Countywide : Supervisors Cut 46 Positions From EMA

Reflecting the dramatic downturn in the state economy, county officials approved a sweeping reduction of one of their largest bureaucracies, slicing 46 positions Tuesday from the Environmental Management Agency.

The cuts, achieved through the elimination of vacant positions, were approved by the Board of Supervisors. The action was expected to save the county government about $2.5 million annually.

The reductions are part of a five-year austerity plan for an agency that grew rapidly during the county construction boom of the 1980s but has since seen its workload shrink as development slowed and more South County municipal incorporations were approved.

EMA manages the planning of residential and business development in the county’s unincorporated areas. The agency also oversees the county’s building permit functions, building inspections, public works, housing and redevelopment, and harbors, beaches and parks.

With the cuts Tuesday, staff reductions in the past two years total 250 positions. When the agency’s reorganization is complete by June, 1997, officials hope to have eliminated 337 positions for a savings of nearly $250 million annually.

“It’s been like having a 190-pound man go on a diet and lose 30 pounds,” said Ronald J. Novello, EMA’s director of administration. “We still have 10 pounds to lose, but everybody knows that the last 10 pounds are the hardest to lose.”

Novello, who said the reductions have been particularly exacting on the agency, characterized the process at times as a trip through “the valley of despair.”

But Novello said the agency is functioning well at its new staffing levels.

“I am glad to see you are out of the valley of despair and into the sunshine,” Supervisor Roger R. Stanton said.