County Criticized for Minority-Hiring Results : Jobs: Some progress has been made, but representation still lacking in management and law enforcement, report says.

Minorities have not made gains in filling top executive and law enforcement jobs in Ventura County government, despite the efforts the county has made to hire women and minorities since 1986.

That’s the conclusion of a new five-year affirmative action plan, or score card on minority hiring, that the county Board of Supervisors will review Tuesday.

“The county is making some progress, but the problem is clearly that the number of minorities is not increasing as it should be,” said Maria Diaz, the county’s affirmative action officer who prepared the report.

“Minorities are still being hired in the job categories they are traditionally hired in--lower level, technical, clerical services and related positions,” Diaz said.

On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors will consider requiring each county department to prepare its own affirmative action plan as a way to increase the hiring of qualified minorities.

According to the report prepared by Diaz, the number of blacks, Asians and Pacific Islanders on the county’s payroll of 6,324 employees now largely reflects their presence in the local economy. Overall, minorities now constitute 30.6% of the county government’s work force--up from 25% in 1986.

Latinos, despite a 4.4% increase in county hiring, still lag 2% behind their numbers in the civilian labor force.

Women have made the greatest gains in county employment, Diaz reported. With 57% of the jobs in county government, women are better represented on the county payroll than in Ventura County’s civilian job market.

Yet despite a 5.3% gain by minorities in the county government’s payroll since 1986, the county has made little progress in increasing minority representation in management, law enforcement and technical services.

Just three of the 42 executive positions in Ventura County government are held by minorities--the same number as in 1986--and minorities continue to be underrepresented in middle-management and supervisory positions.

Minorities have also made little headway in landing public safety jobs in the district attorney’s office, and sheriff’s and fire departments. The county has failed to meet its minority hiring goals for attorneys, probation officers, sheriff’s deputies, firefighters and supervisory positions in the sheriff’s and fire departments, according to the report.

Personnel Director Ron Komers attributed the slow gains to a combination of factors, including low turnover, personal preferences of job applicants and institutional barriers.

“Some positions like executive jobs, fire and sheriff’s positions have a very, very low turnover,” Komers said. “It takes a long time for people in the field to work their way up through the ranks.”

Another difficulty in hiring minorities for top-level positions is the general scarcity of qualified applicants, who can easily earn more by remaining in private industry, Komers said.

“In many cases such as the airport administrator position we are looking to fill, the pool of people knowledgeable about county government is quite small and those people are in high demand in both the public and private sector,” Komers said.

But Komers said the shortage of qualified applicants only serves to emphasize the county’s need to train and promote its own employees.

“Simply saying there are not enough qualified minority and women candidates cannot be a perennial excuse,” he said.

The county has met its minority hiring goals in 19 of the 36 job categories studied in the affirmative action report, an improvement over 1986 when the county met its goals in just 11 of the categories. Each category of employment has its own goal for minority hiring based on the proportion of minorities working in that field in the civilian economy.

But the hiring pattern remains similar to the past. Minorities currently comprise at least 40% of the county government’s unskilled maintenance workers, social work assistants, clerical assistants, court assistants and computer operators.

At the same time, fewer than 10% of the county’s top executives, librarians, attorneys and fire supervisors are minorities.

To focus attention on minority hiring, the supervisors will consider requiring each department to adopt an affirmative action plan to help achieve its minority hiring goals.

They will also consider authorizing the county’s affirmative action officer to review all new hirings for executive and other positions where minorities are significantly underrepresented.

Richard Wittenberg, the county’s chief administrative officer, said the affirmative action plan will help the county meet its minority hiring goals.

“The county is committed to the concept of equal employment and making sure we have the best possible person for each job,” Wittenberg said.

“Have we been perfect? No,” he said. “But it’s important to have a score card so you know where you stand.”

Women and Minorities in Ventura County Government

Percentage of Minority Employees (by job category)

Top Five Pct. General Maintenance 69.8 Social Worker Asst. 50.4 Computer Operators 46.5 Clerical Assistants 43.7 Court Assistants 42.5

Bottom Five Pct. Librarians 6.0 Executives 7.1 Attorneys 7.4 Communications 8.5 Fire Supervisors 9.8

Percentage of Women Employees (by job category)

Top Five Pct. Management Asst. 99.3 Clerical Supervisors 96.6 Nursing Professionals 94.6 Legal/Medical Asst. 94.0 Clerical Assistants 89.1

Bottom Five Pct. Fire Supervisors 0.0 Firefighters 4.7 High Skill Maintenance 6.0 Skilled Maintenance 6.4 Law Enforcement 6.7 Supervisor