Countywide : Pollution Control Planner Gets Post

After a nationwide search for a deputy director of the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District, the district’s own manager of planning, William Mount, was named to the new post.

Mount, 39, hired in 1984, was the best of 35 applicants who applied for the job that requires technical, enforcement, administrative and management skills, said Richard Baldwin, the county’s air pollution control officer and head of the 73-person department.

Mount will begin his new post assisting Baldwin and directly overseeing some department divisions on Nov. 23, but will retain many of his duties as head of planning until he can be replaced in that position.

Mount, who holds a bachelor’s degree in environmental science from the University of Georgia, worked as an air quality enforcement officer and air quality analyst in Tucson before coming to Ventura as a senior air pollution instrument technician. He was promoted to manager of planning in 1986.

As planning manager, Mount has been responsible for writing the county’s Air Quality Management Plans, which set the district’s course for meeting state and federal clean air standards.