Official’s Absences Go Unquestioned by City

The high absentee rate of a top Los Angeles city official has gone unscrutinized by Mayor Richard Riordan, despite a city policy that requires mandatory accounting of time for all employees who frequently miss work.

Randall C. Bacon, head of the city’s General Services Department, reported that his sick days added up to nearly six weeks in 1995, nearly 2 1/2 times the total that is supposed to trigger an attendance review. Yet no review has been conducted.

When combined with vacation time, Bacon was away from his job for 50 days, considerably more than the general managers of eight other large city departments whose records were reviewed by The Times. His absenteeism has raised concern in some quarters of City Hall about how well he is managing his department and complaints that the city’s attendance policies are not being applied uniformly.

Bacon declined repeated requests by The Times to explain his attendance record. He would not say whether he has a serious or chronic illness. “I have missed some days here and there,” he said. “I don’t feel I owe an explanation to you.”

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City regulations, however, require all employees to explain frequent sick leaves to their supervisors. Supervisors are supposed to draw a “medical calendar” and review attendance with workers who exceed a certain number of illnesses. In the Department of General Services, the threshold is more than six cases of illness and more than 97 hours of work missed in a year. Bacon was out sick on 20 separate occasions for a total of 236 hours in 1995.

As Bacon’s immediate supervisor, Riordan is responsible for reviewing his attendance.

One of the mayor’s top aides said he was “surprised” when informed of the executive’s total absences. But Michael Keeley, chief operating officer in the mayor’s office, said no inquiry is planned.

“The mayor’s goal is not to count vacation and sick time. It’s to meet performance standards,” Keeley said. “[Bacon] has not disappointed us on any front.”

Two City Council members and City Controller Rick Tuttle were more disturbed when informed about Bacon’s attendance record.

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“That’s an awful lot of absences,” said Councilwoman Laura Chick. “I think that city policy should be enforced. . . . The mayor and his office should be following that procedure and scrutinizing and asking questions.”

Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, who heads the council’s Personnel Committee, agreed. “It’s the responsibility of the mayor’s office to see to it that general managers are not violating the personnel policies of the city,” Goldberg said. “Every employee should be treated the same.”

Julie Butcher, a spokeswoman for Service Employees International Union Local 347, noted that several lower-level General Services Department employees have been closely monitored, and suspended, for their use of sick time. She said Bacon should live by the same rules.

A single mother who worked in the print shop was suspended after supervisors found that she had taken off too much sick time caring for a terminally ill child, Butcher said. “Workers who are struggling to come to work every day need to know that their leader is being held to at least the same standard,” Butcher said.

Rigorous accounting for sick time is not meant only to root out malingerers, city officials said. It is also designed to help support workers who are ill and assure that they have proper medical care. The policy also allows the city to make contingency plans for completing the work of an employee who is often out sick.

Bacon is paid $133,903 a year, the 12th-highest sum on the city payroll. The 57-year-old administrator runs the department that maintains the city’s buildings, services its vehicles and purchases its supplies and equipment. With a $172-million budget and 1,752 employees, General Services is one of the largest departments in the city.

Bacon was the No. 3 administrator in San Diego County when then Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley hired him in 1988 to run the department.

Bacon maintains a lower profile at City Hall than his predecessor, Sylvia Cunliffe, who resigned under pressure amid charges of nepotism and mismanagement. Bacon commonly sends his assistants to City Council hearings and other public events.

In recent weeks, his department has received intensive scrutiny because one of the trash trucks that it maintained malfunctioned and tore apart a school bus, killing two boys. A review showed that slipshod policies and supervision in a General Services maintenance yard allowed the trash truck to return to the road, despite a driver’s warning that a trash-compacting device was broken.

Bacon’s department has also been cited in the last two years in frequent negative audits, which found that the department paid too much for supplies and warehoused too much of some goods and not enough of others. The department was embarrassed three years ago when Bacon’s top lieutenant resigned amid allegations that he improperly paid himself nearly $100,000 for overtime he did not work.

Riordan and Councilman Joel Wachs have been closely monitoring the department in hopes of saving money on facilities and procurement. Both elected officials have given Bacon high marks for responding promptly to criticism about his department.

But Tuttle, who conducted the audits, has criticized Bacon for leading a department that has “more than its share of problems.”

He also called on Riordan to hold Bacon accountable for his time off. “We are talking about taxpayers’ money being used for sick leave,” Tuttle said, “and there need to be valid reasons why it is taken.”

Counting all his time off for vacation, illness and conferences, Bacon was out of the office nearly one in every four days in 1995.

Los Angeles gives its employees 11 1/2 holidays a year, leaving 248 1/2 workdays. Bacon was on vacation 20 1/2 days, out sick 29 1/2 more and away from the city attending conferences--mostly the National Forum of Black Public Administrators--on 10 other days, according to city records. That adds up to 60 days out of the office.

At the request of The Times, the city controller’s office calculated the sick and vacation time of general managers of eight other large departments for comparison. The sampling showed that Bacon spent more time away from the job than the others.

Police Chief Willie L. Williams has sometimes been criticized for being away from the city at critical times, yet he was off just 20 days in 1995, 17 days of vacation and three days sick, according to the controller’s office.

Delwin A. Biagi, director of the city’s Bureau of Sanitation, took 24 days of vacation, but used no sick time. Harbor Department Chief Ezunial Burts logged eight weeks vacation and no sick time. City Administrative Officer Keith Comrie took four weeks vacation and no sick time. Airport General Manager Jack Driscoll took four days vacation and used no sick time. City Engineer Robert S. Horii took nearly five weeks vacation, but no sick leave. Housing Department General Manager Gary Squier missed 3 1/2 weeks, about three-fourths vacation and one-fourth sick time. Recreation and Parks General Manager Jackie Tatum took two weeks vacation and no sick time.