County, Retirement Board Reach Accord : Negotiations: Government may gain $13 million. In return, retired workers will receive a medical benefit program.

SANTA ANA —  County officials and representatives of the retirement board have hammered out a tentative deal in their long-running negotiations, and analysts say the county may gain more than $13 million as a result.

In return, the county has agreed to begin paying for a medical benefit program for retired workers, a perquisite long sought by the retirement board.

“We’re moving. We’re moving this thing,” Robert Thomas, a retirement board member and former county administrative officer, said Tuesday. “It looks very hopeful.”

If upheld by the county unions, the Board of Supervisors and the retirement board, the agreement would mark the end of a long and bitter dispute over how to deal with large surpluses in the pension fund of county government workers.

County budget officials have said the surplus should help reduce the county budget deficit, while representatives of the retirement board have argued that the money represents the retirement savings of county workers and should not be given to the government without concessions.

Although the exact financial implications of the package are still unclear, preliminary signs indicate that it would supply the government with even more money than originally anticipated. The Board of Supervisors has included $12.4 million in retirement savings as part of the county’s current budget projections.

But Steven E. Lewis, the county auditor-controller, said that the actual savings may top $13 million, and could run as high as $13.5 million.

“No number’s an exact number at this point,” he said, “but it looks like we’re in pretty good shape.”

In return, the retirement board members lobbied for creation of a medical insurance program that would be paid by workers and the government.

Creation of that program is part of the tentative deal, officials said, but the county must now take the proposal to unions representing county workers since their members would be asked to help pay for it.

The deal was agreed to in principle last week during a meeting with Assistant County Administrative Officer Murry Cable, officials who attended that meeting said.

Cable declined to comment on the specifics of the agreement until after the full retirement board considers it on Sept. 10, but he called it “a solution to our mutual problems.”

If the retirement board agrees, Cable said the deal could be closed by Oct. 1 and the plan put in place by Jan. 1.