The case of John Williams: “anybody can get elected, and they do”

     In May, we informed readers about a seemingly obscure appellant judgment that went against trustee John Williams in his role as OC Public Administrator/Guardian. At the time, the judgment seemed odd, but I could get no one interested in it.
     Well, at long last, thanks to our friend Pen Pal, the news media are starting to pay attention. Here's a story by Norberto Santana in today's Voice of OC:

Public Administrator's Approach Draws More Scrutiny

     When District Attorney Tony Rackauckas fired Todd Spitzer last month, the stated reason was that Spitzer, the senior deputy district attorney, overstepped his bounds by aggressively inquiring about a case being handled by Public Administrator/Public Guardian John Williams.
     But since the firing, at least as many questions – if not more – have been raised about whether Williams is overzealous.
     Bill Mitchell, a former chairman of OC Common Cause, stood outside Williams' office a couple of weeks ago and urged the Board of Supervisors as well as California Attorney General Jerry Brown to dig deeper into how Williams handles the estates of deceased people and those living who courts have determined cannot manage their estates on their own.

Santana then reviews the case of Ruth Hull-Richter and her mother. But, he writes, “according to sources at the county administration, Richter's case isn't the only cause for concern”:

     Another is called Tapout, LLC.
     With an estimated worth of more than $10 million, it's a clothing company associated with mixed martial arts whose founder, Charles Lewis, was killed last year when he crashed his Ferrari in Orange County.
     Lewis had two children in Illinois, and after his death, the children's' mother sought control of the estate. But Williams jumped in, arguing to a local judge that Lewis' estate was too complicated.
     He won the argument and gained control of the estate. And according to fifth floor sources, he was boasting that the fees the case would bring in would essentially balance his 2010-11 budget.
     This raised more than a few eyebrows, especially given that county budget documents show that Williams had budgeted a large swing in his finances, soaring to $2.5 million from $1.9 million.
     But then a state appellate court reversed his stewardship, returning the estate to Lewis' children.
     "Children are second in the order on the priority list, compared to the public adminstrator in 16th place," read the May 2010 appellate decision.
     Williams argued to the court that despite the line of authority, California's statute allowed him to leapfrog over the family.
     There's no indication that Williams told budget planners that an appellate court had reversed his big money case, especially since that decision came two months before final adoption of the 2010-11 budget.
     That leaves people like Mitchell openly wondering whether Williams got aggressive with cases like Hull-Ritchter in order to make up the difference.
     Williams' is an agency that was called "the Guardian of Last Resort" by a 2009 Orange County grand jury that severely criticized Williams for doubling the staffing costs of his agency to well over $1 million from a little over $500,000.
     Those conclusions concerned county Supervisor John Moorlach, who initially lobbied for Williams to combine the appointed job of public guardian and the elected job of public administrator.
     After the grand jury report, Moorlach apologized to county Chief Executive Tom Mauk and tried to reverse his action but lost on a 3-2 vote. Today, he says Williams' actions frustrate him.
     "What's so glorious about this country is anybody can get elected. And they do," said Moorlach, referring to the experiences with former Sheriff Mike Carona, who was indicted, and Treasurer/Tax Collector Chriss Street, who was found guilty of breaching his fiduciary trust, and now Williams.

J. Frank Parnell of the conservative Red County blog piles on:

John Williams – Big Government Bully

     Not to mix metaphors, but Public Administrator and Public Guardian John Williams has spun a web of deceit and now his house of cards is crashing down. Williams has a $2.5 million nut to cover the expenses of keeping his bureaucracy afloat, but his office regularly brings in just $1.9 million in revenue from his “administrative expenses” of administering the estates of Orange County residents who have no family or will, or who are not mentally competent to administer their estates.
     While most small government advocates would simply cut overhead and expenses down to $1.9 million, Williams took the opposite approach. He has become hyper-aggressive in pursuing the estates of individuals he has no right to go after. He tried to get his hands on the estate of multimillionaire Charles Lewis, who was killed in an auto accident in Orange County. Lewis’s children and their mother live in Illinois and wanted rightful control over his estate. But Big Government Bully John Williams claimed that the estate was too complicated for a mere private citizen to comprehend and that only a government bureaucrat like himself should have control of it.
     Left unsaid in court was that Williams would use the Lewis estate as his government agency’s piggy bank, collecting administrative fees and balancing his budget on the backs of Lewis’s children who lost their father and then a portion of their inheritance. In May an appeals court ruled the children and their mother would be in charge of Lewis’s estate, not Williams - a major setback for Williams’ budget. But instead of cutting staff and cutting expenses, he did what you’d expect a big government bureaucrat to do… he went after other people’s estate.
     Ruth Hull-Richter’s mother is 92 years old and instead of allowing Ruth to manage her mother’s estate, Williams stepped in to take it over. Ruth, who is a victim of domestic violence, asked her friends who could help. Todd Spitzer’s name was top of mind because of all of his past work in victim’s rights legislation. They called and asked him to look into their case. Of course Todd did, but when he turned over the rock, what squirmed out was sickening.
     This wasn’t just about one victim… this was an institutional problem. Williams’ second in command in his office is Peggi Buff, who is District Attorney Tony Rackauckas’s girlfriend. When Williams saw Todd checking on this one case, he thought Spitzer was on to the whole magilla and within 24 hours Rackauckas canned Spitzer.
     Wow! If that’s not a red flag, what is? OC Weekly scooped the Carona case months (years?) before the OC Register and LA Times finally brought in their shovels. This case tying the Public Administrator/Public Guardian’s office to the DA is an investigative reporter’s dream. Time to start digging!