County Officials Tally Up Missing Equipment : Government: An inventory of 7 departments reveals 43 lost or stolen items worth a total of at least $101,000, including computers, fax machines, a truck and even a Jaws of Life rescue tool.

At least $101,000 in computers and other goods have been stolen from--or lost by--Orange County departments, and in at least one instance an investigator blamed lax security procedures that seem “to beg for trouble.”

An inventory of seven county departments turned up a 43-item list of stolen or lost equipment, ranging from fax machines to exercise equipment, and a $9,755 high-tech computer printer. The list will be presented today to the County Board of Supervisors to make them aware of the losses.

The inventory found $59,144.42 in lost or misplaced goods and an additional $42,750 in stolen equipment, according to the report by the county auditor-controller’s office, which oversees routine inventory audits that departments must undergo every three years.

General accounting manager Jan Grimes said security is a prime concern, but there is little that can be done to ward off determined thieves, and there is no evidence that county employees are responsible for the thefts.

A spokeswoman for Board Chairwoman Harriett M. Wieder said the losses are not a serious problem. “We’re not terribly concerned about this,” said Kathleen Campini, executive assistant to Wieder, who noted that the audit report covered seven departments. “There is no trend of a problem here, nothing that stands out that is indicative of long-term problems. The county is confident that we have control over this.”

But others believe that past or present employees could be responsible for items that have disappeared.

County Clerk Gary Granville, whose department is short a new $1,150 IBM computer that disappeared from inside a locked closet last May, remarked, “In the parlance of the trade, I’d say it was an inside job.”

Granville said he does not believe that one of his department’s employees is responsible, but says that “only someone who knew what to look for could find it.” An investigation is ongoing.

County finance officer Mark Pugatch, who investigated several thefts from the county’s Environmental Management Agency, criticized that department’s lax security measures. In one instance, a department truck was stolen when the operator left it unattended, unlocked and with the keys inside.

“Leaving the keys in a vehicle for a 10-minute span in Anaheim, not in a locked secure yard, seems to beg for trouble,” Pugatch wrote in a February memo to the auditor-controller’s office, adding that tighter security measures are needed in light of the county’s financial problems.

The EMA has stepped up security precautions, said Marcie Hazen, chief of financial operations. “We are reinforcing security awareness at every opportunity,” Hazen said.

Grimes said police or sheriff’s deputies are called upon to investigate suspected thefts. Equipment can be misplaced during transfers or lost because of a paperwork foul-up, Grimes said. Equipment that is reported lost sometimes turns up at a later date, she added.

A February inventory report turned up about $10,000 in equipment stolen from three departments. A June, 1992, audit of three departments turned up about $60,000 in lost or stolen equipment.

The departments evaluated in the current report included EMA, John Wayne Airport, Probation and Fire departments, Health Care and General Services agencies and the county administrative office.

The missing or stolen items included 18 computer-related items from software packages to high-tech laser printers. Some of the missing equipment--such as six radios--could easily transfer to personal use. Other items lost, such as a Fire Department Jaws of Life pneumatic rescue tool, would seem an odd target for a theft.

When a November, 1991, review turned up $16,152 in lost property from the Fire Department, with items ranging from typewriters to breathing apparatus, fiscal services senior staff analyst W.J. Wallace wrote in a report, “Control over assets . . . needs to be strengthened.”

Some losses were blamed on unlucky business dealings. In May, 1992, county officials purchased a $2,400, 12-station gym machine for the Probation Department’s youth guidance center.

The machine was installed in a workout room, but a vendor later removed it. When officials contacted the vendor, he first admitted and then denied having the machine, and later went out of business before the county recovered its loss. The county is now considering a small claims lawsuit.