More info on the review of Williams' county office (plus Hair™)

John Williams and his hair ∞

$45,000 to review public guardian, TapouT sale (OC Reg)

      The county plans to spend $45,000 to investigate allegations that one of its agencies is unnecessarily taking control over people’s estates to pad its own coffers, including taking aim at the $15 million estate of Charles “Mask” Lewis Jr., the co-founder of TapouT, a mixed-martial arts clothing line.
      Public Administrator/Public Guardian John S. Williams and his agency, which oversees $38 million in estates and the lives and deaths of more than 1,000 people every year, is the target of the county’s review.
      Criticized in two Orange County grand jury reports in 2009, the Public Administrator/Public Guardian’s Office was back in the spotlight in August when then-Assistant District Attorney Todd Spitzer, thought by many to be in line to become the next district attorney, was fired after he began looking into allegations a conservatorship case was being mishandled by the agency. Supervisor Pat Bates, who last year allowed Williams a little breathing room to correct the critiques of his office, has now asked for a county review of how the once little-known county agency liquidates the assets of large estates.
. . .

Williams and Hair™

      The review, being done by Tim Kay, a local attorney with expertise in conservatorship issues, is under way....
      Kay’s report, which will be confidential, will be handed over to Orange County Chief Executive Officer Tom Mauk by Oct. 29 with any necessary revisions, according to the proposed contract.
 . . .
      Williams, who was re-elected in June for another four-year term, has hired his own attorney, Phil Greer. Well-connected in Republican political circles, Greer has represented four of the five current members of the county board of supervisors and Treasurer-Tax Collector Chriss Street.
      Kay’s proposed contract lays out the review’s narrow scope, which focuses on whether the PA/PG is manipulating the number or kinds of conservatorships it takes on or if it is unnecessarily taking over estates or conservatorships to make money.
      Among the cases to be looked at involves Ruth Hull-Richter, whose 92-year-old mother is in the midst of a PA/PG elder abuse investigation....
      The county also wants Kay to look into how Williams handled the estate of Lewis, who parlayed his company, TapouT LLC, into assets reportedly worth as much at $15 million....
      The mother of Lewis’ two children petitioned to administer Lewis’ estate in April 2009. Williams filed his own petition, arguing he was better suited to handle the large, “complex” estate than Larson, who lives in Illinois with the children.
  . . .

      Williams argued that a section in the probate code gave the court the discretion to appoint as the estate’s administrator either the minors’ guardian or “another person entitled to appointment.”
      But the probate code also establishes a list of priority of those entitled to be appointed. Heirs are at a higher priority than the public administrator, according to the probate code.
      An Orange County Superior Court judge sided with Williams and appointed him the administrator of Lewis’ estate. That decision was overturned in May by the 4th District Court of Appeal, which accused the judge of abusing his discretion by awarding the estate to Williams.
      “Children are second in the order on the priority list, compared to the public administrator in 16th place,” read the May 2010 appellate decision.
      TapouT, which made just under $200 million last year hawking everything from T-shirts to $900 beds, was sold last month to a Toronto-based company. Kay is also charged with looking into the sale of the company.

John was the worst of the four, remember?