BOND TICKER : ORANGE COUNTY IN BANKRUPTCY : Board Expected to Reject EMA Privatization Offers

The Orange County Board of Supervisors today is expected to follow the recommendation of the county’s privatization task force and reject proposals from companies seeking to take over the Environmental Management Agency.

The task force declined to endorse any of the four privatization proposals. Instead, the panel’s report urges that the supervisors “refine the county’s strategy of how to privatize all or part of the EMA.”

The EMA, the county’s largest department, is in charge of maintaining parks and roads, reviewing development plans and managing flood-control channels.

In its report, the task force said it might be more efficient to privatize portions of EMA rather than give control of the entire operation to a single company.

Three companies have submitted proposals to take over the EMA. A fourth proposal came from a county employee who said the EMA should remain under county control but adopt efficiency-producing techniques used in private industry.

By identifying which EMA functions it wanted to privatize, the county would probably generate more “substantial proposals,” the task force said.

Yes on R War Chest Grows

The Yes on Measure R campaign continued to fatten its war chest over the past few days, accepting a $108,123 contribution from Kemper Financial Services Inc. of Chicago.

Campaign officials said Kemper is one of its largest donors, behind the Irvine Co., California Teachers Assn. and Charles Schwab Inc.

Kemper holds nearly $200 million of the $975 million in Orange County bonds that come due this summer.

With eight days to go before voters decide the fate of the proposed half-cent sales tax increase, the Yes on Measure R campaign had raised more than $1.4 million, according to campaign finance reports. The main anti-Measure R group, called Citizens Against the Tax Increase, had raised about $70,000, according to campaign reports.

Irvine Recall Signatures Collected

Irvine’s first recall drive continues.

Former Democratic congressional candidate Gary Kingsbury has targeted three Irvine council members who voted last summer to borrow $62 million, an amount equivalent to the city’s annual operating budget, to place in the county investment pool.

With $208 million in the pool when the county declared bankruptcy Dec. 6, Irvine was the biggest municipal investor in the county.

Kingsbury said his band of about 30 volunteers has collected roughly 3,000 signatures on recall petitions for each council member during the last seven weekends.

The recall drive is aimed at Mayor Michael Ward and council members Barry J. Hammond and Paula Werner, who defend their actions by pointing out that financial advisers were unanimous in recommending the investment deal.

Kingsbury and friends recently hired the services of Sacramento campaign consultant Chris Maupin to help them secure the 8,445 signatures per council member required by Oct. 3 to qualify for a recall election.

Compiled by Times correspondent Shelby Grad with correspondents Russ Loar and John Pope.