A heated argument has broken out amongst county supervisors over who has the power to change policy with two Republican supervisors accusing Democrat Supervisor Katrina Foley of overstepping her bounds as she runs for reelection.
The debate broke out over Foley’s press release last week titled “OC Vice Chair Katrina Foley Announces Countywide Pause of Herbicide Spraying,” confirming a pause on herbicide spraying after she faced town halls and online comments criticizing her handling of the issue.
[Read: Orange County Pauses Herbicide Spraying in Creek Beds After Backlash]
“Harmful toxins have no place in our waterways,” Foley wrote in her release. “I appreciate the Orange County Public Works team for responding to community concerns and pausing applications.”
While Foley had already approved a pilot program to pause spraying in her district, which covers much of south Orange County, there was no vote to implement a countywide pause.
At Tuesday’s supervisors’ public meeting, Supervisors Don Wagner and Janet Nguyen questioned how Foley could enact such a pause without any support from her colleagues.
“This issue is not about politics, it’s about one county supervisor overstepping her authority,” Nguyen said. “If one supervisor is allowed to do that, then each of us should be allowed to.”
Foley said their complaints were an attempt to “policitize” her work in an effort to damage her reelection campaign, noting that it was county staff who decided to stop spraying, not her.
“The politicization of our dais is actually what’s damaging to the county,” Foley said at the board’s Tuesday meeting. “I will look forward to when the election is over…the reality is, I’m for sure winning the primary.”
Who Runs Local Government?
In Orange County, every city functions off the city manager form of government, in which part time city council members pick a city manager, who then oversees the agency’s staff as a full time employee.
But the county government sees elected supervisors choose a county CEO, with both parties working full time.
That often leads to questions over how much control supervisors have over county staff.
It was a debate that surged into public view after former supervisor Andrew Do pleaded guilty to corruption and bribery charges, which opened a series of investigations ultimately revealing how Do’s office regularly directed county staff and policy without any public votes by the supervisors.
[Read: Former OC Supervisor Sentenced to 5 Years in Federal Prison in Bribery Scheme]
It also came up earlier this year after Foley canceled a planned community meeting to discuss doubling the amount of trash going into Prima Deshecha landfill every day in San Juan Capistrano, one of the cities in her district, after residents complained to her.
The cancellation came when she called a meeting with CEO Michelle Aguirre and Tom Koutroulis, the head of OC Waste and Recycling, raising complaints that she wasn’t briefed about the project.
[Read: Expansion of County Landfill Turns Into Hot Button Campaign Issue]
Wagner and Nguyen also questioned at the time how Foley had the power to unilaterally put meetings about the project on hold without a vote.
“Any one of us has no legal authority in this country to do things,” Wagner said to Waste and Recycling Director Tom Koutroulis at the board’s February public meeting. “Three of us, any three of us, can do anything the county is allowed to do. One of us can’t direct you. Do you understand that?”
It’s also not an issue that’s limited to the county government, as several Irvine City Council members recently questioned why Mayor Larry Agran got an early look at some of the city’s budget problems despite them all holding equal power.
[Read: Irvine Officials Deadlock on How to Close Multimillion Dollar Budget Deficits]
Just weeks after city council members began publicly questioning Sean Crumby on that issue, he announced he was retiring less than a year into the job.
How Much Power Should County Supervisors Have?
Foley defended her choices in a statement to Voice of OC after the meeting, saying that her colleagues should also be pushing more pilot projects to serve residents.
“These pilots are direct responses to constituents, better serve our districts, and create measurable data and metrics to push priorities countywide,” Foley wrote.
During the meeting, Nguyen compared Foley’s actions to Do, calling her direction of staff “the classic Andrew Do play,” and saying she “pressured staff,” a statement Foley publicly protested during the public meeting.
After the meeting, Wagner said that while he didn’t believe Foley had broken any laws, he felt she inappropriately directed staff.
“The issue is one of us running roughshod over staff is the kind of thing Andrew did for his own personal benefit,” Wagner said in a Tuesday afternoon interview. “It shouldn’t be the way we do business here in the county.”
He also raised complaints that Foley was told first about the countywide herbicides pause, questioning why she got the inside track on the issue, and noting that it wasn’t her efforts that brought about a pause, but staff’s concerns over a potential letter from the Department of Fish and Wildlife on how the spraying impacted local birds.
County spokesperson Molly Nichelson confirmed that while the county hasn’t received a letter, they were in conversations with Fish and Wildlife over the creeks issue before the stoppage.
Supervisor Doug Chaffee, who chairs the board and endorsed Foley’s opponent Assemblywoman Diane Dixon, shut down any further discussion on whether Foley’s actions were out of line at the meeting.
“I didn’t see any policy in that press release,” Chaffee said. “There is no policy issue here that I see.”
“We need to make sure there’s a general understanding amongst ourselves,” Nguyen said.
“Well, that’s not happening right now,” Chaffee said.
“It’s not time to move on,” Wagner said. “I join with Supervisor Nguyen in giving direction to staff to not just take the direction of one of us.”
After the meeting, Chaffee said he saw no issue with Foley’s announcement, and that he shut down further debate because it was no longer civil.
“We need to exhibit civility and it had gone beyond that,” Chaffee said in a Tuesday interview after the meeting. “I didn’t see any point to it.”
Nguyen said she wants to have a public debate over what the precise roles and responsibilities are for supervisors moving forward.
“For me, it really comes down to the fact that Supervisor Foley should not be dictating policy or pressuring staff,” Nguyen said in a Tuesday interview. “That’s the bottom line, especially when it affects the entire county.”
Wagner was less interested in having any future discussions on the issue, but said that they do need to make it clear that no one supervisor can direct staff.
“One supervisor doesn’t get to unilaterally decide ‘we’re going to do this,’” Wagner said. “Certainly not when it applies to the entire county.”
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org.
