County CEO Would Recast Government

Orange County Chief Executive Officer Jan Mittermeier has proposed a sweeping restructuring of local government that promises to change the way residents receive public services and redefine long-held responsibilities of cities, special districts and the county.

Her ideas are contained in a memo that outlines a two-year process of workshops, public meetings and negotiations among various public agencies that would result in a series of reforms that could be in place by the end of the century.

The memo doesn’t list many specific restructuring recommendations, but does state general goals such as a 10% reduction in administrative costs for county-run programs and the consolidation of water, sanitation and other special districts.

The proposal comes as other groups, including the League of California Cities, a consortium of South County water districts and local transportation agencies, consider ideas for government consolidation and reform.

Assembly Speaker Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove) favors a November ballot measure calling for the merger of Orange County’s more than 20 independent water and sanitation agencies into a single countywide entity.

County officials said one of their key goals is to bring the different interests and ideas together into a single restructuring process.

“There are so many different efforts going on right now,” county spokeswomen Lynn Fishel said. “The hope is to get people into a cooperative process.”

Though cities and the county have been feuding for much of the last year over bankruptcy-related matters, municipal officials expressed interest Tuesday in working to improve the system.

“I think we need to wipe the slate clean and work together. I don’t think there is a point to bringing a lot of baggage from the past,” said Huntington Beach Councilman Ralph Bauer, a frequent critic of the county on bankruptcy issues. “I don’t think parochialism is the way to go.”

County supervisors also reacted favorably to the proposal. “It’s a good blueprint for restructuring,” Supervisor Don Saltarelli said. “It provides us with a basis with which to move forward.”

Mittermeier’s proposal is similar to--but far more general than--a radical government restructuring plan that Supervisor Marian Bergeson proposed a year ago.

Bergeson’s “Orange County--2001” plan would have dramatically reduced the size of county government by placing responsibility for police, library and housing services in the hands of cities, and giving duties of investment, property tax administration and voter registration to the state.

Bergeson on Tuesday endorsed Mittermeier’s approach, saying the current government structure is an obsolete throwback to the county’s agricultural past and does not adequately address today’s realities.

“I think the general trend is very much in keeping with what I think needs to be done,” Bergeson said of the proposal. “It doesn’t have a lot of meat on the bones yet. But that will come when we look at the long-term issues. . . . You have to evaluate before you can prioritize and make decisions.”

Mittermeier’s proposal would place responsibility for regional services such as jails and countywide land-use planning in the hands of a “regional governing body,” presumably the Board of Supervisors. Cities would handle municipal services such as road maintenance and local planning.

The restructuring process would also look at ways of operating more efficiently by halting duplication of services among agencies. Contracting out more government functions to the private sector and linking governments together though high technology would also be considered.

Additionally, the process would focus on the possible annexation of small, unincorporated county “islands” into the cities that surround them--a move that officials said would boost efficiency.

Under the plan, the county would create a panel later this year composed of representatives from public agencies to discuss detailed restructuring proposals. By mid-1997, the Board of Supervisors would conduct hearings on the proposals and seek approval from the state Legislature, the Local Agency Formation Commission and the various agencies.

Despite the positive reception to the plan, Bergeson warned that the process will require tedious negotiations. “This is not going to happen overnight,” she said. “It will eventually get into issues where people are going to square off and say, ‘This is mine, you can’t touch this.’ . . . We’ll need to get beyond that.”