Point Reyes Light - September 23, 1999

County health officials put on administrative leave

The chief and another official with Marin County's Environmental Health Services - two men who have had a large share of authority over sewage and waste issues in West Marin - have been placed on administrative leave by their new boss and could be losing their jobs.

Ed Stewart, chief of Environmental Health Services and a county employee for 27 years, and staffer Dave Mesagno were placed on paid administrative leave Friday by the director of the Marin County Community Development Agency, Alex Hinds.

Mesagno had been reassigned in May to a position involving restaurant kitchen inspections after working 16 years in the department's Land Use and Solid Waste section, which regulates septic and other wastewater systems for the County of Marin.

Both Mesagno and Stewart protested the move by filing formal grievances with the county. Last month, Stewart told The Light that he suspected county supervisors had pressured Hinds into shaking up Environmental Health Services to make the office more friendly towards certain business applicants.

However, on the condition of anonymity, several West Marin business owners with recent septic and sewage-treatment applications told The Light this week they were in fact angry with Supervisor Steve Kinsey, who they said never did much at all to help them negotiate the often byzantine byways of Environmental Health.

Indeed, one of West Marin's organic food producers said he came very close to leaving Marin because of unreasonable demands by Environmental Health Services.

Hinds insisted this week that Mesagno's reassignment and the decision to put the two men on leave were based entirely on complaints he had heard about their performance before he took his post six months ago. "The decision to place them on paid administrative leave was in response to issues that had been raised prior to my employment by the county in March," he said.

Since taking the top job at the county Community Development Agency, Hinds has pledged to improve public service at the planning department and offered to jump on the third-rail of current West Marin politics - growth, and the septic regulations that have served as a de facto limit on growth.

Although Hinds declined to give any specific reasons for suspending the two employees, he said the decision had nothing to do with his plans to review county septic regulations or the grievances the two men filed in response to Mesagno's reassignment.

Other staff members are filling in for Mesagno during his leave, Hinds said. Bruce McCarthy, the environmental health specialist who swapped jobs with Mesagno in May, has been named acting chief of Environmental Health.

Hinds said he will decide within the next two weeks whether to fire Stewart and Mesagno. Whatever his decision, the two officials can appeal it to the county Personnel Commission, whose decision then can be appealed to the Board of Supervisors.

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