O.C. Supervisors Put Term Extension on Ballot, OK Funds for Sheriff’s Poll

The Orange County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to put a measure on the November ballot that would extend supervisorial term limits four years.

A split board also voted to spend nearly $400,000 for a community survey requested by Sheriff Michael S. Carona to assess his department over a three-year period.

Only Supervisor Lou Correa opposed the term-limits measure, saying it should be part of a larger government reform package that includes more detailed campaign finance disclosures.

Supervisors currently must step down after two terms but can run again after vacating the office. The measure would create a lifetime limit of 12 years of service.

The extension would also give additional financial benefits to the supervisors.

Under the county’s retirement system, employees -- including supervisors -- must serve 10 years before they are vested. A third four-year term would carry them over the threshold.

In other action, the supervisors voted 3 to 2 to fund a $396,000 survey that would gauge over three years how employees and residents viewed the Sheriff’s Department.

Critics said the survey was a thinly disguised political poll for Carona.

Last week, the supervisors deadlocked on the matter, but on Tuesday, with board Chairman Bill Campbell back from a trip from Washington, D.C., the panel approved the measure.