a recommendation made earlier by the county Economy and Efficiency Commission.

The commission said in a report to supervisors that it supports the new structure because the chief administrative officer’s role as principal adviser to the supervisors conflicts with the role he assumes when stepping in as an interim department head.

Antonovich noted that the board had given the chief administrative officer control of the three departments since 1987 but only as a temporary measure when the department chiefs left county employment.

Dixon supported the restructuring, saying the three departments “could function most efficiently as a consolidated department.”

Supervisor Kenneth Hahn said Dixon should be relieved “not to have to be the purchasing agent (or) the head janitor, not to have to put gas in our car, not all these other functions.”

“You’ll thank me some day,” Hahn said.