An elected Orange County CEO could become one of the most powerful politicians in California, overseeing an annual budget of $10 billion and offering local elected leaders an instant springboard to higher office, a chance to be mentioned as a future governor or U.S. Senator.
In recent years, county supervisors have consistently moved to strengthen the county CEO by consolidating powers around auditing, procurement, investments and human resources into the CEO’s office.
Yet nearly every local elected official, party official or union leader that I’ve interviewed about this reform is afraid of the notion.
It’s the one thing they all seem to agree on, which makes me wonder.
Why are virtually all power brokers in OC troubled by the idea of a countywide elected official who is directly accountable to voters?
LA Tries on an Elected CEO
Voters in Los Angeles County last year approved the very same idea, a countywide elected CEO, also authorizing a commission currently working to define the powers of the next elected chief executive along with other reforms.
As you can imagine, the process has already become contentious – with commission members currently trying to figure out whether the 2024 public vote erased a previous initiative that locked in more public spending on social and health services as opposed to law enforcement.
Seems a wild process to essentially approve the concept of a strong chief executive without defining their powers over the public budget or vis-a-vis the future expansion of the number of LA County supervisors – now at five, but eventually growing to nine.
Orange County has a chance to watch that reform process play out, especially this week when the LA commission tasked with CEO reform is scheduled to publicly meet Sept. 24 at the Magic Johnson Recreation Area off of El Segundo.
OC Also Struggles With Role of County CEO
In the wake of Orange County’s 1994 bankruptcy bailout, Wall Street reportedly insisted on a strong CEO to make sure bond investors got paid back after bailing out the county bureaucracy and politicians.
The title of CEO stuck but the powers didn’t.
Within a decade, county supervisors ensured that the post resembled a city manager – where a CEO in name only had to deal with five supervisors’ offices, each with their own approach toward the public budget and joint control over allocations.
As I’ve written before, that means you get a county CEO in theory only – with Orange County Supervisors running the show from behind their fancy offices, hovering floors above downtown Santa Ana.
The Andrew Do scandal – named after the former county supervisor who this summer reported for a five-year stint in federal prison in Arizona after admitting to taking bribes for public contracts – is the ultimate showcase of the weakness of the appointed CEO model.
[Read: Former OC Supervisor Sentenced to 5 Years in Federal Prison in Bribery Scheme]
The Do scandal clearly illustrated how one county supervisor was able to influence contracts within the Hall of Administration.
[Read: Orange County’s Bankruptcy of Oversight]
County supervisors have yet to launch an investigation – like the one authorized by Anaheim city council members after an FBI probe derailed the sale of Angel Stadium – on the extent of the damage caused by Do. Instead, they opted to hire auditors to look into the scandal.
Meanwhile, the board of directors of CalOptima, the county health insurance plan for the poor and elderly, did launch their own probe into Do’s time on the board – with his tenure ending in resignation in 2023 after state officials found he tried steering contracts to campaign donors.
There’s been growing calls for CalOptima to release the results of the probe on Do.
The CEO Void
Months before the Do scandal blew up last year, longtime County CEO Frank Kim retired from his near decade-long dance of trying to keep county supervisors happy while also keeping a balanced, healthy county budget.
Since Kim’s departure, county supervisors have been challenged to find a replacement with multiple searches flopping.
In fact, currently, the search for a permanent CEO has been put on ice – especially after supervisors gave interim CEO Michelle Aguirre, elevated from her post as a CFO, a one year contract earlier this year.
The inability to hire an experienced executive with county experience – along with the imposition of the CFO as CEO – has held for more than a decade.
In Orange County, the county CEO essentially oversees a host of public safety, health and social services budgets – now hovering just over $10 billion annually. While several positions like the Sheriff and District Attorney are independently elected, the CEO has final say over the budgets.
When I started covering the County of Orange back in 2004, former CEO Jim Ruth – known as a strong CEO – was ending his run.
After him, came Tom Mauk, a former Whittier city manager who had come to terms with the balancing act between political will and budgets.
Mauk resigned in 2012 after another county corruption scandal – this one involving a senior executive, Carlos Bustamante (also a rising Republican star in central OC as a Santa Ana city councilman) in a sex scandal that involved Bustamante abusing female county workers.
In the wake of Mauk’s exit, the wheels came off altogether with several failed recruitments and politics shifted into high gear inside the Hall of Administration with supervisors installing Mike Giancola (a former trash worker who rose to head the same department) as the county CEO.
You can see the resulting impact on public resources with spending on law enforcement – primarily Deputy Sheriff salaries – spiking significantly while expenditures in public health went stale.
The pattern helped county supervisor campaign coffers, but ended badly for the public with an unprepared and underfinanced public health system when the pandemic showed up in 2020.
Giancola ended up retiring due to medical reasons a short time after his appointment, with the same cycle of failed recruitments ensuing and eventually, supervisors installing then-CFO Frank Kim as the CEO in 2015.
After Kim publicly announced his retirement in 2023 – offering county supervisors clear time to chart a different path – several failed recruitments followed, again.
That triggered the ask of Aguirre to step up just like Kim did.
Except, according to sources, Aguirre has sent a message that she’s not a long term player, evidenced by her year-long contract.
That means county supervisors don’t have a lot of time to chart a new course.
And the old approach seems to have run aground.
What Does an Elected CEO Look Like?
The interesting question the LA panel is now mulling over is how should a county government be organized around a strong executive elected by the voters.
The LA measure is structured to gradually make the shift, putting in an elected chief executive followed now by an expanded Board of Supervisors in later years, which I find to be bad timing.
There’s open questions about how much of an opportunity the elected chief has to set budgets.
For those justly worried about creating a powerful chief executive elected by voters, it seems only reasonable that the executive be surrounded by a strong legislative branch with lots of members – say up to nine members representing all of OC – with each one ultimately eyeing the top job.
That creates competition and ultimately, accountability.
County supervisors could be full time or part time.
One thing being immediately implemented in LA by the measure is that department budgets should be individually reviewed in public session.
It’s a reform that Orange County could use as residents get very little details and insights into how millions of dollars are budgeted to scores of county agencies and departments.
[Read: Santana: Putting the Public Back into Public Budgets]
OC Department heads should be able to stand up during strategic meetings (which are upcoming ) and public budget sessions to explain how their agencies function. Or don’t.
Sadly, what comes next is still up to county supervisors, who seem to have run out of spare CEOs from the finance department.
Yet as they run out the clock, they may inevitably be making the argument that it’s time for Orange County voters to pick a CEO.