A few interesting things that happened in the OC, around the same time as President Obama’s very encouraging Occupy-influenced State of the Union Address:
Worst Public Administrator Ever (John S Williams) finally forced out by Supes…
– or NOT?
The classic John S Williams photoshop, from Dissent's Roy Bauer
This guy is just too much! If you’ve been following this blog, and, even more, Roy Bauer’s DISSENT, then we don’t need to fill you in on why we call John S Williams OC’s worst public servant since Sheriff Mike Carona; click the above links for a rundown of his wastefulness, mismanagement, corruption, cronyism, damning Grand Jury reports, pension spiking, false time sheets, and more.
Last March, thanks partly to the efforts of a small team of us bloggers and whistleblowers (as well as Johnny making enemies with the resourceful Todd Spitzer), the majority of our Board of Supervisors had finally had enough of him and voted to show him the door. I remember his onetime supporter John Moorlach giving a heartfelt speech about how wrong he’d been to originally support the allegedly devout Christian for this position, and above all to attach the low-paying elected Public Administrator job with the high-paying Public Guardian job, making it very difficult to remove the slug.
It was reminiscent of the Supes’ previous difficulties removing the corrupt Carona as well as the corrupt Treasurer Chriss Street – the problem was that one of JW’s gigs was an elected one – elected by the tiny amount of mostly uninformed OC voters who even bothered to vote for PA/PG, probably didn’t even know what the job entailed, and just voted for the guy whose name sounded familiar and was displayed on the Republican voter guide mailers. So, the best deal the Supes could wrangle, through JW’s ubiquitous ethically-challenged lawyer Phil Greer, was an agreement that he would finally resign on January 23, 2012 – which was last Monday. We have been stuck paying him 150 grand a year this past ten months, while other people do his job.
So, the few of us who pay attention to this scandalous hack had been wondering – was he really going to keep his word and leave on Monday? One of my pajaritos showed up at the Registrar’s office late Tuesday morning and happened to see him there! Checking with an insider he was told Johnny was there to fill out his resignation papers – good news for the County! But given what came out that day on Voice of OC and in the Register, it’s unclear what he was actually doing there.
For, as we learn from Norberto, John Williams came to his office Tuesday morning – not a usual sight – only to find the locks changed on his office door by the Supervisors! And according to Andy Galvin he’s apparently rescinding his promised resignation, and now threatening thru the ethically-challenged Greer to see the County in court if they take away his six-figure job. The County has completely kept their side of their bargain with him, which it turns out includes “The Board would not publicly release the highly critical report of your performance prepared for the Board by Special Counsel, Michael Colantuono.”
Well, hell’s bells! Do we really have to force the oleaginous tortoise out with a recall? And let’s DEFINITELY all see this highly critical report.
Tom Fuentes talks Keith Carlson out of running against Mansoor
Carlson (out) Mansoor and Daigle (in)
We OC Democrats had been rubbing our hands looking forward to a Republican intraparty bloodbath in the 74th Assembly District – Newport, CM, southern HB, a bit of Irvine – where three other Republicans were taking on Allan Mansoor (who calls himself the incumbent with only limited accuracy – he represents just 20% of the newly redrawn district.)
We considered what an unlikeable fellow this unemployed jailer Mansoor was, how he tirelessly rode the immigrant-bashing wave over the past decade as Costa Mesa mayor and councilman, until labor-bashing became the GOP’s new black. And we wondered what these other Republicans might have against Allan, perhaps projecting some of our own Democrat thoughts onto them.
The most credible challenger seemed Keith Carlson, an HB attorney practicing in Newport, and longtime OC GOP insider. Was he disgusted with Allan’s immigrant-bashing history, and general inarticulateness and ineffectiveness in Sacramento? I didn’t have the chance to find out, although I’ve heard that Keith was put up to the run by OC GOP bigwig Mike Schroeder who dislikes Mansoor for reasons unknown. And I’ve also heard that Mansoor has gained more respect in the hardcore GOP by standing strongly against redevelopment agencies when other Republicans didn’t.
Well, Schroeder lost that battle when sainted and moribund OC GOP chairman emeritus (and priest-abuse apologist) Tom Fuentes called Allan and Keith to his bedside and begged them to work this out for GOP unity. Homoerotic cigar-chomping courtier-columnist Frank Mickadeit has the whole pastel scene. Keith is out. Our tireless colleague Roy Bauer – who’s been on fire lately – reminds us of some history and what the scene was probably really like, with an appropos 15-year old passage from the Times:
…The list of people who accuse Fuentes of trying to arm-twist them into abandoning bids for public office includes a host of loyal Republicans: Assemblywoman Marilyn C. Brewer (R-Irvine), former Newport Beach Mayor Evelyn R. Hart, former Superior Court Judge Judith Ryan and management consultant Nathan Rosenberg.
All of them, at one time or another, sought the Republican nomination for public office. None heeded Fuentes’ advice, but only Brewer won the nomination.
“He said my business would be ruined, and that my husband’s business would be ruined,” said Ryan, a challenger to U.S. Rep. Robert K. Dornan for his seat in 1992. “I was taken aback.”
Fuentes calls Ryan’s charges “ridiculous,” but he does not deny that he tries to dissuade people from running against GOP officeholders.
“I am staunchly loyal to incumbents,” Fuentes said. “I make no excuses for that.”….
So this leaves the race between Mansoor and Republican Newport Beach councilwoman Leslie Daigle. I asked her the other day why she was running against Allan, and she responded:
I have a record for conservative fiscal management. I’ve built reserves, cut spending, helped get employees pay a larger portion of their pensions. I am more interested in working to get results than being a rhetorical bomb thrower. What’s Allan’s record on cutting spending, any accomplished pension reform, and building reserves? Thanks for asking Vern.
The purported conservatives I know in the OC GOP consider Leslie to be a liberal, and a stalking-horse for redevelopment interests, funded as she is by the Irvine Company. And my old drinking buddy from HB, the genial but addled Joe Carchio, is not to be taken seriously – last time I ran into him at the Seacliff Albertson’s, where he likes to schmooze with the public and not even shop, he wasn’t sure what district he lived in.
I’m predicting another term for MinuteMansoor.
Loretta comes down on side of goodness and light, backs Julio!
We’ve had some coverage on this blog of the “fight for the soul of the Democratic Party of Orange County” going on over the two serious candidates in the 69th AD – the “brash and brilliant” Occupier Julio Pérez supported by the Young Dems and the labor folks (as well as Gustavo, me and Diamond, and the LibOC) versus the conservative gringo Tom Daly supported by what seems to be most of the Dem establishment – Senator Lou Correa, Assemblyman Solorio, and DPOC chairman Frank Barbaro.
The latter group swear up and down that only a “moderate” Democrat – one like Lou and Jose who constantly makes compromises and deals with corporate interests – can win in the 69th, because – hey, it’s Orange County! (It sounds more and more like they’re just making excuses for their own proclivities, as well as fretting over the big donations.)
The rest of us say something different – this is a new time, and the working class has been so abused and impoverished by the top 1%, it’s time for the Democratic Party to regain its soul and redouble the struggle for the vast majority of us. And we’ve had enough “Democrats” who try to straddle both sides and keep everyone happy, except stab us in the back at the most important times. And nothing we say is less true in Santa Ana and the chunks of Anaheim, just because they happen to be behind the Orange Curtain. Yada yada yada, except all true.
And while I wouldn’t have risked predicting it, it was great to see our Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez coming down on the progressive side and supporting Julio over Tom Daly!
Isn’t this a bit dramatic? I’ve understood that Tom Daly was one of Loretta’s original, crucial supporters at the beginning of her career – and he was one of the very few OC politicians present when I played at her wedding. For her to choose labor hero Julio over her old friend shows that she is indeed the progressive I’ve always tried to tell people she is – despite her Valley Girl babble and her Blue Dog pretensions. Kudos to Lo, and we did catch that OCCUPY shout-out on your last Xmas card!
Waiting for hateful Art Pedroza comment in 3….2….1….
Julio is dangerous, and sexy. This is going to be a tough fight for him against two candidates who are dug in like Alabama ticks sucking at the public trough. Fasten your seatbelts, this is going to get bumpy.
With Carlson out of the AD-74 race, the tactics for us Democrats change. Previously, so long as there was going to be an expensive three-way Republican fight in the primary, I was happy to see Dems stay out of the race. Now we have the threat that Daigle and Mansoor could agree to keep the race in a relatively low gear through June, then gear up to spend only in November.
How do we prevent that (so as to provide maximum carnage in June)? Looks like we’ll need a Democratic candidate after all — someone who, just due to the “(D)” after their name, can attract about 20-25% of the vote without campaigning (and more if they do campaign.)
But where could we find a person willing to go in on more or less of a lark? Hmmm … Laguna Woods is in the district! There are lots of great Dems on the party’s Central Committee who live there. Or maybe my grandmother would like to run!
Mansoor and Daigle are going to have to raise a lot of money — maybe more than they think! (You’re welcome, local TV stations and newspapers!)
Laguna Woods? … How about the brilliant Jonathan Adler?
Jonathan’s too busy having a positive effect on the world than to do something absurd like running for office. And there’s always the possibility that he’d get over 33.3% of the vote, and thereby guarantee himself a spot in the runoff. But would I like to see him in debates with Mansoor and Daigle? Oh, yeah! He’d mop the floor with them and then wax them to boot. Not a bad idea there, Brother Publisher!
He’s got a GREAT bio. (Lemme see if I can find it somewhere on my lappie…)
Loretta’s sending out her support for Julio is just about the most interesting and important development of the AD-69 campaign so far. Those people who have been talking about Julio as someone who didn’t know how to get elected are suffering from a fatal lack of appreciation of how smart and energetic Julio is. At the DPOC’s SOTU Address party, at the UFCW Hall, Frank Barbaro was there, Jay Chen (running for CD-39) was there, I was there (although, unlike my colleagues, not dressed for battle) — and Julio was there, working the crowd (partly from AD-69) like the pro he is. I predict that he’s going to be the second “Assembly Speaker J. Perez” by December 2016.
By the way, since this seems to be the “political pot pourri” post, I have a question:
In a blog that shall remain nameless (and seemingly almost readerless), a Mr. Sean Mill posted his intention to mess with my campaign by sending me donations of one penny apiece:
My question to anyone who might know — does Sal Tinajero know that his appointee is suggesting that people play this sort of trick on candidates? Because, if Mill is going to publicly pledge to engage in nasty tricks, Tinajero is probably a lot more vulnerable to nasty tricks than I am.
Note: I have no truck with Tinajero and would not promote dirty tricks against him. (Nor, for that matter, would I expect to oppose him.) But is Mill’s impression that his actions in this regard don’t reflect on Tinajero? That’s … surprising, if true. Some of you guys told me that he was smart!
That is frightening. All eight of Sean and Art’s friends are going to band together to sabotage you?
(Liberal estimate.)
LOL, I’ve just gotta go look at that blog. (Don’t tell anybody!)
I can’t believe you went and commented on that thing. You singlehandedly brought it from zero to 23 comments.
But it did seem to me that kenlaysnotdead was sincere, about supporting you over Huff. I do trust that loonie.
I was willing to answer his question as to why I was running in SD-29, before he declared it to have been rhetorical!
I just have a hard time resisting the opportunity to make him look dumb as a stump.
I would welcome KLND’s help, but I do reserve the right to have him frisked before he comes into the campaign office!
If I do get any 1-cent contributions, I’ll surely publicize them so that everyone can enjoy the wit of the sender.
Perhaps report it as a terrorist threat?
(snarky reference to Sean’s reaction to Dan’s chickenshit t-shirt prank)
Vern, I don’t think there is any happy ending to this Williams saga. True, the man is an idiot, and he ran that department into the ground by giving the DA’s girlfriend, whose experience as a pool lifeguard I am sure prepared her to run a quasi law enforcement department investigating elder abuse and other type cases.
The problem as I see it is that he is a duly elected official. He should be able to defer his resignation should he so desire. However, there seem to be many conditions which were agreed upon by Williams and the BOS as a condition of his leaving. If Williams is successful in a lawsuit to be “reinstated”, County Counsel Crisos should tender his resignation for brokering such a deal to begin with.
Maybe Fuentes on his deathbed can give Williams some good advice to leave now while he has a sliver of integrity left. Once the secret audit is revealed, his dumbness and the shady deals made behind closed doors by the BOS shall be revealed to the masses.
NOTE: This story was also picked up by the LA Times, so this story is either headed towards a Telenova or TMZ.
Is Ned Beatty too old?
maybe the board of supervisors can sue for breach of contract, if there was an enforceable agreement. but the rumor is that williams withdrew the “resignation” a couple of weeks ago and the board did nothing.
2008, the Sheriff had to be removed, followed in 2009 by the Treasurer, then 2010 we have the public guardian. Yet to date , the DA’s office has yet to prosecute one municipal official for any wrongdoing. Magically are we to assume that Orange County is now “un”corrupt?
Past DA’s investigated and punished over 70 cases against public officials. Now?…nothing.
Our DA’s office IS the problem.
Yeah, I really should have mentioned T-Rack and Schroeder in my story. Imagine Rackauckas investigating John Williams, his closest crony? Impossible.
With regard to Williams – is that the odor of pension spiking I smell, thanks to the Supervisors continuing his high salary even though stripped of his Public Guardian job? If Williams continues to try to hang on to his high paying Public Administrator job couild the motivation be money, including growing his pension?
The court will overturn the unconstitutional removal of Mr. Williams. Whether or not you support him, this is not the remedy to remove an official who was elected in a county wide election (including Auditor, Assessor, District Attorney, County Clerk, Treasurer, Sheriff and Public Administrator). This is the kind of thing we’ve seen in Libya, Egypt and Iran, people. We live in a democracy with a constitution and county charter, not some third world country where people’s rights are quashed. Unbelievable.
Hold on, Ocie Lady! Didn’t he resign as of Monday — and then decide that he wanted to unscramble the egg? Once resigned, by agreement, can one unresign? (“I canna suspen’ the laws of physics!”) This does not seem like the sort of abuses I recall hearing about from Egypt, Libya, and Iran — although if you’re suggesting that Williams is going to be found hiding in a large sewer pipe and all that ensued for Qaddafi, all I can say is that I hope not! (Seriously!)
I presume that you can join us in agreeing with the story that Williams is “OC’s worst public servant since Sheriff Mike Carona,” at least, right?
He had promised, last March, to resign this Monday – now he’s saying he only suggested that he MIGHT resign. In any case the Supes bent over backwards giving him incentives to resign – they moved Peggi Buff and another of his pets into other high-paying county jobs, they offered to retain him as a “consultant”. and as I mentioned they promised to keep under wraps the harsh report they had conducted on his record. If he doesn’t leave as he said, they should take all of that back – starting with Peggi Buff (Mrs Rackauckas I now hear) 90-grand job!
Hang on, I must not be understanding something correctly. Are you telling us that one incentive for Williams to resign was to land a $90K/year job for the wife of the District Attorney? Was this made explicit — or was it an explicit request? If so, I don’t think that your work on this story is done!
OK, I should be more clear. From the letter from the Supes, woefully detailing their end of what they thought was an agreement:
“(1) The Board allowed you tor remain as the Public Administrator for a one year period following the beginning of your term of office, which commenced in January 2011, at your full salary for both Public Administrator and Public Guardian, even though the Board had the power to reduce your salary when it removed you as Public Guardian; (2) The Board would not publicly release the highly critical report of your performance prepared for the Board by Special Counsel, Michael Colantuono; (3) The Board discussed with the CEO the option for the CEO to, within his authority, retain you as a consultant to the County for transition purposes.”
But the fact that two utterly unqualified women JW had hired for unnecessary, high-paying, administrative positions were promptly moved to other high-paying county jobs despite a hiring freeze, really seemed like part of soothing JW’s bruised ego last year. Peggi Buff was one of them – T-Rack’s fiancee (check that spelling Norberto!) and now-wife from what I’ve heard but it is hushy – and she was also the femme fatale that Spitzer crossed, losing him his assistant DA job and helping to move us to this colorful pass. [See my “When Scumbags Collide,” et al.]
Read the memorandum from Mr. Williams “intending” to retire. The statutes are very clear on what a resignation is and to whom it must be tendered. Have you ever “intended” to do something and changed your mind? The jury is literally still out on this one, too much information not being released along with some hasty and irresponsible behavior. We may never know all the real facts and how complicit the players really are.
Well, I understand that you may not want to address the “… since Sheriff Mike Carona” comparison, but surely you will agree with the author’s desire to read “the highly critical report of [Williams’s] performance prepared for the Board by Special Counsel, Michael Colantuono.” Just giving you the opportunity to stand up for transparency here, this not being Qaddafi-era Libya and all.
Heck, she could read either of the
scathingdamning Grand Jury reports for that matter. (Sorry, I’ve decided that “scathing grand jury report” is a cliche I avoid, especially after so much John Williams coverage.)But this ocie lady seems to have a JW crush a bit! Like our “willie deville.” Really makes you wonder…
You need to expand on this story. You know “big-picture” things in this area that many of us who haven’t been attending to these people have not. It seems almost baroque.
Almost baroque? Oh, it is the Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue!
Byzantine.
@Tony — “Byzantine” and “Baroque” are not incompatible. I don’t know how byzantine this is — seems pretty straightforward to me, but you guys know more about it — but the excesses described here are baroque. Or, as Vern implies, it’s a total cluster-fugue!
Williams sure showed his intent when he continued cashing his Public Administrator plus the Public Guardian paychecks, even after he was fired as the Public Guardian (part of the deal Williams, his attorney, and the Board of Supervisors agreed to among other things). If Williams is backing out of the deal, Williams can cut a check for the overpayment. They can then fire Buff and Williams’ other at-will employee who they gave a job to allegedly as part of this deal. They can then move Williams out of the plush office reserved for the bigger role of Public Guardian and relocate him to a broom closet in a completely different building, as to not disturb the deputies that actually work for a living at the PA and PG.
The Circus is in town folks, and it opens at 9:00 am in courtroom C16 at the Central Justice Center. I hear Williams will be selling his confiscated supply of TapOut shirts heavily discounted to help pay his attorney.
Phil Greer will be wearing Mixed Martial Arts gear? Perfect.
there is a process for resigning from elected office. that was not followed, hence no official resignation.
second, two weeks prior to the date of the “resignation” the resignation was withdrawn by providing notice to the board of supervisors. under the law, there is no “resignation”
third, the “agreement” was/is unenforcible. the things that the BOS promised to do, they could not legally do. hence, no consideration.
fourth, john moorlach acted without board approval since he took the actions to lock williams out prior to a board of supervisors meeting
game, set, match williams
Some or all of your facts might be right, I hope not. Still, as always, I wonder, why do you stick up for this useless, wasteful guy?
And are you still performing on Balboa?
not sticking up for the guy, he is as useless as moorlach and spitzer. what i try and stick up for are the facts and the process. if the public is that fed up with him, then recall him, if he really did what spitzer alleges he did, then todd can file a suit against him or the grand jury can present an accusation. but for the board of supervisors to act like a third world banana republic, with moorlach playing the role of hugo chavez and todd spitzer striving to be a che wanna be, is fundamentally wrong
It’s more of a gray area than that. The BOS should have never combined the low-paying elected PA job with the high-paying appointed PG job; that’s what makes this guy so dislodgable. I don’t see it as any affront to democracy for the BOS to try to reverse this disaster. How many people who voted for him even give a flying fuck about him or this office? You may be technically right of course.
How is this worse than any of the other shenanigans that go on with the county?
People are upset when an elected offcial won’t quit, but say nothing about the others abusing their offices.
Sounds like we have done a preety good job of taking our eye off the ball.
And there are a number of people who love that.
Who said “worse?” All I’ve said, implicitly, is “worth reporting.” And “worth doing something about.”
We ARE talking big chunks of money, and a big chunk of demoralized county workforce.
AND this goes right to the door of Rackauckas and Schroeder, so I don’t know who these “number of people” are who like a distraction like that. Besides us.
the board is doing something about it with a ballot initiative in june and i will support that proposal. but just because they created a bad situation does not mean that they get to break the law. we have to respect the process even when we do not respect the people abusing it
Can the BOS make it a two-part ballot initiative; 1) Recall John Williams as Public Administrator 2) Make the Public Administrator an appointed, non-elected position?
“Hold on, Ocie Lady! Didn’t he resign as of Monday — and then decide that he wanted to unscramble the egg? Once resigned, by agreement, can one unresign?”
Dan White tried that….to no avail. But then he did get an “almost” suspended sentence because of his “Twinkie Defense”.
Williams slid into office and seemingly….will be sliding out when his term is over. What more can he do….buy expensive furniture and a Super Bowl TV for his office?