Affirmative Action Hiring Drops : Simi Valley: The mayor blames the recession. Report also says the city trails in drawing white and Latino women.

The number of women and minorities hired by the city of Simi Valley for targeted affirmative action jobs fell this year, a decline officials blamed on the recession and an overall drop in hiring.

Of 67 employees hired by Simi Valley in 1993, 39 were women or minorities, according to a report presented this week to the City Council. But only four of those were considered affirmative action hires under the city’s five-year plan to fill certain positions, including administrative jobs, with minorities.

By comparison, the report showed, the city made six affirmative action hires in 1992 and eight in 1991, when the five-year plan went into effect. The plan maps out job categories--including administrative, law enforcement and technical positions--and charts the city’s progress in filling them.

“The big problem is the recession,” Mayor Greg Stratton said. “Nobody quits and we’re not expanding, which really cuts down on our hiring and our ability to go out and seek applicants.”

Of the city’s 518 employees, 20% are minorities, 26% are white women and about 54% are white men, the report said.

The report also showed that Simi Valley lagged behind other cities and Ventura County in its ability to attract white and Latino women.

White women represent about 33% of government workers throughout Ventura County, but only 26% of Simi Valley city employees, according to the report. And although Latino women account for 9% of workers in government jobs throughout the county, they made up only about 3.5% of the Simi Valley city work force.

Stratton said the small number of Latino women applying for city jobs may also be a result of the city’s relatively small Latino population compared to other cities in the county.

While more than 80% of Simi Valley’s population is white, in Oxnard more than half the population is Latino and about a third is white, according to the 1990 U.S. census.

Councilwoman Sandi Webb said the city’s hiring of all candidates has slowed because of budget cutbacks. In past years, city officials have actively recruited minorities at job fairs and by advertising in government publications, but those efforts have been curtailed because of lack of funding, she said.

“It gets hairy,” Webb said. “You want to hire the best qualified worker, but being a public entity you want to make sure (the city doesn’t) discriminate against anyone.”

Simi Valley launched its five-year affirmative action plan in 1991 to comply with state and federal legislation calling for more women and minorities in government.

The city’s hiring goal, to add 33 women and minorities in targeted positions to the city work force by the end of 1995, was based on the total number of city employees and the percentage of minorities and women in the county’s population.

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This year, the city fulfilled two goals of the five-year plan by hiring two white women for management positions and two Latinos for technical positions, the report said. Technical positions include assistant engineers, police sergeants and building inspectors.

City officials said they hope the affirmative action program will help make a dent in a city government dominated by white males.

Twenty of the city’s 30 top administrators are white men, while 84 of the city’s 85 administrative support positions are held by women and minorities.

“We’re making progress,” said Webb, one of three women on the five-member City Council. “But you can’t just change these things overnight.”