Maximus Inc

Los Angeles County supervisors on Tuesday disregarded a strong recommendation to award a multimillion-dollar welfare-to-work contract to a new firm, instead ordering the bidding process to begin anew, giving a reprieve to a poorly rated company that spent $200,000 lobbying the county this year alone.

Three years after privatizing the service, the Board of Supervisors will decide today whether to transfer responsibility for a job-training program to county employees who submitted a lower bid than the private sector. In 1993, the county selected a private contractor, Maximus Inc., to handle case management services for the General Avenues of Independence program, which provides job training and placement help to welfare recipients.

After 18 months of talking about scaling back the size of government and handing over some of its functions to the private sector, the Board of Supervisors weighed a proposal Tuesday that amounted to "privatization" in reverse. The county staff had recommended that the supervisors award a $1.6-million contract for a job training program to a group of county employees who submitted a lower bid than an outside firm.