THE BUDGET IMPASSE : O.C. Congressional Aides ‘Essential’ : Shutdown: Only Rohrabacher among local delegation furloughs any office workers. The other five use their discretion to keep full staffs on job.

After months of preaching long and hard that workplace rules mandated for others should also apply to Congress, most of Orange County’s congressional delegation--Republicans all--decided that the furlough of federal workers should not include their own staffs, deeming them “essential” employees.

The exception was Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), who on Tuesday placed five workers in his Capitol Hill and Orange County district offices on forced leave due to the government shutdown. Rohrabacher has a combined staff of 10 full-time and three part-time employees.

With the decision left to the discretion of individual members of Congress, however, other Orange County representatives ruled all of their staffers are “essential” and instructed them to stay at work.

Rep. Ron Packard (R-Oceanside), who is still waiting for President Clinton to sign his bill, which pays for congressional operations, currently spends less money than authorized for his staff, said his spokeswoman, Michele S. Fischbein.

“We are not going to hire anyone who is not essential to carry out our function,” Fischbein said. Packard has a total of 13 full-time and two part-time staffers in his Capitol Hill office and two Southern California district offices.

Reps. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach), Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove), Jay Kim (R-Diamond Bar) and Ed Royce (R-Fullerton) also are retaining full staffs through the government shutdown.

Cox and Dornan each have 15 staff members in their Washington and Orange County offices, Kim has 16 divided among three offices and Royce has 14 employees.

Royce said his decision was based on his belief the budget impasse will be broken sooner than later.

“We are working toward solving this problem and we believe it will be solved . . . hopefully, tonight,” Royce said Tuesday.

But he hinted his decision could change. “We will look at [furloughs] on a day-to-day basis. . . . If this continues, we will be putting people on furlough.”

Vincent Sollitto, Cox’s spokesman, said that because furloughed workers are expected to receive back pay once a spending plan is negotiated, it makes sense to require congressional staffers to report for duty.

“If, under the discretion of members [of Congress], they are allowed to work, and they are going to get paid in the future, then they are going to work,” Sollitto said.

Rick Dykema, Rohrabacher’s legislative director, said the decision to send workers home was not an easy one, but was based on instructions from the House Oversight Committee. The panel advised House members to keep only “essential personnel,” defining them as those “whose primary job responsibilities are directly related to legislative activities.”

“We are trying to follow the guidelines,” Dykema said. “That does not seem to involve caseworkers and constituent work.” The two staffers in the Washington office who were furloughed handle a variety of tasks--from answering routine constituent mail to scheduling, accounting and conducting tours of the Capitol.

Since most federal offices are closed and tours of the Capitol and other monuments canceled as the result of the federal budget crisis, Dykema said the workload of these workers is greatly diminished and they “aren’t essential to the constitutional legislative duties” of the congressman.

If there is any opposition to the Republican strategy in its budget showdown with President Clinton, it’s not coming from mostly conservative Orange County, congressional staffers contended. They described voters’ reaction to the government shutdown in very similar terms.

“The only calls, frankly, that we have had are from constituents that have said, ‘Just stick to your guns,’ ” said Joan Bates-Kovich, Royce’s administrative assistant.

“All of the phone calls have been overwhelming. They have asked Congressman Packard to hang tough, balance the budget and do whatever it takes,” Fischbein said.

Dornan has not responded to telephone calls concerning the federal budget crisis.

The closure of government operations also posed an inconvenience for a south Orange County group in town to lobby against a commercial airport at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

A key meeting scheduled with Defense Department officials considering a planning grant for conversion of the base to civilian use was canceled because the bureaucrats were ordered off the job.

“We come to Washington and they close it,” joked Bill Kogerman, a co-chairman of the Taxpayers for Responsible Planning.

The group did squeeze in a meeting with Transportation Department officials and some Orange County congressmen.

With House office buildings staffed at almost usual capacity, there were just a few signs of the budget crisis affecting hundreds of thousands of federal workers elsewhere.

Some congressional staffers wore computer-generated paper buttons which read: “Hi! I’m essential.”

They also pacified constituents who had reserved tickets for tours of the White House, the Capitol and other tourist favorites by diverting them to Mount Vernon, the National Cathedral and other locations not run by the federal government.