County Jobs Privatization Fight Renewed by Bergeson : Politics: Newport Beach state senator again introduces bill that would let governments contract out many positions. Employees’ groups vow to lobby against it.

With local government in Orange County once again staring into a budgetary abyss, state Sen. Marian Bergeson introduced a bill Monday that would allow the county and dozens of others in California to contract out a variety of government jobs to save money.

Bergeson (R-Newport Beach) championed virtually the same measure last year, but it was soundly defeated on the Senate floor after public employee labor unions lobbied hard, arguing that such privatization efforts would only cost jobs.

Despite that setback, Bergeson has renewed her fight to let counties up and down the state contract out a wide array of jobs, ranging from security guards at John Wayne Airport to dogcatchers at the county animal shelter.

Bergeson suggested that the bill could fare better this year in part because county governments around the state are facing fiercer fiscal problems than in 1992 and would more willingly band together to back the legislation.

She also predicted that labor unions, which provide large infusions of campaign cash to a multitude of lawmakers in Sacramento, wouldn’t be able to wield as much influence over legislators because this isn’t an election year.

“I would say the climate is better,” Bergeson said. “The unions are always stronger during an election year, and the reality of the problem facing the counties is beginning to sink in. I think the balance this year will be on the side of the counties.”

But officials with various public employees groups vowed to once again fight the measure, which they suggest would ultimately cost taxpayers more while putting hundreds of government workers in unemployment lines. They also warned that accountability problems could crop up.

“I think it’s very anachronistic,” said Maura Kealey, legislative director for the Service Employees International Union, which represents 100,000 government workers in California. “To come out of the recession, California has got to create more decent-paying jobs with benefits. Given the emphasis on creating decent jobs, I can’t imagine why anyone would think this is the year to come up with a measure that costs us more jobs.”

Kealey said any money county governments save through privatization would be eroded by higher costs to taxpayers as public employees lose their jobs and seek assistance from county hospitals and other social service providers. Low-wage replacement workers with no benefits, meanwhile, would also depend on the county for medical attention, she said.

But supporters of privatization say public employees typically are absorbed by the private firms that take over government services. They also argue that local governments will be forced to make broad layoffs if the agencies aren’t given the power to contract out some county jobs.

“The reality is if we don’t come up with alternative means of maintaining those services, we may have to potentially eliminate some jobs altogether,” said Orange County Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez, a staunch supporter of Bergeson’s measure.

Vasquez predicted that counties will prove a far more cohesive force this year in pushing for the bill after Gov. Pete Wilson last week proposed a 1993-94 budget that would strip $2.6 billion from local government, including more than $170 million from public agencies in Orange County.

In Orange County, a special task force in 1991 identified more than 50 different jobs deemed ripe for privatization, among them spots at county landfills, at the airport, on the Harbor Patrol and custodial services.

Currently, 12 so-called “charter” counties in California can contract out services because they are not subject to state employment procedures. Orange County and more than three dozen other counties in the state, however, are “general law” jurisdictions that do not enjoy such powers. Bergeson’s bill would permit all counties to privatize services.