Sanitary Districts Manager Will Retire Amid Inquires : Management: Safety and conflict-of-interest questions have been raised. Several on board praise official’s record.

The general manager of the Orange County Sanitation Districts has announced his retirement amid state and local probes into alleged safety violations at the agency and accusations of office mismanagement, a district spokesman confirmed Friday.

J. Wayne Sylvester, who is the target of a district attorney’s investigation into conflict-of-interest issues, informed the board of directors during an executive session Wednesday night that he will step down Dec. 31.

Several members of the agency’s board of directors praised Sylvester’s 35 years of service and said much of the turmoil surrounding the districts is not his fault.

“I personally am not surprised that he is retiring,” said board member Barry J. Hammond, who is also an Irvine councilman. “I think Wayne has served the district well for many, many years. . . . I think some of the recent media scrutiny has provided a little motivation for him to let someone else take over.”

The sanitation agency is made up of nine separate districts in the county and provides sewer collection, treatment and disposal services for more than 2 million Orange County residents.

In a three-page letter to the board, Sylvester cited undisclosed personal reasons for his decision to retire. “Quite frankly, I’m burned out,” he wrote.

He thanked the board and the districts’ staff for their support in making the districts “the leading waste-water management agency in the country.”

Sylvester’s tenure as general manager has come under fire this past year with accusations that the districts are poorly managed and have lost millions of dollars because of project cost overruns and legal expenses incurred from defending the districts against a number of lawsuits.

Most recently, the districts became the target of state and local investigations into a fire at a Huntington Beach plant that killed two workers. Cal/OSHA, the state’s occupational safety and health agency, cited the district for safety violations in the Feb. 1 incident.

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The Orange County district attorney’s office is continuing an investigation into the fire to determine whether criminal charges should be filed.

Additionally, the district attorney is looking into alleged conflict-of-interest violations against Sylvester, Deputy Dist. Atty. Matt Anderson said. Sylvester may have violated state ethics laws by accepting more than $250 worth of gifts from developers doing business with the districts, Anderson said.

As a result of some of the scrutiny of Sylvester and the districts, the 42-member board of directors commissioned a private firm to conduct a management analysis of the districts. In a preliminary report released in July, the consultants made 16 recommendations to improve management of district projects.

Sylvester was unavailable for comment Thursday, but he defended his record in his letter to the board.

“In recent years we have received close to 50 awards of excellence, including pollution prevention, source control and cutting edge technological efforts, culminating last year in being named the number one (waste-water agency) in the nation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,” Sylvester wrote.

He promised to assist “in any way . . . to assure a smooth management transition.”

The board of directors will be responsible for finding Sylvester’s replacement.

John C. Cox, joint-chairman of the board and a Newport Beach councilman, said Sylvester “has done an absolutely outstanding job over the past 35 years in every aspect of the districts’ operations. Wayne’s leadership and knowledge have been recognized by his peers nationwide.”

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Fountain Valley Mayor John Collins, another board member, said he was hoping that Sylvester would stay with the districts until the private management review was completed. He said the districts will be trying to reorganize to improve operations as a result of the management reviews.

“We’re expecting to get some good recommendations and I think we could use Wayne’s wealth of experience in trying to implement them,” he said.

Collins said some of the recent criticism of the districts “unfortunately got personalized . . . I think (Sylvester) took it personally.”

Anaheim Councilman Irv Pickler, another board member, said he thought Sylvester “has done a good job and is very efficient and businesslike. With all of the problems recently, maybe he figures it’s time to retire and get on with the things he likes to do.”

Pickler added that the allegations against Sylvester and the districts are “blown out of proportion. . . . I have seen nothing shady with Wayne. He is a good man.”