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Really, this is historic. Pretty much unprecedented. For a great writer, who most of us assumed was long dead, to come back from a Salinger-like retirement and surprise us with a satirical press release for our very own Board of Supervisors!
I mean, it’s been how long since we last heard from George Orwell? 68 years? And his wit is as biting and acerbic as ever. But look at me going on! Let’s just hear from the master now, the feared and beloved creator of 1984, Animal Farm, and Homage to Catalonia:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Board of Supervisors Votes to Ensure
Accountability and Transparency in Auditor-Controller’s Office
Santa Ana, Calif. (June 26, 2018) – Today the Board of Supervisors voted as part of the approval of the FY 2018-19 budget to re-establish the Internal Audit Department, reporting directly to the Board of Supervisors, removed the Auditor-Controller and Internal Audit augmentations while also cutting $656,570 of funding from the Auditor-Controller’s base budget.
“This action by the Board of Supervisors is to ensure transparency and independence in the Auditor-Controller’s Office by restoring the oversight of the Internal Audit Department that we established in 1995 after the county’s bankruptcy,” said Chairman Andrew Do, Supervisor First District.
The Internal Audit Department was under the direct supervision of the Board of Supervisors until 2015. Today’s vote also transfers 14 Internal Auditor positions as well as $2,294,495 in appropriations under the Board of Supervisors’ oversight.
“It’s not a best practice to have Auditor-Controller ensuring its own transparency. I believe we did a great service to the citizens of Orange County by returning the Internal Audit Department under direct control of the Board of Supervisors,” said Vice Chairman Shawn Nelson, Fourth District.
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If any of you are not rolling with laughter over Orwell’s godlike humor here, perhaps you need a little background – by taking away $1 million in funding and 2/3 of the staff of just-reelected-by-74% independent auditor Eric Woolery, and putting all that under their OWN control, “accountability and transparency” are exactly what they’re trying to prevent! (Or four of the Supervisors anyway – kudos to Todd Spitzer for opposing this.)
Any child can see that when you take away the independence of the folks exercising oversight over you, and place them under YOUR control, there is no longer meaningful oversight. This is like if Donald Trump fired Muller and handed the Russia investigation over to Jared Kushner.
David Zenger provided, in 2015, a good history of how we got here, and the Voice‘s Nick Gerda lays out the latest. From Nick’s story:
Opponents said the moves against Woolery’s office … would strip away independent oversight over the supervisors and law enforcement. “Contained within this item is a significant escalation in a long history of systemically dismantling transparency and accountability mechanisms within Orange County, while consolidating power within the board,” said Sylvia Schwartz, a Costa Mesa resident who spoke during public comments.
“We cannot just have have people who report to the positions that they are trying to hold accountable. That’s not how true transparency and accountability works,” said Cynthia Valencia of the ACLU.
Ah, but the butt-hurt goes DEEP with this Board, butt-hurt inflicted by Woolery. Not long ago, a bemused and outraged Andrew Do stammered, “We have…very weird dynamics going on, where we have an auditor-controller that feels like he actually oversees this Board of Supervisors. Okay? He feels like he’s the one who gets to review, actually, the legality of everything we do.” Umm, yes, Andrew, because that’s how it is. Do’s grievance was Woolery’s cockblocking public funds for electioneering mailers from himself and colleague Lisa Bartlett – a hinky practice that can now proceed unimpeded.
And now comes Shawn Nelson, fresh from his dismal showing in the CA-39 Congressional race, nursing a bitter grudge against Woolery for questioning his retroactive pension payments, and surly and vindictive as ever: “It’s not a best practice to have Auditor-Controller ensuring its own transparency.” HEY GUYS, the public is WAY less concerned with the transparency of the Auditor-Controller than we are with YOUR transparency.
But to me, the Board’s brilliant coup of having GEORGE ORWELL write their press release more than makes up for all of this. How did they pull this off? We may never know. Ah well… ACCOUNTABILITY! TRANSPARENCY!
WAR IS PEACE.
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY.
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.
Our country needs a savior….
The Orange County Government has had a vary long history of deception and Corruption and the 2018 class of Board of Supervisors and the rest of the county elected officials are no exception the Board of Supervisors of 2018 join the 1994-95(bankruptcy) Board of Supervisors as the most inept bunch to hold that position.
After writing this and thinking a little more, my theory is that the Supervisors have for so long had their heads buried up their own asses that they believe the auditor is supposed to be accountable TO THEM, transparent TO THEM.
Either that or they think it’s hilarious to use catchwords in an ironic Orwellian way.
Zenger’s post and comments show someone unafraid to piss off a fair number of the powers that be. But we’re not in Oceania just yet…
Still, my eye was drawn to this line in Gerda’s story: “Additionally, the supervisors moved forward with efforts to take over 287 accounting and financial control staff positions from Woolery’s office.”
287 positions? I would have expected that the Auditor-Controller wouldn’t have a huge staff, and would primarily field ‘open questions’ when they noted discrepancies. Someone’s gonna have to break this down in more detail for the sake of us newcomers…
Speaking of which, is there really a comprehensive reference (a book by someone who knew) about what happened to OC finances? Budgets aren’t easily sifted through, and only a handful understand (most of whom are paid by one side or another, so their understanding is attenuated by their other ambitions).
The A-C functions as the bill collector and invoice receiver for the entire county government, including payroll and tax receipt collection. It’s a mammoth undertaking done for the most part with remarkable accuracy. There are an awful lot of transactions and there were (probably still are) a lot of deputy purchasing agents who don’t know CPM from a comic book.
Naturally, it is incumbent on the Controller to be able to do (or survive) audits on all this stuff. And those audits have been, until recently, undertaken by the former IA and a series of outside audit firms whose job it is to perform regulatory audits. It’s important to remember that the old IA, Peter Hughes employed less than 15 people.
Is Woollery overstaffed? Highly likely given the bare realities of fully unionized government employment. However, the same question should be asked of the Supervisors themselves, each of whom has a million bucks to fritter away on whatever staff they want – and getting us to pay for it all.
And the OIR has been modified to become involved in homelessness issues! This is the same office that sputtered along doing nothing under Connelly during the jail snitch scandal. Now the new guy can team up with our $200,000 per year, faceless Homeless Czar, Susan Somethingorother.
Nelson has had over 8 years to understand every nuance of the A-C function. But no, that would take work and concentration. Instead he doesn’t know what all those people do so they must be overstaffed – ironically just like his own office.
There is a thick Orwellian cloud (shroud?) hovering over Building 10.
*We wonder whether Sworn OC Sheriff are still going house to house to check if any barking dog has a up to date License? Talk about a good use of Country Resources….? You can be sure that Shawn hasn’t yet checked into that one!
The BOS keeps outdoing the demagoguery of their leader: “Journalists should be free from fear of being violently attacked”
Is the last and best hope for a rebirth of the Republican Party in CA-39, Shawn Nelson, in the deep end of this political career?. The smiling face of his Policy Advisor Steve Spernak, is all over the last 4th District Update newsletter.
What did Spitzer actually have to say about this move from the dais (or elsewhere)? It’s hard to imagine his having been reticent. Maybe you should interview him, Vern.
As for Woollery, his official responsibilities are spelled out in the CA Constitution. If this power grab leaves him unable to adequately fulfill them, I would think that he could ask for intervention by at least two branches of state government.
Look closely at who is on the Woolery staff and that will tell you a lot.