Director of Agency for Disabled Quits

The longtime director of the state agency overseeing care of 140,000 developmentally disabled Californians is quitting in the wake of repeated attacks over deaths of people under the agency’s care, officials said Wednesday.

Dennis G. Amundson, director of the Department of Developmental Services, informed Gov. Pete Wilson that he is “intending to seek employment in the private sector,” said Sean Walsh, Wilson’s press secretary. “He was not asked to leave, and he was not pressured to leave, and we are disappointed that he will be leaving.”

Amundson’s agency has been weathering attacks by family members and advocates of developmentally disabled people over decisions by the state to move 2,000 disabled people from state institutions to private group homes. Several dozen of them later died, prompting family members to accuse the agency of inadequate care.