Four of the county government's 20 non-elected department heads plan to retire in March. When the dust clears, about 1,000 people in those departments will have new bosses — someone new drawing up the budgets, setting the day-to-day procedures, and hiring and firing the staff.

"It's going to be a big change," said Karen Staples, the director of the county probation agency. "It's going to be a huge void in the history here, when people leave after so many years, and all of that experience and expertise goes out the door with them."

Staples isn't among the spring batch of retirees, but at 61, she is eligible to retire and will probably step down within the next few years.

She's not alone. The county's leaders, like their counterparts in private businesses, are bracing for a wave of retirements over the next decade as the baby boomers leave the work force in ever-growing numbers.

The wave is hitting government agencies first because employees there can usually retire earlier, with full pensions, than their private sector counterparts. The average retirement age among Ventura County government workers is 60, according to data provided by the county's Human Resources Department — and the average management-level employee is already 51.

"This is not an unusual situation. It's one that we're going to be seeing more of," said Cathie Eitelberg, the national director of the public sector practice for The Segal Co., a consulting firm. "What exacerbates it in the public sector is the work force is typically a bit older, and they have the ability to retire a little bit earlier."

In law enforcement, the problem is even more pronounced because employees can usually retire at age 55. Of the Ventura County Sheriff's Department's 45 top managers, as many as 34 could retire over the next five years, said Undersheriff Craig Husband, the department's second in command.

"We've been looking at this challenge for about the last 18 months," Husband said. "We feel we have a responsibility to prepare the department for a major transition in leadership over the next few years."

A change at the top

That's the attitude that every department is taking, said County Executive Officer Johnny Johnston. As part of their routine evaluations, managers are judged on how well they're grooming their potential successors, and how well they're training future leaders at every level.

"We've been working on a soft landing for this, and it's been a No. 1 priority for three or four years now," he said.

Johnston himself is the biggest name among this year's retirees. He announced in October his plans to step down from the county's top job after seven years in the CEO's office and a total of 20 years in various county management jobs. The Board of Supervisors has chosen his top deputy, Marty Robinson, to replace him.

The other department chiefs planning to retire in March are Public Works Director Ron Coons, Public Defender Ken Clayman and Agricultural Commissioner Earl McPhail.

All four will leave in March because there's a financial incentive to stay around that long; that's when the 2008 cost-of-living increase in their pensions takes effect. In general, executives who retire at age 60, and have worked for the county for 25 years, will get a pension equal to about 55 percent of their salary.

The departing executives are reluctant to discuss who their successors might be because the Board of Supervisors holds the hiring and firing authority over those top-level positions. But they've all been teaching some of their deputies to do their jobs, Johnston said.

"It's not just about retirement," Johnston said. "We always want to be getting new blood in."

The county encourages its employees to advance in their careers whenever possible, he said, even if it means leaving for jobs in other government agencies or the private sector. In fact, Johnston feels that no one should run a department for longer than five to seven years.

"After that, you're starting to review your own work, and you're never as good reviewing your own work as you are reviewing the work of the person who came before you," he said. "Things can get a little bit stale."

Expert advice

The demographics show that more and more workers will be eligible for retirement in the coming years; however, that's no guarantee that they'll retire.

Retirement decisions are very sensitive to the economy, said Steve Angel, a vice president with Sibson Consulting, The Segal Co.'s private-sector division. The problems in the stock market in 2001 and 2002 made many people delay their retirements, and a similar slump in real estate could have the same effect.

"It's not how many people are becoming eligible for retirement as much as it is the number of people who take it, and that's something that's less predictable," he said.

That's true even in a government agency where workers have guaranteed pensions, Eitelberg said. Most people still have some private savings they must rely on, whether it's a 401(k) from a previous job or a home they own.

Still, every large organization must be prepared for the aging of its work force. The first step in succession planning, Eitelberg said, is to make sure you have a coherent idea of what your organization needs to accomplish and what type of culture it should have. Then, future leaders should be trained at every level, not just those who are next in line for the top jobs.

"You don't identify one person, you need to identify a group of individuals and put them into situations that I'd call challenge assignments' that focus on developing their leadership skills," she said.

Passing the torch

Nowhere will the change be bigger than in the Agricultural Commissioner's Office, where McPhail, 61, has run the show for the past 29 years. By the time he retires, he'll be the longest-serving agricultural commissioner in the state.

"A lot of the growers, they were the young offspring on their parents' farms when I started, and now they're thinking about turning it over to their children," said McPhail.

McPhail's department is responsible for enforcing state and local regulations that cover, among other things, pesticides, worker safety and organic growing standards. His staff examines shipments of flowers and produce as they leave Ventura County to ensure they're not carrying such pests as glassy-winged sharpshooters to other parts of the state.

Since it's basically a regulatory agency, McPhail said, the job is simple: Enforce the rules. And since it's a fairly small department with about 40 employees, succession planning isn't that complicated, either.

"I have a couple of people that have all of the licenses I have, and any one of them would do a good job (as agricultural commissioner)," he said.

In larger organizations, succession planning can be more complex. The Sheriff's Department, for example, rotates its deputies through a variety of tasks to better prepare them for management jobs. It also sends deputies to college for advanced degrees in public administration, criminal justice or other related fields.

"We're trying to prepare people for leadership roles faster than we normally would," Husband said. "We're trying to give them a diversity of experiences."

One of the new generation of leaders, Husband said, is Cmdr. Cheryl Wade, who runs the Sheriff's Department's patrol operations in the west county.

Wade, 43, already has 22 years in the department. She's been a jail guard, a patrol officer, a traffic cop and a detective working sexual assault cases.

Wade said she knew from the beginning of her career that she wanted to reach the management ranks one day. Her first goal was to become a detective, and after she'd done that, the department sent her back to school for her master's in public administration.

"As a whole, I think we've done a great job of preparing people to move up into the higher ranks," she said. "I've identified deputies myself who I think would make good managers. It's incumbent on me to make sure this department runs smoothly even after I'm gone."