The flight of the Williams

     JOHN WILLIAMS' PORCH FLIGHT. After Kimberly Edd’s disturbing Jan. 20 article about Public Administrator/Guardian John Williams, one of John’s former colleagues wrote a peevish letter to the Reg, complaining that Edd’s story was sensationalistic: "Exposes should focus on facts not on sensationalism."
     At one point, Mr. Peevish writes:

…Edds … tells us Williams took a medical retirement from the Marshal’s Office. Does this further our idea that Williams … has county connections? Of course, if Edds knew of the medical retirement, then she also knew that he suffered the qualifying injuries by being completely blown off the porch of a South County home by a house-leveling explosion from a suicidal individual. …[N]one of this filler material is germane to the important and factual aspects of the Register article.

     Yeah, whatever.
     Does anyone know about this porch incident? Was Williams really “blown off” a porch by an explosion?
     I did some looking, and I can find nothing about this. I even searched through the OC Reg archives, and I actually bought an old (1992) article that looked like it might have the desired info. But nothin’ doin’.
     Does anybody know just what happened to Williams that led to his retirement?

This is gonna hurt, but that's OK, 'cause of that big fat pension.

     WILLIAMS ♥ CARONA. Here’s a factoid for you: from 1988 until 1998, the O.C. Marshal was—you guessed it!—Michael Carona. (The Marshal was appointed by judges.) In 1998, Carona was elected OC Sheriff. Soon thereafter, the Marshal's Dept. was collapsed with the Sheriff's Dept.
     And so Bailiff Boy and Carona are pals. They go way back.

     THE P.A.'S COLORFUL HISTORY. Another curious factoid: I ran across an old article about William A. Baker, Williams' much respected predecessor. At one point, the article notes this bit of fascinating history:

Few voters know of the public administrator's office. That has not always been the case: About 30 years ago [i.e., the mid-60s] Orange County's public administrator was convicted of embezzlement and sent to prison. It's a position requiring someone who can be trusted to work in the people's interest out of the limelight.

     Later on, I’ll try to dig up that 60s story.

     ENDORSEMENTS MATTER, I GUESS. When Williams ran for Public Administrator in 2002, he was opposed by Vicki Landrus, then the assistant public administrator. She received the endorsement of the respected William Baker, her boss.
     But that didn’t matter. Williams had the endorsement of his old pal Mike Carona, "America's Sheriff."

In my mind, Williams was Rocket Man, if only for a second.

     NANCY AND THE PA/PG. Back in 2004, the LA Times noted the apparent conflict of interest entailed by Nancy Padberg's role as Williams' chief of staff (2 Trustees' Job Status Is an Issue). Naturally, the experts said, well yeah, it doesn't look good. Meanwhile, two of Williams' Republican pals on the board—Wagner and Fuentes—insisted that everything was cool.
     "Honest to God," said Wagner, "I've seen nothing to see there is a problem."

     A few years later, Williams suddenly fired Padberg. She was hopping mad. And she stayed that way. Ever since, during board meetings, Padberg has made a point of opposing whatever Williams is in favor of. Evidently, Fuentes was somehow implicated in her firing, and so Fuentes, too, has received Padberg's "insta-contra" treatment.
     Lovely, isn't it?

     P.S.: I came across an old post in which I reported that, back in 2002 when Williams first ran for Public Administrator, he was endorsed by the Faculty Association! That's right. That would have been the post-corruption FA. Sheesh. No doubt I complained about it at the time, but to no avail. I may even have quit the union for a while--until Brenda hounded me until I gave in and rejoined. How come our union is so often so freakin' clueless?