Criticism Mounts as Red Tape Stalls Day-Care Center for Civil Servants

Supporters of a drive to establish a day-care center in Van Nuys for the children of government workers are voicing mounting frustration over what they call the bureaucratic wrangling that has tied up the project.

At issue is whether the city of Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, the state of California and the U.S. government can cooperatively develop a facility at the Van Nuys Civic Center to care for about 70 children of government employees in the area.

State workers had complained about the lack of day care, and three years ago interest was first expressed in establishing such a facility at the Van Nuys Civic Center. In 1987, state Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Tarzana) requested a study to determine demand for a preschool for the children of government workers.

“Coming up with the initial dollars has been a real hassle,” said Jerry Orland, head project manager of the county Internal Services Department. Orland said the county is willing to donate a vacant building on Sylvan Street, “but someone else would need to pay the remodeling cost.”

Building Conversion

With the project stalled, Robbins has introduced legislation to earmark $600,000 in state funds for the county to convert the building into a child-care center.

The bill, scheduled to be heard next month by the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, is expected to face an uphill battle because the state’s budget is stretched thin.

In recent interviews, Robbins and other officials maintained that the major stumbling block has been the unwillingness of any federal agency to enlist in the joint venture--a prerequisite for obtaining federal funds to launch the center.

With the exception of the office of Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City), when the day-care issue has been raised, the federal government has “literally acted like they don’t know what we’re talking about,” Robbins said.

GSA Denies Charges

Representatives of the U.S. General Services Administration deny that they have dragged their feet. If a survey of their employees showed support for the proposal, federal officials said, they would consider joining the day-care enterprise.

The Robbins bill is the latest chapter in a simmering controversy over day care at the Van Nuys Administrative Center, where hundreds of government workers are employed.

The study of preschool day-care need among government workers that Robbins requested in 1987 was finished last month. It showed that there are enough people who would bring their children to the proposed facility to make it feasible. But Judith MacBrine, an associate planner who conducted the survey for the department, cautioned that day-care supporters would “have to work to make costs low enough so they will use the center.”

For instance, she estimated that in the San Fernando Valley area, the cost of day care for an infant or toddler ranges between $400 and $600 a month. To attract clients, a center for children of government employees would need to match these figures, she said.

Former Optimism

Supporters of the center grew optimistic about a year ago when a representative of the GSA expressed a desire to participate in the center, according to a federal source who declined to be identified. The source said the GSA official told backers of the Van Nuys center that if they could find a site, “they had a program to fund it.”

Holly Azzari, a community liaison for Mayor Tom Bradley, said federal officials “jazzed us up and convinced us they had the money for renovation” but now “they have let us down.”

But Mary Filippini, a spokeswoman for the GSA in San Francisco, said her agency never committed funds to the project. “In the beginning, there was a lot of excitement” about the program, she said. “If there have been some misunderstandings, I’m sorry.”

Filippini added: “If there is not a federal employer in that area who has a need, then we do not pursue this.”

John Luers, who directs coordination in Los Angeles among federal agencies, said a survey of federal employees in the Van Nuys area showed that “there just wasn’t any great demand for child care among federal employees.” Now, however, a new survey is being conducted of federal workers not just in Van Nuys but in surrounding communities, he said.

Despite the delays, state employees continue to voice strong support for the child-care facility.

For instance, Audrey Torres, a clerical supervisor for the Board of Equalization at the Van Nuys State Office Building, said she would like a child-care center near her job so she could be close to her two small children in case of an emergency.

Another worker at the state building, Irma Torres, a deputy labor commissioner and mother of a 2 1/2-year-old girl, said that when she and other state workers began to move into the Van Nuys State Office Building in 1984, they thought “child care would be a reality.”

Now, she said: “I’m waiting for a child-care center so I can enroll her and I’m not very encouraged because of the time it’s taken.” She joked that her daughter might even be “in college by the time they get the center” built.