The grumpy Mr. B

     LISTEN TO THEM. One good thing about living in a county controlled by a local political party known for noisy piety and rectitude and fiscal conservatism is that at least you know that your government is lean and efficient—and that politicians are honest.
     Ha ha ha ha ha!

T. Fuentes

     Gosh, looking at the parade of losers and louts who have held office and who now hold office in this County—from felon Mike Carona to fraudster Chriss Street to DA Tony “look the other way” Rackauckas—you’d swear our county was some stinking, sulferous slime-ball barely plugging a gurgling, abysmal Hell Mouth.
     OC government is mighty corrupt and sleazy and all about promoting the wealth and power of a few people. (Say hello to Tom for me.) That’s pretty obvious, I guess. I won’t bore you with it.
     THEY'RE INCOMPETENT. We don’t really speak enough, though, about the other half of our abject self-inflicted shittitude—namely, the phenomenal inefficiency and worthlessness of (much of) County government and various public entities. We at DtB have tried to do our part to restore journalistic balance with our coverage of, say, Raghu Mathur’s disastrous and soul-crushing administrative regimes and, say, John Williams’ totally fucked up Public Administrator/Guardian office. But we can only do so much!

G. Argyros

     OH GOOD. Today, though, the OC Reg pulls some weight for once. The Reg’s Kimberly Edds reports that, according to a new report by the county’s performance auditor,

     Orange County’s Human Resources Department has routinely approved unjustified raises and promotions, sidestepping county and state rules to benefit its own employees and those of the county’s chief executive office….
     Auditors reported rampant mismanagement by the county’s Human Resources has made the county more expensive to run and less productive. Auditors said $149.3 million in taxpayer dollars can be saved by changing the way Human Resources does business. Correcting those problems could be the answer to solving many, if not all, of the county’s financial woes.

     Why, of course! Why would anyone expect any different? A hundred and fifty million bucks down the drain. —Well, oops!
     Let’s all go outside and shout, “God, I’m blessed to be living in fucking Orange County!”
     I don’t wanna talk about it. You should read the article.
     I wanna highlight just one part:

     The auditor found … Agency human resources staff repeatedly violated county policy by permanently promoting employees into temporarily classified positions. The most egregious violator was the Public Administrator/Public Guardian, which permanently promoted employees into temporary roles 13 times in three years.

J. Williams

     OBEY. John Williams is an idiot and an asshole. He’s been an idiot-asshole at least for as long as I’ve been paying attention to him, which goes back fifteen years. I’ve pointed out his idiocy and assholery time and again, but lots of people kept sayin’, don’t be mean. Why be so negative? He seems like a nice guy! Look at that smile! Look, dude, he wears that fucking flag pin on his jacket!
     Hey, those people are assholes too. They looked at the clear evidence of stupidity and arrogance and corruption, and they saw what they wanted to see: everything is pretty good. –Now shut up, troublemaker.
     Listen. There are lots of John Williamses—or worse—in this County and in this district. That’s the status quo, man. And, by and large, people go along with it, accept it, pretend it’s a lovely garden, a “blessing.” The asshole steps into the room, once again, and everybody grows hushed, polite.
     “Well, you’ve at least got to respect the office!”
     No!
     DON’T BE AN IDIOT.