Board Agrees on Hiring Cuts, Expansion of Brea Landfill : Supervisors: Unanimous votes eliminate or freeze 1,400 positions and help meet growing North County waste needs.

Tackling two of the county’s most vexing problems, the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved plans for closing the county’s budget gap and cleaning up North County’s garbage woes.

In response to what Supervisor Don R. Roth termed a “fiscal crisis,” a unanimous board agreed to permanently eliminate 709 now-vacant positions and freeze nearly 700 others through mid-1993.

On the garbage front, the board also unanimously voted to expand the Brea-Olinda landfill and keep it open for an extra 16 years to help meet the mounting short-term waste needs of North County.

In addition, the supervisors directed the county staff to further study the use of any of three North County canyons as long-term landfill sites and to find alternative means of disposing the county’s garbage.

Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez, whose district includes the Brea-Olinda landfill, noted that Orange County throws out more garbage per person than any other county and called the study “long overdue.”

Area residents have resisted the landfill expansion for months. But when it came time for final approval Tuesday, the plan met with grudging acceptance.

“If we had our druthers,” Brea Councilman Wayne D. Wedin acknowledged to the board, “(the landfill) would just disappear.”

But city officials and residents said they realized that was not going to happen. And in exchange for their lukewarm support for the expansion project, they won two key compromises from the county.

The Brea-Olinda landfill, previously scheduled to close in 1997, will have its operations extended through 2013, instead of the 2020 date that had been discussed until just a few days ago. And the landfill will grow upward--not out and into surrounding property that is to be used for state parkland.

The neighboring land has been proposed as an extension to the Chino Hills State Park, pending negotiations between the state and landowner Shell Oil. Banning use of the site for the landfill was a key concern of many of the 10 Brea area residents who addressed the board Tuesday before its vote.

By 1997, the Brea-Olinda landfill--covering 523 acres--is expected to hold about 65.5 million cubic yards of garbage. Under the plan approved by the board, that capacity will grow an additional 46.8 million cubic yards, said Tim Neely, manager of the county’s environmental planning division.

The expansion will elevate the landfill to a plateau of up to 1,250 feet high and is expected to cost between $7 million and $17 million by 2013.

That cost will probably be made up through higher gate fees at the landfill and, in turn, passed along to area residents through higher fees for garbage collection, county waste management officials said.

But solutions to the county’s broader budget problems may be tougher to find, as evidenced by Tuesday’s board discussions on fiscal matters.

Elected county officials have pledged repeatedly not to raise county taxes, despite mounting budget shortfalls that are expected to total nearly $24 million for the current fiscal year and more than $65 million next year.

By a unanimous vote, the board took a first step toward closing those gaps in agreeing to cut the county work force by about 3.4%, eliminating 709 positions out of 2,228 that are now vacant.

This move, along with freezing another 695.5 positions through at least summer 1993, is aimed at saving $16.4 million a year at a time when the recession has hurt revenues severely.

The plan has drawn some concern from local union officials and even from Sheriff Brad Gates, who says it could hurt law enforcement, but it drew a unanimous endorsement from the board.

“The supervisors were very supportive,” said Ronald S. Rubino, county budget director. “They realize the situation we’re in.”

But deeper cuts are sure to come, officials acknowledged, and the supervisors directed the staff to intensify the search for “permanent base budget reductions.”

“The bottom line for all of us,” Roth said, “is less service.”

Layoffs, said Board Chairman Roger R. Stanton, represent “the most odious of options.”

All programs and department budgets will face close scrutiny, Stanton said. He suggested in an interview that the Sheriff’s Department and the Environmental Management Agency--with large budgets--may have to endure deep cutbacks.

Noting that the sheriff has consistently sought more funds for law enforcement programs and facilities, Stanton said: “Maybe we have to go into a mode of ‘Brad, you shouldn’t be doing this.’ ”