Aid Planned for Laid-Off Lockheed Workers : Jobs: County supervisors vote to ask agencies to help idled employees find work and offers to help Burbank find a new plant tenant.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to ask several county agencies to help find jobs for Lockheed workers slated for layoffs and to assist the city of Burbank to locate another company to eventually move into Lockheed’s Burbank plant.

Lockheed announced last week that it would eliminate as many as 4,500 jobs in Southern California during the next several years. By the mid-1990s, Lockheed plans to largely abandon its Burbank headquarters and eliminate or transfer its 9,500 jobs to Palmdale or Georgia.

The supervisors unanimously passed an emergency motion asking the county’s Economic Development Corp. and the Community Development Commission to locate another aerospace engineering firm or a similar company for the Burbank site. The ordinance urges the agencies to assist in redeveloping the site as quickly as possible, with former Lockheed employees getting priority for jobs at any new facility.

Burbank city officials, however, have said they do not want to replace Lockheed with another factory. Burbank prefers the site be occupied by retail shops and other businesses that would generate sales tax revenue without posing environmental problems, Assistant City Manager Stephen Helvey said.

Supervisor Ed Edelman, the sponsor of the ordinance, did not check with the city before introducing it, said Joel Bellman, the supervisor’s press deputy.

“We aren’t trying to set policy for what Burbank should have in the way of economic development,” Bellman said.

Helvey, however, said the city would welcome the county’s help in finding suitable occupants for the Lockheed site.

“We hadn’t contemplated outside help, but if we get it, fine,” Helvey said.

The supervisors also endorsed efforts by the Private Industry Council to retrain laid-off workers. The federally funded council, which has 19 members appointed by the supervisors, is spending $170,000 on retraining Lockheed workers. The council has applied to the state for an additional $100,000 in emergency retraining aid.