County OKs Sobering Plan for Workers : Drugs: Rehabilitation is the focus of an ordinance designed to help employees fight drug and alcohol abuse.

More than 10,000 San Diego County employees and hundreds of other county contract workers will be affected by an anti-drug ordinance approved Tuesday by the county Board of Supervisors and heralded as a precedent-setting program by board Chairwoman Susan Golding.

The new drug and alcohol regulations were drawn up in sessions among county management and all seven unions representing county employees.

Under the ordinance, county workers suspected of being under the influence of drugs or alcohol are referred by their supervisors to a counseling and rehabilitation program. Only after repeated offenses or refusal to submit to treatment are the workers threatened with the loss of their jobs.

Drug testing is limited to applicants for sensitive positions and to those referred to treatment programs, according to Ethel (Dee) Chastain, director of the county human services department. Which positions are “sensitive” has not yet been determined, but Chastain said law enforcement would be among them.

In midday ceremonies Tuesday, Golding warned that passage of the ordinance did not ensure success. Only the cooperation of the workers themselves will bring about a “safe and drug-free workplace,” she said.

The policy specifies that “an employee’s job performance or safety shall not be in any way impaired because the employee is under the influence of alcohol or a drug,” and prohibits any employee from possessing drugs or alcohol or consuming them on county premises. Employees also are prohibited from selling, offering or providing alcohol or drugs to others on county property.

A key to the program is training supervisors to detect drug or alcohol use by their employees. Those suspected will be referred to a treatment program and their records kept secret.

Employees of county contractors are governed by similar regulations, as are county supervisors themselves.

Exceptions to the anti-drug policy include special, infrequent occasions when alcohol consumption is permitted on county property, “but only with specific, prior written approval from the county’s chief administrative officer.” The exception does not include employees who, upon returning to work, have “a reasonable expectation of contact with the public wherein an intoxicant odor on breath or clothing might impair the public trust and confidence in the sobriety of the employee.”

Also exempted are employees who live on county property. Activity “considered appropriate or legal if his/her residence were on private property” is permitted.