CALIFORNIA PERFORMANCE REVIEW

By William Wan

July 31, 2004 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

The plan to overhaul the state government includes a proposal to consolidate California’s public safety system under one department in a move to fight potential terrorism while cutting costs.

The Department of Public Safety and Homeland Security, as it would be called, would replace or oversee more than 80 state entities involved in public safety. The report’s authors found that the “current system contributes to a bloated, confusing and unresponsive government.”

One department, the panel argued, would enable state law enforcement officials to more quickly respond to statewide emergencies. The report did not include how much money would be saved by such a move.

The proposal, however, received a lukewarm response Friday from several public safety agencies.

“We support anything that gives efficiency to the government,” said Carl Dewing of the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, but whether the plan would accomplish that “remains to be seen.”

The results depend on the plan’s details, said Tom Marshall, spokesman for the California Highway Patrol.

“And so far, we’re pretty much in the dark on this.... All we know is what we’ve read in the newspaper.”

The report built a case for placing agencies that deal with public safety under one department, noting that “no unified command structure [is] in place to oversee operations.”

The department would be split into four divisions: California Highway Patrol, Law Enforcement, Fire Protection and Emergency Management, and Victim Services.

The CHP would take on the responsibility for training other state law enforcement officers in the new department.

The proposals dealing with public safety, outlined in the 2,547-page document, range from broad suggestions to such specifics as eliminating the “peace officer” title from certain positions in the Department of Social Services.

The study also criticized several law enforcement agencies, citing past emergencies in which departments, such as the CHP, wasted time squabbling over jurisdiction.

“Examples of inefficiency are not hard to find,” the report said.

The report questioned, for example, why Department of Fish and Game wardens were sent home after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

“It makes no sense,” the report said. “Their aircraft and watercraft ... could have been better used protecting waterways and other possible terrorist targets.”

The report also skewers authorities for relegating state park rangers to “picking up trash” or “simply passing out brochures at campground entrance gates; their training and expertise makes them much too valuable a resource.”

“I’m not sure [rangers] are out there picking up trash,” said Roy Sterns, spokesman for the Department of Parks and Recreation. “I’m sure there will be parts in the report we need to clear up.”

But on the whole his department, like several others, is adopting a wait-and-see attitude.

“It’s obvious that a lot of effort has been put into the review,” Sterns said. “We feel we should be a team player and give everything a shot.”