AT the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services, Rueben Basconcillo became the highest ranking Filipino manager in DPSS, until he retired from county service on March 31, 2003 after 36 years of dedicated service. He worked for the county of LA from 1967, starting as a social worker, through March 2003, and retired as a Human Services Administrator / District Director.
Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on September 30, 1941, Rueben is the first of four children born to Pastor C. M. and Mrs. Primitiva Basconcillo. Rueben spent his early years in California where his parents attended Pacific Union College in Angwin, California while preparing for the ministry. He and his brother then spent their early school years traveling throughout the Philippines while his dad was a Pastor and Evangelist. Two sisters were born in the Philippines.
The family returned to the United States in 1957. Rueben graduated from the Hawaiian Mission Academy in 1959 and enrolled at Pacific Union College the same year. He graduated in 1964 and went on to work on his Masters of Education degree.
In the fall of 1965, he was hired as an upper grade teacher and principal at the Vacaville SDA Elementary School where he stayed until being hired as a Social Worker I in January 1967 by the Los Angeles County Bureau of Public Assistance (BPA). BPA was then a part of the Department of Hospitals. Rueben rose rapidly through the ranks in those early years.
After brief stints as a SW II, Appeals and State Hearing Worker, Supervising Social Worker and Program Assistant in the Public Inquiry Section, he was selected to participate in the Department’s one-year Management Trainee Program. Upon completion of the program, he was assigned as an Administrative Assistant II in the Bureau of Administrative Services (BAS) and was soon promoted to Data Systems Analyst in the Department’s Computer Services Division (CSD) where he worked on the Department’s Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) Data Transmission (DT) System. From there, he was promoted to Program Analyst/Program Specialist (same level as Human Services Administrator I) and, at one time or another, worked in the Cuban Refugee (CR), Repatriate, In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS), Special Circumstance (SC), AFDC, and General Relief (GR) Programs at Administrative Headquarters (first in the City of Commerce, then in El Monte, CA).
Mr. Basconcillo was fortunate to be selected to work on two of the department’s major projects: the development and implementation of the Integrated Benefit Payment System (IBPS) and the Kodak Image Management System (KIMS) Project. IBPS was the department’s first attempt to fully automate case budgeting for the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) Program and KIMS was the department’s attempt to automate the capture and storage of case documentation in the General Relief (GR) Program using digitized images based on microfilm technology.
He was promoted to District Director (Human Services Administrator III) at the Lincoln Heights District in 1996 where he stayed until having a heart attack in 1998. He was on special assignment to the Bureau of CalWORKS (BCW), now the Bureau of Workforce Services (BWS) until his retirement on March 31, 2003.
During his almost 4 decades of work in the county, Rueben was very active with the county-wide Filipino American employee organizations such as the DPSS Filipino American Employees Association. He has been the Board Chairman of FilAmEA and has worked with DPSS administration over the years to encourage the promotion of more Filipinos into management and supervisory positions. There are many more imminently qualified Filipinos now compared to the early years. As a result, there are many more Filipinos in management positions now than there were in the early to mid 1990s.
Rueben was also actively involved in the Los Angeles County Filipino American Employees Association (LACFAEA). He was the Public Relations Officer for the organization before he was elected as its President and Chairman of the Board of Directors. He was instrumental in implementing the automated payroll deduction system for membership dues and the LACFAEA website was developed and implemented during his tenure as PRO.
He firmly believes that there is still much to be done to assist Filipinos employed by the County of Los Angeles attain their full potential in the County’s workforce. To this end, he intends to remain active with the County’s Filipino-American employees organizations.
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