Good People Are Available in Bad Times : * Early Retirees, Senior Citizens Can Fill Public Jobs, Help Beleaguered Governments

In a time of tight budgets, local government increasingly finds itself just trying to get by with basic services. The result is that, as cuts affect city government, there are often fewer personnel available to do the work of those who are let go.

And as the recession also has hit private industry, there are more early retirees available out there to perform duties for their communities--if only someone will press them into service.

Laguna Niguel has figured out how to make the best of this twin fallout of hard times.

Its newly trained and sworn Police Auxiliary Team of 10 women and 13 men has been directing traffic, checking on houses of vacationing residents, speaking on crime prevention, registering bicycles and helping out with special events, among other things. The mobilization of these 23 senior-citizen volunteers thus has freed up full-time law enforcement officers to take care of other duties.

There are other programs like Laguna Niguel’s in Orange County. But Laguna Niguel apparently has a novel idea in its use of seniors to direct traffic during rush hour.

The assistance is needed. Work on a road-widening project along Alicia Parkway at Aliso Creek Road has made a mess at rush hour. But the seniors, armed with their training in traffic flow, are moving traffic along.

The seniors benefit, too. For Lloyd Wilbur, a 71-year-old retired banker, the participation has produced a new sense of contributing. He says that for about five years he was not “productive” but has found that “this is a good way to get out and meet people and get involved.”

So everybody gains--the community that gets these duties performed for free, and the seniors who feel as if they are accomplishing something.

As local government everywhere tries to cover more ground with fewer people, Laguna Niguel’s approach is worth emulating.