Best comments ever! (Discrepancy belatedly explained?)

.....The Orange Juice Blog has experienced technical snafus all day long (I will resist the temptation to offer a conspiracy theory). Not long ago, however, comments to OJB editor Vern Nelson’s piece on John Williams—Worst Public Administrator Ever!—have finally appeared:

7:13 a.m.
Kurcheon White says:
.....Geez, a sensible and fairly well-written post. You’re less of a jerk (only slightly) than I thought you were.
.....Williams’ incompetence has been known to County insiders for years, but he’s got a lot of GOP friends who like having him around.
.....Good anecdote on Moorlach — strike THREE after his support of Hutchens and Street.

8:37 a.m.
Liz says:
.....You go Kevin and Colleen! Great article Vern!
.....I was a Deputy Public Guardian for 12 years and understand the level of responsibility, pressure and committment it takes to do the job. I also understand the great satisfaction one gets from the job for helping others who cannot help themselves.
.....The times I was called away from my family in the middle of the night because someone was in crisis. My point being is that you know what the job entails Kevin from personal experience. You know what the Deputies needs are as well as the needs of the Social Workers and Administrative Assistants to continue overseeing the Persons and Estates of the People you serve.
.....This gives you the first hand experience needed to be a fully knowledgeable Public Administrator / Public Guardian.

10:56 a.m.
Royston says:
.....Wow. Such scathery!
.....How is it possible that such a person is repeatedly elected as a public servant?
.....We have reached the nadir of our democracy.

11:07 a.m.
Vern Nelson says:
.....Royston, if I didn’t know who you were, I’d think you were being sarcastic. But yes, we’ve been in a very low point of our democracy; results like last night’s in PA, KY & AR look like we’re pulling out of it though! Prop 15 is timelier than ever.
.....So is getting John Williams out.
.....(Yeah, we gotta put “scathing” on a time out when it comes to grand jury reports.)

2:32 p.m.
Run Rocco Run! says:
.....I voted for Rocco and so did the rest of my family. I don’t consider it a throw away vote. A vote for Rocco is a vote for change.

4:18 p.m.
cacityguy says:
.....Well, the temperature is rising! All this negativity – I expect Johnny to be headed out of town soon since he avoids any type of confrontation (rumor has it he has plans to attend another conference in Florida in the coming days at tax payers expense – the guy has balls!). I expect his raunchy attorney Greer to be showing up at the next Board of supes meeting to spin tall tales and such (if he hasn’t already met with his other clients Supervisors Bates and Nguyen). Vote the bum out!

5:03 p.m.
Roy Bauer says:

.....This is all about the rotten half of the local GOP. Williams’ board colleague at the South Orange County Community College District is former OC GOP chief Tom Fuentes, who has connections and knows how to work the system. Williams’ curious ascendancy to his County office occurred soon after Fuentes’ arrival on the board in 2000 (to replace Williams’ good pal Steve Frogue, who resigned under a cloud of suspicion that he was a Holocaust denier).
.....The same Fuentes, until recently, arranged to have his pal Chriss Street, disgraced OC Treasurer, regularly visit the SOCCCD for tax revenue reports. He also arranged visits (to Irvine Valley College) by Mike Carona, at least until the Mikester became a convicted felon.
.....Street’s lawyer, Phil Greer, is also (surprise!) John Williams’ lawyer; not only is he Williams’ lawyer, but when the Prez of the [SOCCCD] board (Don Wagner, now running for Assembly) gathered the board votes to unload Fuentes’ conniving toady, SOCCCD Chancellor Raghu Mathur, somehow, Greer became Mathur’s lawyer, and was paid $25K of taxpayer money to help secure Mathur a good exit deal, according to which the taxpayer will pay Mathur’s full salary for a full year after his retirement. (You’ve gotta love these fiscal conservatives.)
.....When, after two scathing Grand Jury reports, Williams faced the Supes, Greer showed up to represent him and, somehow, things worked out pretty well for the ex-bailiff. Interestingly, 3 or 4 of the 5 Supes are also represented by Greer.
.....A few days ago, at Mathur’s farewell bash at the Balboa Bay Club, MCed by Fuentes, all the usual GOP pols were there (or were represented), and so was—you guessed it—Steve Frogue, Holocaust denier. Don’t know about Dave Lang, another trustee, who is running for Treasurer with Fuentes’ support—something he got after he suddenly changed his tune and commenced supporting Toady Mathur, after 9 years of being Mathur’s enemy.
.....It’s OC Republican politics, Jake. Do you think the OC Reg will weigh in on the scandal that is John Williams? Don’t think so. Wonder why?

UPDATE: one more great comment

.....On the other hand, at about 6:00 p.m. tonight, someone who calls himself/herself “modjeskawater” commented on the recent “Voice of OC” piece (Auditor Reviewing Administrator/Public Guardian Time Sheets) about Williams—a piece that, unlike today’s OJ Blog piece, focused on the apparent discrepancy between Williams’ County timesheets and the district’s trustee travel records:

.....Elected officials and FLSA exempt executive and administrative management employees don't normally prepare hourly employee type of time cards in either the public or private sector. These documents appear to be just the county auditor/payroll dept. record of payment of a flat salary to an exempt executive manager/department head, not an hourly employee's timecards at all.
.....Quick online research at the county's HR website reveals the Personnel and Salary Resolution dated 2003, that discusses exempt vs. non-exempt, salaried vs. hourly employees. Read it. "The work period for exempt employees shall begin on a Friday and end on the 2nd Thursday thereafter. Employees in this exempt class may work more than or less than 80 hours in this two week pay period as determined by the Department Head." There is no overtime paid at this level. This document describes all exempt employees including the elected officials and the board of supervisors, administrative staff and other salaried employees.
.....The payroll documents referred to appear simply show a flat salary for an exempt employee and the private sector does the same thing. These type of records for exempt employees normally wouldn't reflect work activity on evenings or weekends referred to in a previous post by a reader because no overtime is paid.
.....The readers might consider speaking with a friend practicing labor/employment law (nobody listens to us) or the human resources field to get the straight scoop on this which will confirm my information in this post.
.....The travel information appears to be a college matter.

.....If this is correct, one wonders why, during the many weeks we have publicly referred to these apparent discrepancies, Williams never bothered to offer the above discrepancy-resolving explanation.
.....Further, if this information is correct, why, when given these records, did the County launch an investigation? Why not simply explain that the timesheets are not at all what they appear to be. If I understand him, modjeskawater is saying that these timesheets are a peculiarly misleading artifact of employment records for a certain class of employees. They are not records of the employee’s presence at the workplace.
.....And, naturally, modjeskawater’s point, if sound, does not address the other difficulties we have highlighted concerning Williams’ peculiar pattern of expenses during conference travel. Observe that the "discrepancies" issue is only one part of the case made against Williams by today's OJ Blog piece.