County CEO: Public guardian needs oversight
The county’s chief executive officer wants to hire an executive manager to oversee the operations of the Public Administrator/Public Guardian and make a series of personnel and policy changes as a result of issues raised by the Orange County grand jury and the county’s own investigation into how the agency does business.
It is unclear whether those changes could include removing Public Administrator/Public Guardian John S. Williams from his appointed role of public guardian. A quirk of county government, Williams is the county’s elected public administrator but appointed public guardian by the Board of Supervisors.
Calls to Williams’ private attorney were not immediately returned.
Three out of the county’s five supervisors must approve creating the new executive manager position, a request which was buried on page 139 of the 184-page second quarter budget report on next Tuesday’s board agenda. The executive manager would report directly to county CEO Tom Mauk.
Mauk, who has fought for years to split the public administrator and public guardian roles, will decide who to bring in to make changes in the office.
Williams, who has close political ties to Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas and former Orange County Republican Chairman Tom Fuentes, was elected public administrator/public guardian in 2003 after taking medical retirement from the county’s marshal’s office.
Rackauckas’ fiance Peggi Buff is a high-ranking official in the Public Administrator/Public Guardian’s office. Williams served on the South Orange County Community College Board of Trustees will [sic] Fuentes for several years before Williams resigned in December, citing family obligations.
The county public administrator settles estates of those who die without a will or someone to take care of their affairs; the public guardian takes care of the elderly or ill who have no one to care for their affairs. Each year, the agency handles estates valued at more than $38 million.
In the past few years, Williams has been criticized for unnecessarily taking control of people’s estates. Williams has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing by his office, blaming the criticism on disgruntled employees who were fired or passed over for promotions.
A Register investigation detailed many of the accusations made against Williams, including his attempt to move quickly to take over the multimillion dollar estate of Tapout co-founder Charles “Mask” Lewis even though the mixed-martial arts mogul left behind two children to inherit his fortune.
In addition to the Lewis estate, where he was rebuked by the 4th District Court of Appeal, he was criticized in back-to-back Orange County grand jury reports in 2009 for “egregious” mismanagement, including dubious internal promotions that cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands. In the wake of those reports, Williams narrowly escaped having the Board of Supervisors strip his appointment as public guardian.
The county supervisors last year hired an outside law firm to look into Williams’ handling of such cases. The review, which is protected by attorney-client privilege, was finished last month but details have not been publicly disclosed.
Mauk’s request to bring someone to oversee the operations of the Public Administrator/Public Guardian marks the first public acknowledgment that the county’s review raised concerns.
County staff wants the executive manager, if approved, to take immediately action to establish a risk averse culture, establish new standards for obtaining goods and services, and make identified personnel adjustments after a human resources audit is done.
Other immediate actions recommended by staff include implementing the information technology caseload system and updating and completing the agency’s policies and procedures along with ensuring those rules are followed....
The agenda for the Board of Supe's meeting next week is here. See agenda item 42, pp. 136-7
