“Williams was rarely there”

In today's OC Register:

Paralegal to challenge public administrator

A former employee in the county public administrator’s office plans to challenge her old boss, John Williams, for the elected position, saying Williams is an absentee leader and echoing claims of mismanagement documented in two grand jury probes into his office last year.

Colleen Callahan, 49, was a supervisor in the department’s legal unit before she quit last year after 11 years on the job. She said she had planned to work at the public administrator’s office until she retired but became so unhappy with management choices and low morale at the department that she changed her mind. She is now a superior court clerk at the Orange County Courthouse.

“I know it’s a long shot, but it’s not right for him to be there,” Callahan said. “I’ve seen so many people hurt and great employees he pushed out. We’re there to service the public.”
. . .

Last year, the PA/PG was the subject of two scathing grand jury reports that allege that Williams doubled salary costs, squandered the estates and engaged in questionable personnel practices, such as spiking an employee’s salary within a year of the employee’s retirement. (You can read about the first report here, and the second report here.)

Williams has defended his performance, saying the reports were riddled with inaccuracies and that grand jurors struggled to understand some of the complicated data they reviewed. And county supervisors in December narrowly voted down a proposal to reduce Williams’ authority by splitting the two roles and requiring Williams to report to the county’s CEO.

Callahan said that when she was with the department, Williams was rarely there. She pointed to a recent Register analysis of his travel records in his role as a trustee for the South Orange County Community College District, and wondered how he had time to travel and do his job at the county.

If elected, Callahan says she’ll cut department management in half and fund more front line workers who directly care for people….

Naturally, Reg readers have written comments about the above story. John C wrote:

I too was an employee of this department, and it is the truth that Mr. Williams was never there. His usual hours on the days that he shows up were in by 10:00 a.m. and after an hour and a half lunch, out by 3:00 p.m. (I never saw him but going by when his car was parked right out side the door in the employee of the month parking spot). No doubt on South Orange County Community College District business, but still on the County of Orange tax payers dime! Its time to put an end to his almost 30 year political career and to stop the corruption! He is only running again to keep his cronies (who have covered his @$$ while not in the office and who commit perjury by falsifying his timesheet every pay period. It should be noted that he just moved all the clerical staff out of the management area, no doubt so they can’t note his coming and going.