Tom Mauk. Now that the Great Pink Whale John Williams has been vanquished, it's time to take a closer look at the Top Dog. Photo by Michael Goulding, OC Register
Damn, this county has been run badly these last few years. I mean, hell’s bells. Who’s been in charge? Are they asleep at the switch? That would be our County CEO Thomas G Mauk. Since his appointment September 28, 2004, Mauk has presided over a lavish and consequence-free culture of self-dealing that’s cost OC taxpayers millions and millions. Tens of millions.
CEO Mauk’s performance review with the Board of Supervisors is coming up Tuesday night. They may offer him a raise, to offset his recent pickup of his own pension costs – got that? – in the same stroke erasing any savings we might have enjoyed from his taking over his pension costs. In a poll below we will ask you if you think he deserves a raise, or to be kept on at the same salary, or to be replaced. But first, dear reader, consider the following items:
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Consider: As a scathing audit revealed last year, the County’s Human Relations under Mauk regularly approved unjustified raises and promotions, breaking county and state rules to benefit its own employees and those of Mauk’s office, squandering over a hundred million of your money and mine. It was a free-for-all, everyone giving each other the highest performance reviews, people approving their own raises, the Supervisors being kept in the dark over promotions and raises they were supposed to have been in charge of. More gruesome details are here – pay raises of 33% within 6 months, a Dana Point Harbors Director with four raises in 9 months, and more.
HR employees admitted that after a while they had stopped making much effort to review the required explanations for raises and promotion requests submitted by Mauk’s office and other superiors. “They are our bosses and it would not be advantageous for us to deny their requests,” an employee told auditors, in a textbook portrait of intimidation.
Mauk responded to the audit by kicking the messenger, with what’s said to be a blistering attack on the auditor, in a memo which the press and public have not been allowed to see. The Supervisors reacted to the whole mess last December with the most minor of cosmetic fixes, ordering pay cuts and demotions for just a few of the more egregious offenders.
Labor chief Nick Berardino‘s comment on this story keeps things in perspective for all you public-employee bashers:
“For several years we have been screaming at the top of our lungs, while rank and file workers were being furloughed and laid off, that managers and executives were lining their pockets and giving themselves raises,” Berardino said. “It’s irresponsible and an affront to working families here in the county.”
Hapless Hubbard.
As a frequent commenter on this blog has reminded us, former Newport-Mesa superintendent Jeffrey Hubbard got 60 days in jail for similar unauthorized pay to ONE employee (that he had a crush on) – and that was only $23,000, compared to millions and millions that Mauk and his cronies flung at each other for years, with complete impunity.
I guess if you’re going to swindle the public, swindle them BIG is the lesson!?!?
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Consider the case of Deanna Fogarty-Hardwick, whose suit against the County over two social workers who lied to take away her daughter resulted in a judgment in her favor which the County appealed for four years, ALL THE WAY TO THE SUPREME COURT, until it ended up costing us $10.6 MILLION. ($9.6 to the Seal Beach mother and her counsel, which you can see below, and another million in the County’s own legal costs.)
She didn’t want that. She didn’t think that would happen. As her attorney Shawn McMillan marveled, “It was pretty amazing — they succeed in taking a $5 million award and doubling it for us. In my view, the taxpayers in Orange County should be pissed. This never should have gone this far.”
Deanna, victorious.
She didn’t want that? No, and actually McMillan vastly understates the facts: As we learned two months ago, the mother had originally offered to settle with the county for HALF A MILLION. $500,000. The cruel stubbornness of our County, after depriving a mother of her daughter’s childhood, to refuse to part with half a million, ended up costing us TWENTY-ONE-FOLD. The Moorlach sounds dazed when trying to explain this. (He blames the bureaucracy’s blind trust in its employees. I blame the bureaucracy’s symbiotic relationship with lawyers, along with its attitude that the public it’s supposed to serve is the ENEMY.)
The award was already up to 5 million before the Supes even caught wind of it, so naturally they said, “Sure, appeal it.” If they had known about it when it was a half-million offer they probably wouldn’t have. Obviously they’ll have to keep a closer eye on things and micro-manage, as long as the people who are paid in the quarter-million range to run the County let this kind of shit happen. Another giant Mauk Debacle.
Oh – typically sweet postscript – the two lying social workers, retaining the trust of their superiors, have been moved laterally but are still doing “social work,” and still, more than likely, lying.
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Consider the entire clusterfuck surrounding The Worst Public Administrator / Public Guardian Ever, the departed John S Williams. We’ve written here endlessly about the disaster that was his tenure in that office, and we like to think we had something to do with facilitating his departure, as costly as it was. We should have maybe been more clear that the misrule of Mr Williams was only a subsection of the misrule of Mr Mauk. The above-quoted article on the county audit includes the bullet point:
Human resources officials 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.
Williams and Buff at play.
But that’s all old news to any studious Orange Juice reader. Let’s check in on the AFTERMATH of the Williams Cataclysm, surely a time that would try any County CEO’s soul and give him a chance to show what he’s made of. As you may recall from the seminal article “When Scumbags Collide,” golden boy Todd Spitzer‘s impertinent questioning of Williams’ assistant Peggi Buff, who also just happened to be the girlfriend of DA Tony Rackauckas, not only led to Spitzer’s firing as assistant DA but also brought uncomfortable attention to the nepotistic hiring of minimally qualified Buff in the first place. (She was after all one of those 13 egregious examples mentioned in the above passage.)
So how does Mauk deal with the improper hiring of the DA’s unqualified girlfriend? Why, he fobs her off to another department with a new high-paying gig (nearly 100 grand) processing employee tuition reimbursement. Problem solved!
As Williams refused to leave his elected position, but was clearly unqualified to continue doing the actual job, Mauk had to find an interim Public Guardian, and reached out to his old La Habra crony Bill Mahoney (La Habra where Mauk used to be City Manager and Mahoney Councilman – although not at the same time.) Turns out Mahoney wasn’t really qualified for that job either, after a
ll; Mauk claimed Mahoney had recent probate experience but according to the California State Bar he hadn’t practiced law for well over a decade!
From what I hear from my pajaritos, the new Public Guardian wanted to fire the Chief Deputy and the Personnel Director, but Mauk refused. The Personnel Director was transferred to County HR, while the Chief Deputy remains. Meanwhile, the people of Orange County fervently hope that Todd Spitzer doesn’t file a wrongful termination suit, which he’d probably win, costing us more millions. Come on, Todd, not filing that suit will go some distance toward making up for your embarrassing long-ago 3%-at-50 vote!
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Consider the case of that perpetually priapic buffoon, Carlos Bustamante. This Santa Ana Councilman and former OC Public Works official was once considered a rising star in the Republican Party, despite his meager talents and oafish manner – Latino Republicans are so hard to come by, and some women of ruder tastes might even find him handsome. Even when he notoriously remarked to his pal Paul Walters, in front of journalists, that Paul would have had Sandra Hutchens’ Sheriff job if only he had worn a “water bra,” his star only dimmed imperceptibly.
Then there was the matter of the anonymous letters last year, accusing the family man of regularly shtupping women in his County office – four of ’em at least! – and then PROMOTING them as reward! 
Nothing has been revealed publicly of the ensuing investigation, and Carlos denies the allegations as sullenly as he denies making the “water bra” comment that everybody heard, but Norberto hears that “numerous women have already talked to the investigator and confirmed an array of complaints against” him, and sure enough he left his County post with his head down, but still leers at us from the Santa Ana dais.
What of the women? That’s the interesting part. Carlos was a favorite of Mauk’s county bureaucracy – in fact he was one of the recipients of the multiple unjustified raises mentioned above – so these women are now whistleblowers, i.e. hated. They’ve all been moved into cushy County management positions where they will now be at-will employees.
Girls, girls. I hope you are reading this. Figure out your deadline for filing civil action suits against the County, and have your résumés ready by then. My whistleblower friends know whereof they speak. Retaliation – it’s the OC way!
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Finally, consider the most apocalyptic of CEO Mauk’s fuck-ups: the loss, through ostrichlike head-in-the-sand inaction, of $48 million of state funds to which the County had become accustomed since our 1994 bankruptcy. I’m tired now, and you’re tired. If you want to understand how we came to this pass, Norberto explains it well, as does Mr. Peabody here (while tying it directly to CEO Mauk.)
Long story short, five years ago procedures were not bothered with that should have been, and we’ve been continuing to receive that money anyway through sheer inertia, but last year vigilant budget eyes in Sacramento noticed that we weren’t supposed to be, so now we’re not. And it would have been easy to do something about this five years ago – Norberto warned about it in the pinche Register way back then! Now all the politicians and bureaucrats are rushing about pointing fingers at each other in a truly rich comical tableaux … but WE folksy ones know that the fish rots from the head down and it’s yet another Mauk Debacle.
Okay. The best way for lay people like you and I to understand this situation is to think of that movie Office Space. Remember the character Milton, obsessed with his Swingline stapler, who mumbles to himself at his desk all day busying himself with shuffling papers? And when the downsizing experts show up, they ask, who is this Milton guy, why is he here, your records show that he was fired five years ago but he keeps getting a paycheck, because of some “glitch in payroll.” And then they “fix the glitch.” No need to tell Milton anything about it, he’ll just eventually notice he’s not getting his paycheck and “things will work themselves out.”
And you and I are Milton, left wondering where our paycheck went, that we’ve been getting for years and years, and mumbling, “But, my stapler … my stapler …” Tom Mauk? Well, he is also Milton, and he’s mumbling “my stapler” with us. Except that, Tom Mauk is still making a quarter million dollars a year, and might even get a raise Tuesday night. Which reminds me…
What do you think?
[poll id=”311″]
Update
[UPDATE: I’ve been hearing from various knowledgable people that I trust, that a lot of what I blame Mauk for in this article – maybe even most of it – is really orders from the elected Supervisors that Mauk follows and takes the fall for. Hm. Well, I’m not going to re-write this thing, it’s still a great overview of the corruption of our County in the last 5-6 years. But I don’t want to be unfair. I will now add a second poll… – V]
[poll id=”312″]
Great,…. another douche-bag I need to know about……..Drain the Swamp. That wasn’t a choice on the voting buttons, but I think it should be.
I should add, folks I spoke to in La Habra, of both Parties – including my friends Rose Espinosa and Daren Nigsarian – say that Mauk is remembered as a fine city manager there from his tenure in the late 90s and early aughts. Someone suggested the Peter Principle is in play.
Rose Espinosa? Good God, man. She’s clueless.
If you say so. But Daren’s not. Daren’s actually brilliant.
He’s not on the La Habra City Council, so you could be right.
That’s true unfortunately. The LH Council right now is Rose totally sidelined and four Huff acolytes, featuring the fresh-faced young Mormon whatsisname, the future of the north county GOP!
No, Rose is sidelined by her own turnipness.
Define “clueless.” Is it “not down with the program”?
If you had witnessed her pathetic performances during the 2010 Supervisorial campaign even you would have to use the word clueless to describe this individual.
It was hard to tell if her real problem was lack of knowledge or lack of intelligence. Or both.
But you weren’t around all those years ago.
I was around then, thanks. I’ve dealt with Rose off and on since 2007. She’s not clueless. She may not be a good campaigner, for all I know — Brea has been in Campbell’s district although now Nelson has scarfed us up, so I didn’t see her campaign — but she’s plenty sharp. Have you dealt with outside of campaign events?
Sharp as a turnip.
Oh, well if you’re doubling down like that then you must be right.
Two turnips are no smarter that one. Rosie should have stuck to the garage thing. She’s in over her head in the shallow end.
Impressively crafted as your insults of Rose are, they are all vituperative conclusion and no supporting evidence. It’s fine with me if you keep it that way; I just felt that I had to point it out.
When multiple things seem to go bad in local government it is the CEO, the City Manager, or the School Superintendent who takes the heat and may even be let go. One of the tasks of this position is to take the heat (also known as taking the arrows) for the havoc the elected governing body has wrought over time.
Some of the things this post lays at the feet of the CEO – such as the appointment of Williams to the Public Guardian job and the elevation of Mr. Bustamante to Executive Management – were most likely done because the majority of the Board of Supervisors instructed the CEO to make it happen, so to blame him for all these problems is probably mis-directed.
Within city and county government circles the job of Orange County CEO has for over a decade been viewed as toxic because of the cronyism and political favors the Supervisors here engage in. If Mr. Mauk is let go for perceived or real performance deficiencies, he should be in a position to negotiate a strong settlement agreement in exchange for keeping his mouth shut and thus not embarrassing the Supervisors by airing the details of the Supervisors’ behind the scenes actions and deals.
We need to all be concerned about who would replace him and how that person is selected – an open and competitive recruitment or the appointment of some connected crony? Of course, given the reputation of this County an open and competitive recruitment might not be very successful in attracting a top notch, experienced candidate or two.
I agree that the Board is responsible for Mauk. Which means they must like the job he is (not) doing.
On the contrary, Obno, if Mr. Mauk is let go for perceived or real performance deficiencies, he should NOT be in a position to negotiate a strong settlement agreement and should NOT keep his mouth shut and thus SHOULD embarrass the Supervisors by airing the details of the Supervisors’ behind the scenes actions and deals, if any such actions were improper.
I watched as county counsel lied multiple times to the Planning Commission and later the BoS on land use issues on a project two years ago. Hardly the first time.
EVERYTHING starts at or is ignored by the BoS. There just aren’t exceptions and when the little folks, like me, mention things, we are ignored in favor of a county legal beagle there with the sole purpose of getting what the Board wants done, done.
The OC Grand Jury in OC has on multiple occasions reviewed the Planning Dept and nothing has EVER been done about the problems BECAUSE they don’t START at the planning department. When a sup wants a project approved, the word comes down from high and goes to counsel, as well, and there the lies and omissions begin.
The OC Planning Dept. is in the worst condition I have seen in almost 30 years and it’s just not freaking funny.
Which project were they lied to about?
Giracci Vineyards.
What were they lied to about?
mauk is the very sharp tool of, not the board, but the people who created the board.
remember, john lewis created chris norby and is now “consulting and advising” todd spitzer. john lewis’ attorney, both personal and professional, phil greer got janet nguyen elected and, i am told, played a significant part in the original lawsuit allowing bill campbell, another lewis client, and spitzer to change jobs. mike schroeder and scott baugh got shawn nelson elected and have installed their flunkies to run that office.
john moorlach is simply too stupid to have any political acumen and, thus, goes off the rails by himself for no reason.
who benefits? baugh, schroeder and lewis
Someday I’d like to publish the long version of this as a story to see what denials it elicits.
According to this 2004 Appointment agreement for Mr Mauk, not only has his salary increased from his initial annual pittance of $215,00 to 8% retro 6/23/06-2/6/07, then (and this is what is strange) another 4% increase as of 1/1/07 then another 5% as of 10/15/07.
in addition, he has it written (and signed) contractually that he is to receive some nice perks.
http://egov.ocgov.com/vgnfiles/ocgov/OCGOVPortal/docs/compensation%20and%20contracts/CEO.pdf
And according to this link, evidently, he was offered a similar position for LA county, but was counteroffered by OC as incentive to stay. –
http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2007/01/scratch_one_cao.php
*This article deserves a Pulitzer…….we are proud to be associated with the great writing and reporting…..Kudos to our Vern the Great!
and you guys think that replacing mauk is really going to change things
and i bet that you all have great memories of the sixties
Nah. Probably not. On both counts.
My memory of the sixties is my mom making cookies.
Mostly Gilligan’s Island.
It won’t change things by itself, but it could be one ingredient in the potion.
*Engine Room……new deck chairs!!!
As you know, the Orange County District Attorney,Tony Rackauckas, is still in process of investigating Carlos Bustamante for possible criminal conduct involving, among others, allegations of sexual harassment and assault of an estimated 10-15 women, many of them Orange County employees. He was allowed to resign from the County by CEO Thomas Mauk, who also granted Bustamante 3 months severance pay at that time, under CEO authority alone, even though he had been made aware of such accusations at the time of Bustamante’s resignation. The CEO has also placed Mr. Jess Carbajal, Bustamante’s boss, on administrative leave.
The DA investigation is in response to a report prepared by the Orange County Internal Auditor (IA), Mr. Peter Hughes, who followed up on anonymous complaints to the Orange County Employee Complaint Hotline alleging that Orange County officials were long aware of Mr. Bustamante’s activities and that these activities were ignored and covered up by Orange County management. The Internal Auditor’s report that was transmitted to the Orange County Board of Supervisors in a closed session revealed the existence of a prior investigation into the matter and a report (which was included with the IA report) prepared by an independent outside investigator approximately one year ago. It found that harassment and possibly criminal assault by Mr. Bustamante had likely taken place and should be further investigated. No such further investigation ever took place. Prior to the IA report, the report by the investigator (addressed to the CEO and delivered to him long before the severance payoff was granted) was never disclosed to the OC Board of Supervisors and was buried, under CEO direction, in a safe in the County Hall of Administration, where its existence was finally discovered many months later by the Internal Auditor.
The unsuccessful attempt to bury this report was a cover-up of major proportion. Given his knowledge of the situation and the possibility that Bustamante could continue his activities, it was Mr. Mauk’s legal responsibility and duty to protect these and other women from further harassment. He failed to perform that duty. If what has been cited as being in the report’s findings is true, the decision by the CEO to withhold this report without further review by others or to conduct a follow up investigation of its findings allowed Bustamante to harass his victims for at least an additional six to eight months. At the end of this timeframe, when complaints concerning his conduct finally got the attention of the media and could not be ignored, Mauk allowed him to resign and granted him severance pay in return for Bustamante agreeing not to sue the County, despite the seriousness of the allegations against him.
Regardless of Mr. Carbajal’s or anyone else’s role in this matter, one might conclude that there has been a violation by the CEO of Federal EEO laws regarding reporting and investigating possible workplace harassment. One might also conclude that it is possible that the CEO has violated the law by not reporting a possible criminal act if the DA finds criminal conduct was involved. Such violations would be serious issues with considerable consequences. The OC Board of Supervisors has chosen to address the newly discovered report by referring it to the District Attorney, resulting in the investigation of Mr. Bustamante’s conduct. The CEO has been allowed to place Mr. Carbajal on administrative leave, seemingly in an effort to create a scapegoat and divert attention from his own actions.
The Board of Supervisors has taken no official action whatsoever regarding the CEO’s questionable conduct, due to the refusal of Supervisor’s Nguyen, Campbell and Bates to support any action that might seem detrimental to Mr. Mauk, in spite of the impact to the County of Orange, its citizens and its employees. In any organization, public or private, where accountability and integrity of conduct are important, such an officer would normally be placed on leave (as has been done with Mr. Carbajal) by its governing board until the officer’s role in the decision to not act on and bury such a report is investigated thoroughly. Instead, the CEO has been allowed to remain in a position where he may take any action needed to minimize his culpability through denial, control of information flow and scapegoating of subordinates. Why? Given the political associations involved with Bustamante, one could speculate why certain members of the Board want to ask no further questions or solicit no additional information, but what is certain is that the lack of action has sent a chilling message to those victimized by Mr. Bustamante and all other Orange County staff – those at the top are protected. It will be most interesting to note the reaction of the Board of Supervisors if the DA concludes that Mr. Bustamante engaged in criminal conduct and that their CEO, despite having knowledge of its possibility, did nothing.
As evidenced by this article, this action is one more of a long series of questionable actions and conduct by the Orange County CEO. After reading this article, however, in my opinion this is the most serious and morally corrupt one in terms of its possible criminality and its consequences and impact on innocent people. In the absence of any meaningful action by the Orange County Board, the DA should also open an inquiry into the CEO’s reasons and role in the burying this report. The original investigator’s report should be made public with names redacted. Its contents could clarify whether Mr. Mauk’s decision was somehow legitimate or simply a cover up. There can be no denying that his actions resulted in allowing the continuation of improper conduct and delayed the exposure of Mr. Bustamante’s activities for many more months. Such an inquiry might give some hope to the women who were subjected to his intimidation and abuse that justice is also being pursued against those at the top who tried to protect him as well.
Perhaps after all this, we citizens could then apologize to those who have been victimized.