Orange County Grand Jurors are recommending empowering county supervisors to oust elected officials for wrongdoing amid a string of criminal controversies and misconduct scandals over the past 50 years.
“Orange County’s governance structure limits the Board’s ability to hold elected officials accountable, even when investigations confirm misconduct or mismanagement. As a result, problems persist and the County faces avoidable risks,” reads the jurors June 12 report.
“This vacuum creates an environment where misconduct and mismanagement can persist unchecked, erodes public trust, and compromises the integrity of County Administration.”
To read a copy of the report, click here.
OC Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento said he shares the jury’s concern over misconduct and the need to hold wrongdoers accountable, but disagreed with their recommendation.
“Unfortunately, the recommendation to give the Board of Supervisors authority to remove an elected official can undermine the will of the voters and may open the door for politically motivated removals and abuse,” he said in a Monday emailed statement.
OC Supervisors Doug Chaffee and Janet Nguyen both declined to comment on the report and the rest of her board did not respond to separate requests for comment Monday.
The report comes after county supervisors have repeatedly complained for years they don’t have the power to do anything about elected officials behaving badly aside from telling voters to get rid of them.
When then-OC Supervisor Andrew Do’s house was raided by the FBI in 2024, he stopped showing up to meetings, but supervisors didn’t have the power to do anything but revoke his commission appointments and publicly censure him.
[Read: OC Supervisors Censure Colleague Under Federal Investigation]
“Many have called for Supervisor Do to step down,” said Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento at the time. “We can’t force him to step down, but we can publicly condemn the conduct we see swirling around his office.”
Supervisors also faced questions on what they planned to do after the county lost multiple lawsuits related to the conduct of District Attorney Todd Spitzer, which cost the county nearly $18 million in different lawsuit judgments and settlements.
[Read: District Attorney Todd Spitzer Has Become Orange County’s Most Expensive Politician]
The only action supervisors took was to restructure Spitzer’s HR department, with Supervisor Doug Chaffee noting they only had the power to ask him to step down.
“The county has no power to take any action against him, he’s a separate elected official,” Chaffee said in a March interview. “He has the right to run his office as he sees fit … even though we may disapprove.”
“He’s not going to resign, he’s made that pretty clear,” Chaffee continued. “I’m not happy with it, but I’m not quite clear on what I can do to change things. I don’t know that I can. I just have to hope this has all worked its way through.”
[Read: OC Supervisors Don’t Answer Calls For Action Against DA For Harassment of Female Prosecutors]
What’s the Solution?
Jurors are recommending supervisors draft one or more charter amendments for voters to consider, including allowing supervisors to remove people from office with a 4/5 vote, consolidate elected offices or convert an elected office into an appointed position.
They are also recommending supervisors adopt a policy mandating performance reviews of elected officials as well as establishing procedures to publicly report findings of audits involving elected leaders and any corrective actions taken.
“Ultimately, the County must decide whether its current framework adequately protects the public interest or whether structural changes are needed to prevent future oversight failures and restore appropriate operations and methods for performing official duties,” jurors wrote.
Alleged Misconduct at Assessor & Treasurer Offices
In the report, jurors highlighted two separate harassment investigations into the OC Assessor and the OC Treasurer-Tax Collector for the need to sharpen supervisors’ disciplinary power and give them the authority to kick out elected officials for misconduct.
Now, jurors are suggesting consolidating the assessor’s office with the county clerk’s office and converting the treasurer to an appointed position to improve oversight.
It comes on the heels of OC Assessor Claude Parrish, who allegedly violated an anti-harassment policy and rarely showed up to the office, and OC Treasurer-Tax Collector Shari Freidenrich getting reelected despite a pressure campaign against Freidenrich by county supervisors who endorsed her former second in command to run against her.
Freidenrich didn’t respond to questions.
[Read: OC Treasurer Tries to Fire Deputy After She Pulls Papers to Run For Her Seat]
A 2023 human resources probe sustained allegations OC Assessor Claude Parrish violated anti-harassment and retaliation policies.
Jurors wrote the investigation found Parrish focused on non-essential office matters, struggled to retain key information and was inconsistent with his decision making, with witnesses saying he lashed out at his employees.
“Multiple witnesses reported instances in which the Assessor displayed anger and frustration toward subordinates when they did not carry out directives exactly as instructed,” reads the report.
“The Grand Jury was made aware of an open secret within the department: the Assessor’s limited presence in the office. Multiple witnesses consistently described a routine in which the Assessor arrives around 3:30 p.m.”
Jurors also say the Assessor long resisted technological upgrades to the office until they called him out in a 2024 report.
In a Tuesday statement after publication, Parrish disputed the report, saying he never got a chance to “examine or rebut” the findings.
“Our department has had almost zero complaints from employees for 11 years,” Parrish wrote. “With respect to the removal of an elected county official, the power is vested in the voters as part of a recall. A charter amendment to override the will of the people is not advisable.”
A human resources investigation in 2022 – one year prior – found Freidenrich created a hostile workplace.
“The report described an incident where the Treasurer threw keys at an employee which demonstrated a culture characterized by bullying, micromanagement and fear-based leadership,” reads the grand jury report.
Supervisors would later strip Freidenrich of her investment authority.
[Read: OC Supervisors Break Silence; Publicly Blast Treasurer’s Alleged Workplace Hostility]
At the same time, jurors say misconduct concerns are not a recent phenomenon but one that stretches back more than five decades when former Supervisor Bob Battin was convicted for misusing public funds.
“The breadth of misconduct from bribery to fiscal mismanagement to federal corruption underscores a structural weakness that transcends ideology, personality, and political moment,” reads the report.
“For more than fifty years, the County’s own public records reveal not a series of isolated lapses, but a persistent cycle of ethical breaches and criminal convictions that resurface across eras, offices, and party lines. What emerges is a pattern so consistent that it reads less like coincidence and more like a structural flaw.”
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org.
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org.
