Moving beyond the band-aid; high expectations (Edwards)

.....I’ve been sniffing around for info about what kind of job John Edwards is doing, and has done, as Director of Facilities. Today, I spoke with a particularly knowledgeable person who seems sympathetic (to a degree) to both sides in this conflict, but who felt strongly that some of the complaints about John that we’ve heard since Friday are very unfair, very wrong.
.....Mr. K (as I’ll call him) acknowledges that John is a “military-type” guy who isn’t into warm and fuzzies. And, yes, he does have a temper, says K, but only because he has high expectations of accomplishment.
.....K notes that Edwards works very hard, typically six days a week, and he never asks people to do anything he doesn’t do himself. There are lazy managers on our campus, but Edwards is the opposite sort.
.....K offers a big picture of the key change that the facilities/maintenance unit has undergone in recent years. For years, the directors pursued the unfortunate “band-aid” tradition: endless fixes that are half-assed and cheap. John has pursued a proactive approach, with fixes that are done right.
.....K thinks that it has been hard for the crew to get used to this fundamental change.
.....K acknowledges that John isn’t perfect, but he’s a decent and honorable man who works very hard, does things right, and expects a lot from workers. He has accomplished an amazing amount, says K, given his resources. K is very impressed.
.....K says that there are some employees who hate the very idea of being told to actually work, who complain interminably about the big and small. There does seem to be a culture of whinery, at least among some workers, says K.
.....I spoke to someone else today who suggested to me that, whatever else may be true of Edwards and his crew, it is plain that the maintenance unit is afflicted with a communication problem. One senses that there are some good people here who, somehow, aren’t listening or who aren’t being clear about their intentions and demands.

UPDATE: today (Wednesday, May 19), I spoke with a colleague who is very familiar with Edwards and also with most of the maintenance staff. She assures me that, though Edwards is demanding, he's done a remarkable job and deserves our support. She also emphasized the fine job that some maintenance workers do and have done. --BvT

Sent by a friend. Very funny:

Shyster Greer says it's "much ado about nothing"; we'll see

.....Tracy Wood of the Voice of OC just posted this:

Auditor Reviewing County Administer/Public Guardian Time Sheets

.....Orange County's Internal Auditor is reviewing payroll time sheets turned in by County Administrator/Public Guardian John Williams, who traveled to conferences for a community college district at the same time records show he was on duty, working for the county.
.....A citizen complaint to the county questioned how Williams legally could turn in time cards that said he was doing county work while he was physically at conferences in San Diego, San Francisco or out-of-state.
.....Williams is an elected trustee of the South Orange County Community College District as well as the elected county administrator. Additionally, he was appointed Public Guardian by the Board of Supervisors. He is up for re-election in June as Administrator.
.....Public record travel expenses for the community college trustees were posted on Dissent the Blog coupled with public record county payroll time sheets that showed Williams on the clock for the county while traveling for the community college district.
.....A spokesperson for Dr. Peter Hughes, director of the county's Internal Audit Department, said it was "premature" to discuss the review.
.....Williams' lawyer, Phil Greer said the situation is "much ado about nothing."
.....Said Greer: "There's nothing there -- no conflict and no contradiction."
.....Greer said Williams' county work is exempt from strict time card regulations because he is expected to work nights and weekends as well, and does that.
.....Last year the county grand jury twice castigated the operations of Williams office, according to the Orange County Register, accusing it of bloating its payroll with too many top managers while not even knowing the size of its caseload.
.....However, the board of supervisors decided to keep the administrator's office as an elected position and retain Williams as public guardian.
.....Williams said grand jurors didn't understand the technicalities of his staff's work requirements.
.....Orange County Manager of Media Relations Howard Sutter confirmed Williams' time sheets were referred to the Internal Audit Department earlier this month but added "I don't have any information to report on the status of the review by the Internal Audit."
.....Public records travel expenses also were released by South Orange County Community College District

.....So let's see. Because Williams, qua PA/PG, is exempt from strict time card regulations, he gets to turn in timesheets (upon which, presumably, his pay is based) that say he worked full days at his office in Santa Ana even though he was in fact in Orlando, Florida?
.....Don't think so.
.....Greer's the same guy who, not long ago, insisted in court that Treasurer Chriss Street is a straight arrow. That resulted in some serious Street cleaning and arrow breakage.
.....Recently, Greer was paid $25,000 to help Raghu Mathur negotiate a sweet "exit" deal re his ousting from the chancellorship of the SOCCCD. $25,000!
.....His ethics have been called into question.
.....To see the records that reveal discrepancies, see John Williams: like an electron

SEE ALSO One year of John Williams' travel on the district's dime

Gosh, thanks, Matt

.....Jason just clued me into this. The OC Weekly's Matt Coker has decided to bundle three "Una" people: the Unabomber, the Unabauer (me), and the Unarobber.
.....I really don't want to explain how I got that stupid moniker. Not again. Let's just say that John Williams is an idiot and leave it at that.
.....Matt makes clear that, unlike the other two UnaPersons, I'm not dangerous. "He wouldn't hurt a flea--honest!" says Matt.
.....Gosh, thanks, Matt.
.....But who's this "Unarobber" guy?

........The Unarobber is a 5 foot 9 white guy in his 30s who weights 180 lbs. and has short dark hair, a moustache and goatee and some kind of tattoo on the left side of his neck. An armed bank robber, the FBI gave him the nickname because he wears a hoodie and shades--just like the Unabomber.
.....(It should be noted here that it is within the realm of possibility that Bauer does not even own a hoodie.) [Right.]
.....At around 10:45 a.m. Saturday--while the Unabomber was rotting in jail and the Unabauer was likely creating one of his amazingly hilarious photo illustration mash-ups--the Unarobber walked into the Wells Fargo on Alicia Parkway in Laguna Niguel.
.....He placed a backpack on the counter, pointed a semiautomatic handgun at a pregnant teller and threatened to kill her and her baby if she did not hand over the loot, according to sheriff's deputies.
.....Wells Fargo Bank has since put up a $10,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of the Unarobber.