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?

Coming soon: a big, fat Red Herring

Rackauckas with right-hand "man"
Susan Kang Schroeder, wife of
Rackauckas advisor Mike S.
Cozy, ain't it?

     After establishing himself as a corrupt and incompetent County office-holder and shameless bloodsucker—two Grand Jury reports pointed out some of the egregious facts—OC Public Administrator/Guardian and community college trustee, John Williams, gleefully went after the estate of “the Mask,” the wrestler dude who part-owned TapouT, when he died in a terrible auto accident here in OC. The Mask’s ex-wife (who was raising Mask Boy’s little Masketeers) fought Williams in court and, somehow, Williams prevailed.
     Williams wasted no time bragging about his coup down at the County. What an asshole.
     But the decision was ultimately reversed on appeal, and that put Williams’ Public Administrator/Guardian office behind the 8-ball, financially. So Williams scrambled to go after other estates to get his hands on some dough, and, according to some, he stepped over some lines, and this ultimately led to noisy complaints that found their way to Assistant DA Todd Spitzer, who naturally made a phone call to the PAPG, which, in turn, led to Williams’ shriekage and tiny tears and then Spitzer’s mysterious termination by DA Tony Rackauckas a day or so later.
     “Don’t be poking around where my girlfriend works,” thought DA Rackauckas (I bet). Have I mentioned that, a few years ago, our DA’s wife worked in hubby's office? (How unseemly.) That Rackauckas hired Peggi Buff as a fundraiser, and the Buffster somehow became the Rack Man’s girlfriend and then Williams’ chief assistant?
     Some say she actually runs the PAPG. Not that she's remotely qualified. (Neither is Williams.)
     Garsh.
     Well, the drunken guy who raced with the Masked Man, allegedly helping cause the fatal crash, still hasn’t been tried. See today’s OC Reg: "Trial delay in TapouT founder's fatal crash."

Rackauckas advisor and chiropractors'
ambulance chaser Michael Schroeder

     The wheels of justice turn slowly, I guess. If they turn at all.
     Meanwhile, somehow, one of Williams’ political contributors, the OC real estate auction firm LFC—for which Williams’ trustee pal and GOP Poo-bah Emeritus, Tom Fuentes, served as “senior Vice President” (he seems to deny this, maybe because he brought Williams and LFC together, and kachink, kachink)—somehow snagged a big, fat no-bid contract with the County through Williams’ office.
     Golly! That looks seriously hinky!
     By a few months ago, Williams was ensconced in so thick and pulsating a layer of rank hinkitude that even County Supe (and fellow Old Boy) Pat Bates requested a review/examination of the PAPG.
     Well, that lowered the heat a bit in Cronyville. Whew!
     But that heat will return, and then some, when we find out that we’ll never see the report, owing to some BS about attorney-client privilege. Yeah, the Five Supes, four of whom have strong ties (or worse) to Williams and Fuentes’ smelly patch of OC GOP Cronyville, will read the review and then tell us that, as it turns out, Williams is a swell guy, and so why the hell shouldn’t he keep taking home that huge paycheck, even though he's incompetent, and he spends most of his time in Orlando, paid for by South County taxpayers?

Satan aka Tom Fuentes

     Did I mention that 4 of the 5 Supes have the same lawyer as Williams? Cronyville consigliere, Phil Greer, has a history of ethics lapses, and he may have lapsed anew recently passing around confidential reports among the Supes. Gosh! What a crew!
     It’s looking awfully bad for Rackauckas and Williams and the Supes and Greer and Fuentes and cockroaches generally, so, quick somebody! Do something!
     Well, it looks like the Rack Man is coming to the rescue. On Wednesday, he'll throw out a big, fat Red Herring. It was all perfectly predictable, classic corrupt OC politics:

DA To Blast Todd Spitzer on Wednesday (OC Weekly)

     Sources are telling OC Weekly that Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas and his assistants will end their public silence on Wednesday about the controversial release of Todd Spitzer as a prosecutor.
     Spitzer, a former county supervisor and state assemblyman who'd made no secret of his desire to replace Rackaukas after his retirement, was fired by the DA in late August when Spitzer entangled himself in a case involving the county's public guardian.
     Following Rackauckas' action, Spitzer—who was an "at will" employee—spoke freely, accusing the DA of being beholden to corrupt advisors, but adamantly refused to sign a waiver to allow county officials to tell their side of the story.
     After a legal review, officials—including the DA—determined that Spitzer's repeated interviews with the media effectively waived his rights to privacy about his job performance. The fact that Spitzer is a public figure also contributed to their decision.
     Wednesday's scheduled press conference on Spitzer is expected to detail numerous stories that paint him in an unfavorable light….

     Well, you can read the rest yourself.
     Don’t know why the OC Weekly has recently spun its coverage against Spitzer and (thus) in favor of Rackauckas, an old and richly-deserving target of Weekly criticism.
     It’s Chinatown, I guess. Sometimes, I feel like goin' home, taking a long shower, and then staying in my little place in the mountains forever, never to be heard from again.

Cheese it! The Accreds!