Supervisors to vote on stripping public guardian role from Williams (OC Reg)County officials formally moved Wednesday to strip embattled Public Administrator John S. Williams of his public guardian duties, setting for hearing on Tuesday an ordinance that would remove Williams from his public guardian role and appoint a successor.
The Board of Supervisors earlier this month agreed to hire an executive manager to overhaul the culture of the troubled department and make immediate personnel and policy changes. Now county Chief Executive Officer Tom Mauk has proposed having that manager take over the county’s public guardian role: Overseeing the affairs of the elderly or ill who have no one to watch out for them.
Supervisors will begin the discussion at their March 1 meeting. If they agree to move forward a final vote will be March 15. If the change is adopted, a new public guardian would be in place April 14.
A replacement could be in place sooner if Williams, who has repeatedly been criticized for the way he runs his agency, steps down from the position.
Mauk tried to split the offices in December 2009 in the wake of two back-to-back Orange County grand jury reports that criticized Williams for “egregious” mismanagement, including dubious internal promotions that cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. The proposal lost on a 3-2 board vote.Williams, who is elected public administrator and appointed public guardian, has been repeatedly warned he needs to make significant changes to his agency. He is paid $153,206.40 a year to head the combined department.
The Board of Supervisors can remove Williams from the appointed position of public guardian at any time. His elected position of public administrator is a position which the Board of Supervisors cannot take from him.
What remains unclear is whether Williams will continue to be paid his full salary if he loses control of the public guardian’s duties. Williams was re-elected in June and began a new four-year term in January. The Board of Supervisors began appointing the elected public administrator as the county’s public guardian in 2003. But it wasn’t until 2007 that supervisors approved a county ordinance which made the elected public administrator the ex officio public guardian and established one salary for the two positions.
The filing fee Williams paid to run for public administrator was based on the combined salary for the elected public administrator and the public guardian, county Registrar of Voters staffers confirmed. An elected official’s salary cannot be reduced during his or her term….
The county’s Chief Executive Office has been researching whether Williams’ pay can be reduced if his appointed duties are removed.
“I think the board better find a way to bifurcate the pay so the taxpayers aren’t continuing to pay this guy his salary for the next umpteen years,” said longtime county watchdog Shirley Grindle said. “It would be a unlawful use of taxpayer money.”. . .
“He would do everybody a big favor if he would just resign,” Grindle said.
Neither Williams nor his private attorney, GOP insider Phil Greer, immediately returned calls for comment.
While trying to negotiate his own future, Williams is negotiating with the county to save the jobs of his political appointees if he leaves office before his term is up, county officials confirmed.
Among Williams’ political appointees is Peggi Buff, Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas’ fiancee, who was promoted by Williams from executive assistant to his second-in-command five years after she began working for the office. Williams has political ties to Rackauckas and longtime Orange County Republican Chairman Tom Fuentes.
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Wresting control of the agency from Williams is a result of two county grand jury reports and the county’s own investigation which exposed “serious concerns” about the department’s operations, according to the county’s chief executive office.
