Cities Still See Work Force Inequities : Discrimination: Some officials fear debate over affirmative action may erode gains by women and minorities and send the wrong message.

Ventura County Medical Center’s chief administrator is Latino. Oxnard’s police chief is African American. And Ventura’s city manager is a woman.

But despite these and other significant gains by women and minorities in local government over the last decade, representatives from municipalities say they are far from achieving their goals of a balanced work force.

White males continue to hold a disproportionate share of government jobs, especially as top executives, officials say.

“It’s hard to be competitive when your numbers are small,” said Maria Diaz, former county affirmative action officer. “And because of downsizing, it is becoming even more difficult to promote and hire minorities.”

With affirmative action hiring at the center of a heated debate among lawmakers, Diaz and others worry that employment and advancement opportunities for women and minorities could be further diminished.

“It’s one of those things where you think, ‘Why do we have to start this fight all over again?’ ” said Diaz, who now works in the county Fire Department’s personnel office.

But critics say that affirmative action hiring is discriminatory against whites and should be abolished.

“The county’s affirmative action policies, goals and quotas are no less discriminatory than George Wallace’s Alabama of the 1950s,” said Steve Frank, a Simi Valley government relations consultant. “Bigotry is bigotry.”

Frank, who led a local campaign in support of Proposition 187, said he plans to do the same for a proposed 1996 statewide ballot measure called the California Civil Rights Initiative. The initiative would prohibit local governments from giving preferential treatment to employees or job applicants based on race or sex.

“To oppose this measure, you would have to call Martin Luther King a racist,” Frank said. “Affirmative action has always been about discrimination. That’s not what Martin Luther King was about, and that’s not what the Constitution is about.”

Diaz said that the county’s affirmative action policies are not discriminatory or aimed at giving women and minorities special treatment. They are simply meant to ensure that women and minorities are given equal consideration in hiring, she said.

“It is a way of making department heads accountable, just knowing that someone is looking over their shoulder,” she said.

Representatives from the cities of Simi Valley, Ventura, Oxnard and Santa Paula said their affirmative action policies and goals are designed to broaden the pool of job applicants and not to give advantages to any particular groups.

“Our city doesn’t give any extra points for being a minority,” said Simi Valley Mayor Greg Stratton. “We just want the best person for the job. We’re colorblind on that.”

Although the city has made some gains in minority hiring, Stratton said the work force remains largely reflective of the community, which is 80% white. Of the city’s 522 employees, 78.5% are white and 54% are white men.

But the percentage of white men in the Simi Valley Police Department is even higher, 85.7%. And in the coming year, city officials plan to step up minority recruiting efforts through job fairs and advertisements in trade magazines.

Meanwhile, Ron Komers, the county’s personnel director, said he does not believe that women and minority employees would have made the inroads they have without the county’s affirmative action policies and goals. He said the policies force managers to “work harder” at diversifying the work force.

Komers said he is pleased with the progress that has been made, but that the county still needs to do better in recruiting and hiring minorities in a number of areas, including law enforcement, fire protection and technical services.

Minorities make up nearly a third of the county government’s work force, but remain underrepresented at the management level, he said. Just 17 minority executives, or 10.9%, are among the 155 top county bosses, according to a 1994 county study. And just 18% of the second-echelon county managers are minorities.

Komers attributed the slow gains in part to government downsizing and low turnover rates at the management level. He said the county has also had to drop training and career development programs because of budget cutbacks, making it more difficult for employees to move up the ranks.

“It’s a question of making an investment in people,” he said. “There needs to be a partnership between management and employees to develop everybody’s potential.”

Budget cutbacks have also eliminated Diaz’s former position of affirmative action officer in which she investigated complaints by county employees about unfair promotions or alleged discrimination. Grievances are now directed to affirmative action coordinators within each department.

Komers said the county receives about 30 complaints a year from employees about alleged sexual harassment or discrimination, and that the majority of cases are resolved without going to court.

But Diaz said she worries that the loss of a full-time affirmative action officer could erode the county’s progress in hiring minorities.

“I think it sends out a message about where on the list of priorities affirmative action is for the county,” she said. “I’m not saying the county was not correct in making the decision they did. But that is the message that goes out to employees and job applicants.”

More than any other group, women have made the greatest gains in county government over the last six years, according to the county’s 1994 study. With 57% of the jobs, the report found that women are better represented on the county payroll than in the civilian job market.

Cmdr. Kathryn E. Kemp, a 16-year veteran of the Sheriff’s Department, credited the county’s affirmative action policies in helping her along in her career. Kemp was promoted to Thousand Oaks police chief in 1993.

“I do believe there was a need to have females in upper management in the department and that opened up doors for me,” Kemp said. “But if I was not qualified and adequately prepared, I don’t think it would have made any difference.”

Sheila Gonzalez, chief administrator of the county courts, said that the county showed “a lot of oomph” when they hired her eight years ago.

Since then, Gonzalez has been praised by county officials for creating innovative programs that have helped streamline court operations, and she has received a national award recognizing her work.

Gonzalez became a finalist for the job of Los Angeles County courts administrator in December, but says she did not get the job because of biases that still exist within the system.

“Several judges told me later that being a female with a Hispanic surname hurt me,” said Gonzalez, who is not Latino. “I was beat out by a white male from New Jersey.”

Still, Gonzalez said she has no regrets about applying.

“I felt very strongly that as a professional and a woman I had to apply for that job,” she said. “I felt it was important to make a statement that a woman is qualified to do the job.”

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City, County Employees by Race, Sex

Total % % % employees White Latino Black Camarillo 118 68.0 26.0 2.5 Fillmore 28 57.1 42.8 0.0 Moorpark 37 67.5 27.0 2.7 Ojai 27 88.8 11.1 0.0 Oxnard 839 51.0 36.6 5.2 Port Hueneme 77 68.8 25.9 2.5 Santa Paula 93 61.2 34.4 0.0 Simi Valley 522 78.5 11.5 3.7 Thousand Oaks 385 88.6 7.1 0.5 Ventura 810 77.2 18.8 2.0 Ventura County* 6,218 69.4 21.5 3.4

- County figures are from December, 1993, the latest statistics available that include a breakdown of minority and women employees. The current number of county employees is 6,365.

Sources: Ventura County, cities and 1990 U.S. Census

City, County Employees by Race, Sex (Cont’d.)

Total % % Native % % white employees Asian American Women population Camarillo 118 3.4 0.0 35 80.0 Fillmore 28 0.0 0.0 28.5 39.0 Moorpark 37 2.7 0.0 48.6 70.0 Ojai 27 0.0 0.0 51.8 85.0 Oxnard 839 5.7 1.3 29.1 32.0 Port Hueneme 77 2.5 0.0 35.0 58.0 Santa Paula 93 3.2 1.0 23.6 39.0 Simi Valley 522 5.0 1.4 31.2 80.0 Thousand Oaks 385 2.9 0.5 44.0 84.0 Ventura 810 1.4 0.2 37.1 77.0 Ventura County* 6,218 5.3 0.5 57.1 66.0

* County figures are from December, 1993, the latest statistics available that include a breakdown of minority and women employees. The current number of county employees is 6,365.

Sources: Ventura County, cities and 1990 U.S. Census