ORANGE COUNTY IN BANKRUPTCY : Supervisors Turn to Solid Civil Servant in Troubled Times : Profile: Tom Uram has reputation as no-nonsense type who follows orders. Former supervisor Wieder questions his readiness.

In choosing Tom Uram as interim chief administrative officer, Orange County supervisors tapped a career civil servant with a reputation for pragmatism, candor and a dogged commitment to fiscal responsibility to lead the county through the financially shaky days ahead.

“This guy will be perfect for this job,” said Dr. Peter Anderson, president of the Orange County Medical Assn., who for more than a decade has regularly faced Uram across a negotiating table when it came time to hammer out physician payment levels for indigent health care.

“Every penny counts in his eyes. If I were a county (official) . . . and I wanted to make sure every dollar is protected, this is the guy who could do it.”

Uram is a no-nonsense-type who gets the job done on time and within budget, said Anderson and others who have worked with him over the years.

“He’s very straightforward, very honest--and very dedicated,” said Chauncey Alexander, founder of the United Way of Orange County Health Care Council. “He’s cautious, and he will follow clearly the policies that are set down by the Board of Supervisors. He’s not an adventurer.”

Uram himself, displaying characteristic wry humor, joked that 90% of the messages he has received from colleagues in response to the appointment contain “congratulations, and condolences.”

He said he did not view his role as pulling the county out of its fiscal morass but sees himself as more than a simple caretaker. He declined, however, to discuss his plans in detail, saying he has not had an opportunity to discuss the matter with the supervisors.

He is taking a huge leap--moving from a county agency with a budget of $228 million and 2,200 employees--to leader of an entire county administration with a budget of $3.7 billion and almost nine times the staff. Although he has spent his 28-year career as a health-care administrator, he cautiously suggested that the skills are transferable to a larger realm.

“I think I’ve proved myself a leader over here,” he said. “Maybe I can prove myself a leader over there too. . . . I’ll give (the county) 110%.”

Supervisors, who gave Uram their unanimous endorsement, said he already has proved himself capable in a crisis. Board Chairman Gaddi H. Vasquez said Uram was chosen to succeed Ernie Schneider not only because of his “many, many years of experience” in government but also because he has been involved in the restructuring of county government since the bankruptcy was declared, chiefly as a member of the county’s Operations Management Council.

The council, which also includes Sheriff-Coroner Brad Gates and Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi, had the onerous task of determining which departments took what share of $40.2 million in layoffs, cuts and revenue shifts in response to the fiscal disaster.

“Tom is a very knowledgeable individual . . . and he brings an immediate capacity to get started,” Vasquez said.

Others, however, were skeptical. Former Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder said he may not be prepared for such a diverse job.

“What does Tom know about finances? I think he will have to defer to Eileen Walsh (county finance officer) on that. . . . Tom was a department head. He ran a department. I don’t know if that would qualify him for running the county.”

Uram has been described by sources as the quietest of the three on the management council, often injecting some much-needed humor into the otherwise bleak deliberations. It was not, however, a duty he enjoyed. Uram, whose own agency took a $3-million hit, described the process as grueling.

“I didn’t want to do this when I grew up,” he said last month, clearly exhausted after a nine-day session in which the council met with county department heads to hash out how much each of their budgets could be slashed.

Uram was consistently more open than his fellow council members about the possibilities for cutbacks, at one point speculating that health-care clinics and children’s health programs would be on the chopping block. So far, however, no clinics have been scheduled for closure.

Before the fiscal crisis, Uram occasionally had drawn the spotlight--and some admiration--for his candid observations. In 1993, for example, he told the Orange County Grand Jury that white youths often get better mental-health care than minorities because their parents can afford lawyers who push their demands.

In 1990, when his agency appeared likely to take cuts of more than $13 million in state funding for the indigent, he offered what he considered a realistic--if unwelcome--perspective to a group of health care providers.

“Public safety is a higher priority than health. That’s the considered opinion of the Board of Supervisors, the Legislature. That’s the way they think,” Uram said in an address to the United Way Health Care Task Force.

Times staff writer Len Hall contributed to this story.

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Profile: Tom Uram

Tom Uram, the low-profile director of the Orange County Health Care Agency, will replace Ernie Schneider on an interim basis as county administrative officer. A profile:

Age: 58

Home: Corona del Mar

Education: Graduate, UC Irvine, Executive Program, 1986; master’s degree, public health Administration, specializing in health care, USC, 1973; bachelor’s degree, business administration, factory management major, University of Michigan, 1958

Experience: Orange County Health Care Agency director, August, 1985 to present; Yolo County Health Agency administrator, 1979-1985; Ventura County deputy director fiscal services, Health Care Agency, 1972-1979; administrative officer, Ventura General Hospital, 1967-1972.

Source: Orange County Health Care Agency