“It’s just an awkward circumstance”; Grindle disses Rackauckas

• Grindle: Paying Williams not to work is illegal gift of public funds (OC Reg)

     Whether the county will have to pay Public Administrator/Public Guardian John S. Williams his full salary if some of his duties are forcibly taken from him is under review, according to the county’s chief executive officer.
     But county watchdog Shirley Grindle says she already has the answer: no.
     Paying a county employee for a job he’s not doing – and not allowed to do – would constitute an illegal gift of public funds, argues Grindle in a letter sent to the county Board of Supervisors Wednesday.
. . .
     “It is clear that the Board of Supervisors is on record acknowledging they have the legal right to terminate John William’s role as Public Guardian, but not as Public Administrator (as an elected official only to that office, he must either resign or be recalled),” Grindle wrote. “By so doing, the practical result is that an unlawful gift of public funds is avoided by not paying John Williams the Public Guardian pro rata share of his salary and benefits for performing duties the Board has officially relieved him of.”
     The county is taking the situation “one step at a time,” according to the CEO’s office, and supervisors may put the option to separate the public guardian from the public administrator on the agenda in the future.
     “In less than a year we’ve had two elected officials that have had the board scratching their heads trying to figure out what authority we have over an elected official and their department,” said Supervisor Shawn Nelson.
     Former county Treasurer-Tax Collector Chriss Street was stripped of his investment powers after a judge found he breached his fiduciary duty as a trustee in a bankruptcy case before he was elected treasurer.
     “It’s just an awkward circumstance,” Nelson said, when you have someone who is elected who is not doing all of the job but getting all the money.”

OC DA: not to be trusted

• Grindle to County: Don't Pay John Williams for Doing Nothing (Voice of OC)

     After hearing a private attorney's report that Williams was creating liability on his handling of large probate matters last month, supervisors essentially concluded that Williams should be moved out of his post.
     The post of public administrator (elected) and public guardian (appointed) were combined back in 2006 with the urging of Supervisor John Moorlach. He later became Williams' biggest critic and moved to undue the combination of the two offices – and salaries – back in 2009 after two grand jury reports heavily criticized Williams.
. . .
     [Chairman Bill] Campbell confirmed that county attorneys have told supervisors behind closed doors that because they allowed Williams to run in 2010 for re-election, they can't cut his pay.
. . .
     Grindle said if supervisors refuse to take action, she would likely refer the matter to the State Attorney General.
     She said she would refuse to refer anything to District Attorney Tony Rackauckas, whose fiancé—Peggi Buff—is Williams' second-in-command.
     Ironically, that's what Campbell said the supervisors just appointed: A second in command. "What we're trying to do is put a strong number two to run both offices," Campbell said.
     Grindle said her reluctance to refer anything to Rackauckas isn't related to Buff's status.
     "I don't' trust this District Attorney to do the right thing under any conditions. He's proven time and again that he definitely is not going to cause any embarrassment to any Republican officials," she said.

Listen to the pajaritos

Phil Greer is hard at work, wheelin' & dealin' for Bailiff Boy

     Our pal Vern over at the OJ Blog reports on yesterday’s Board of Supes meeting, where the Supes decided to appoint an executive to oversee John Williams and his imploding office. Says Vern,

This, as we’ve been saying, is a step toward finally separating Williams’ 5-figure PA gig (to which he was elected and cannot be removed from) from his coveted 6-figure PG gig (to which he was appointed and can totally be removed from.) And everybody fully expects the useless fellow to bugger off after that, after wangling whatever severance package he can wangle. Pajaritos are telling me that his demand Monday for a severance package was denied, that he’s now offering to resign as long as his #2 (and T-Rack’s fiancee) Peggi Buff is “protected,” and that in any case it will be somewhat unworkable to have both Williams and his new supervisor running the office – sort of like two bodies occupying the same space. Things should be pretty interesting for a few weeks, and come to a head some time in March. So predict my pajaritos.

For-profits capitalizing on “pain” and “fear”

• Harkin Lambastes For-Profit Recruiting; GAO Defends Report on the Colleges (Inside Higher Ed)

     Another day, another flurry of activity related to federal regulation of for-profit colleges. The Government Accountability Office announced Tuesday that an internal investigation into its August report on for-profit institutions had concluded that the office had shown "no bias or conflict of interest" in producing the report, which was released months later with numerous corrections….
     Meanwhile, in a speech on the Senate floor late Monday, Senator Tom Harkin laid out a new series of accusations about the recruiting practices of for-profit colleges. Citing documents collected as part of his committee's investigation into the sector, he discussed comments in which admissions officials at Kaplan University and ITT urge recruiters to capitalize on students' "pain" and "fears" about their futures to encourage them to enroll. “Rather than offering students a better life, these types of strong-arm, emotionally abusive tactics are all too typical of schools that have little or no interest in providing students the academic help and support they need to succeed," Harkin said. "When these types of deceptive and exploitative tactics are used to enroll students, we should not be surprised to see high drop out and high default rates as a result.”

• Community-College Students Say They Struggle to Get Into Needed Classes (Chronicle of Higher Education)

     From students' perspective, community colleges are no longer able to offer the access to an education that they have long promised, says a report released on Wednesday.
     One in five community-college students had a difficult time getting into at least one course that they needed in fall 2010, and almost a third could not get into a class that they wanted, according to the national survey, commissioned by the Pearson Foundation….