Is Mr. Williams accountable? Apparently not

Remarkably, trustee John Williams is also Orange County’s Public Administrator/Guardian. As you know, two "scathing" recent Grand Jury reports have accused the fellow of gross inefficiency (his area became top-heavy with new managers), curious and worrisome promotion practices, and whatnot.

This led to a dire moment of decision by the OC Board of Supervisors, his bosses. Williams didn't show for that. But his lawyer, Phil Greer, did. You know Phil Greer. He was Chris Street's lawyer. He represented Raghu Mathur to get 'im the best deal for his "resignation." He's had some ethical lapses over the years.

But here's the thing: Phil Greer has also represented four of the five Supes. Conflict of interest, anyone?

So, naturally, the Supes took a look at Williams the County Officer and pronounced him okey-dokey. Remarkably, he kept his job. Amazing. Appalling!

And utterly predictable.

Still, some of Williams’ employees and former employees at the county refuse to play the OC GOP Crony Mutual Support Game; they persist in drawing attention to Williams' abuses and misconduct. One motif in the litany of criticism is the notion that Williams often seems to be somewhere else than at work. (As we've recently noted, Williams has spent weeks in Orlando on the district's dime—in just one year!)

One such critic contacted me back in January. I'll call him or her "Pen Pal." In that email, he (or she) described his former position at the Public Guardian/Administrator Office. He (or she) then wrote:

I am interested in obtaining the dates John Williams traveled out of town on SOCCCD business. My intent is to then do a public records request from the County to see if he used personal leave time or as my gut tells me falsified his timesheet and went out of town on the County dime.

He hoped that I would have the needed data concerning Williams' SOCCCD travel. I informed him that, regrettably, I did not have that data. But I encouraged him to get in contact with the OC Reg's Jennifer Muir who had recently made a documents request (as it turns out, he had already done that) and suggested that he do his own public records request with the district (SOCCCD).

He responded in a friendly way. He informed me that Williams would have competition come the next election. That turned out to be true. He said that he would keep me posted on his efforts.

I told him who to contact to acquire info from the SOCCCD. “Good luck,” I wrote.

A couple of weeks later, various events inspired Pen Pal to finally pursue the request with the district. He explained that he would compare the data from the district with County timesheets (these are signed “under penalty of perjury”). He felt confident that he could find evidence of fraud on Williams’ part if he could get to the relevant data.

In early March, he (or she) heard back from the district. District officials provided records of Williams’ district travel from 2007-09. Unfortunately, said the district, records prior to 2008 exist, but are hard to get to.

Two weeks later, I heard from him (or her) again. Pen Pal reported that the County was “stalling” regarding his requests for Williams’ timesheets. The data he requested are electronically filed, and yet, somehow, this information was taking forever to sift through.

Pen Pal informed me that, evidently, at least 19 people had read his request for Williams’ timesheets. Hmmmmm. What’s that all about?

A few days later, I put some of Pen Pal's data (re district travel) on the blog.

Today, Pen Pal sent me a quick note. He had received one timesheet from the County. He wrote:

There are two incidents on the one timesheet [that the County] sent me that shows how Mr. Williams spends his time at SOCCCD on the County of Orange time.

On the [information] that I received from SOCCCD concerning 4/20/2007, it states that Mr. Williams had a meeting from 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. with the OC … Public Education [official] with then assemblymember Walters.

His timesheet for that day stated he worked 8 hours.

The SOCCCD [information] shows [that, on 4/23/07, Williams] had a special board meeting at 3:00 p.m.

His County of Orange time sheet shows 8 hours worked that day.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to [see a problem here]. Even though he is not required to submit a timesheet, he is still required to put in his hours is he not?

The county states that he does not have to fill out a timesheet, but I know for a fact that he submitted a time sheet every pay period, at least to the PA/PG HR manager. I will have to revise my request and resubmit.

Can’t wait.

Pen Pal is very concerned that some of the people at the county are—how shall I put it?—south of ethical. He's worried that timesheets are being shredded.

It's FuentesTown, Jake.