Aides Hold County’s ‘Ship’ Steady : Supervisors’ Staffers Play Musical Chairs With Aplomb

“There are a million little day-to-day things that you need to know . . . You can really spin your wheels if you have to waste time figuring out where to go and who to talk to when you want to get something accomplished. “ Diane Barlow

Elected officials can be blown out of their jobs with changes in the political winds, but members of their staffs--those experts in the nuts and bolts of government--often stay on, albeit with new bosses and different constituencies to serve.

Witness the new, 1985 edition of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors.

There is much talk of a major transition in the county government, where Susan Golding, Brian Bilbray and George Bailey attended their first meetings this week. But only Golding opted not to dip into the pool of talent that became available when their predecessors and respective aides left.

Bailey, the District 2 supervisor with 25 years in local government under his belt, tapped Diane Barlow and John Woodard, both of whom had recently served Patrick Boarman and Roger Hedgecock, the last two representatives of the district now overseen by Golding.

Bilbray Assistant District 1 Supervisor Bilbray, a two-term mayor of Imperial Beach, chose as his top executive assistant Walt Ekard, who served four years under Paul Fordem, the incumbent ousted by Bailey.

Can Barlow and Woodard be effective advisers for Bailey in East County, where the problems are vastly different from those in District 3, which includes miles of coastline and the entire North City area of San Diego? Will the expertise of Ekard, a lifetime East County resident, be as valuable in Bilbray’s South Bay district?

No sweat, says Barlow, and as the dean of the supervisorial aides, she should know. In almost 10 years with the county, Barlow has worked under five supervisors and in three of the five supervisorial districts. In the game of political musical chairs that inevitably follows the defeat or retirement of a county supervisor, Barlow always has managed to find a seat.

Unabashedly “hooked on local government and citizen involvement,” Barlow’s decade-long odyssey began in 1974 with the first staff assembled by Jim Bates in the heavily urban District 4. She then wound her way to East County, where she worked for Dick Brown in District 2.

Eight years under Hedgecock and Boarman followed. And although she qualified last year to interview for county jobs in a myriad of offices, ranging from Social Services to the Sheriff’s Department, Barlow jumped at the chance to work for Bailey when he extended the offer.

Barlow does not fault Golding for bringing in newcomers to fill her top adviser slots (Golding has retained members of previous supervisorial offices in clerical positions, and her aides are hardly political neophytes). But, like Woodard and Ekard, Barlow believes it behooves a new supervisor to sign on at least one adviser who is a veteran of county government.

“I wouldn’t have said that, of course, 10 years ago, when I was new,” Barlow said. “But looking back, I see the value in having somebody who knows the ropes.”

When she was hired as an aide by Bates after running his first supervisorial campaign, Barlow joined a team of eager staff members who had never worked for the board. She had lived for almost 20 years in San Diego, and her background included writing “Election Extra” articles for the League of Women Voters, observing the city Planning Commission and participating in land-use studies for the league and doing volunteer work for numerous local campaigns.

Coping With Size

“With all that work behind me, I still found it was a lot different when you became a staff person,” Barlow said. “There are a million little day-to-day things that you need to know if you’re going to work effectively in a government of this size (San Diego County employs more than 11,000 people in offices scattered from El Cajon to Oceanside). You can really spin your wheels if you have to waste time figuring out where to go and who to talk to when you want to get something accomplished.”

Ekard, who signed on to Fordem’s first supervisorial campaign in 1980 shortly after graduating from the University of San Diego law school and was subsequently hired to join his staff in 1981, said, “a new supervisor who doesn’t have a staff member with experience at the county can be set back months and months.”

“You also want fresh ideas and new faces--it’s important to have that balance,” he said. “But I think Brian hired me because I had strong liaisons with people working in the offices of the other supervisors and the various county departments. I’ll help guide him through this bureaucratic maze with a minimum of effort.

“It’s a difficult transition moving from city government to county government. The issues (at the county) are tough and very complex, and there is such an incredible number of them to tackle. Those of us who were here before can make that transition easier.”

The new supervisors and first-time staff members are not alone in making adjustments--Barlow, Woodard and Ekard are undergoing some as well. They are not, however, unduly worried about setting policies and learning issues in their new districts.

“That’s my biggest adjustment,” said Woodard, who jokingly says his main goal is “to find out where Jamul is.”

“I’m working in the same subject areas as I did for Patrick (Boarman), so it shouldn’t be too much of a problem,” he said. “My assigned areas are regional issues--the courts, health care, social services and things of that nature. So my past experience will be valuable to me.”

‘Get Up to Speed’

Barlow has experience in District 2, but admits she “still has to get up to speed on some of the issues and people out there.

“I’ve always looked at the county on a regionwide basis, though, and that has helped when I’ve switched districts. I haven’t taken the narrow view of serving only the district represented by my supervisor, and this board seems much less parochial about that than the old one did, and that should make the adjustment easier for all of us.”

“My roots are not in South Bay,” Ekard said, “but we’ve brought people into our office who know its ins and outs, so they should pick up the slack. I’ll be running the office and dealing with the overall, regionwide issues, because that’s where my strength is. We’ve got other staffers who know all the neighborhood issues.”

Each politician has a distinct style, philosophy and ambition, and those factors go a long way toward dictating the nature of the staff member’s work. The aides can question decisions and strategies behind closed doors, but their loyalty to their bosses must never waver in public.

“I worked before under a conservative Republican whom I didn’t always agree with, although our disagreements were hardly vehement,” Ekard said. “I consider myself to be more of a pragmatic conservative who can come around to a point of view if I hear a persuasive argument.

“My biggest adjustment is getting used to a new style. Fordem was pretty low key, and Brian likes to be aggressive and keep a higher profile. You’ll never agree across the board, so I guess you adjust when you’re in my position.

“It can’t get too extreme, though. I could never work for a liberal Democrat. The difference in philosophy would create too many problems for me.”

Woodard learned the lesson of unbending loyalty firsthand under Boarman. Boarman was appointed to the board merely as a caretaker to serve the last 18 months of Hedgecock’s term after Hedgecock was elected mayor of San Diego, and he retained the staff, including Woodard and Barlow, that the mayor left behind in the District 3 office.

When Golding began her campaign for Boarman’s seat, Woodard and Marian Kohlepp, another former Hedgecock aide, set up a Saturday lunch with the candidate. That’s business as usual in politics, but newcomer Boarman was outraged by what he perceived as their lack of loyalty, and fired them both.

Grievance Filed

Political observers chalked up the dismissals to Boarman’s naivete. Woodard apologized, and was rehired a day later, but Kohlepp refused to back down and filed a grievance against the supervisor. Boarman wanted her ouster to stick, but the county moved quickly to settle Kohlepp’s action and found her another job within the government.

The bizarre scene left Woodard, a 1981 graduate of UC San Diego, in a ticklish position as an ambitious 26-year-old just getting his feet wet in politics. For almost a year he gritted his teeth and publicly supported a politician for whom he felt nothing but contempt.

“You have to be loyal when you’re in our position, and it was tough for me because I had no respect for Patrick,” Woodard said. “But I didn’t want to get a bad reputation here, and I knew I wanted to continue working for the board after Patrick left, so I stuck it out.”

Woodard, a native San Diegan whose first political experience came as a college intern working in Hedgecock’s supervisorial office, applied for jobs with each of the new supervisors, and said he could have worked effectively for any of them.

“But I was glad I hooked on with George, because he seems to be the most moderate of the three on land use and some of the social issues,” he said. “And his approach is refreshing. Patrick was always out for the press reaction. George just works quietly and concentrates on getting the job done.”

Barlow has worked for the two most ambitious and aggressive supervisors in recent memory (Hedgecock and Bates) as well as for a lame duck (Brown) who took to wearing a T-shirt reading “Bored Supervisor” to work near the end of his term. She has been in the employ of Republicans and Democrats, liberals and moderates.

Implementing the Program

“There’s one pattern consistently,” she said, “and that is that I have to be a professional who can implement my boss’s program effectively. In staff meetings, out of the public eye, you can disagree. But once the boss makes a decision, I do the best I can to accomplish what he’s after. That’s the way it has to be done.”

Like Woodard, Barlow relishes the unique opportunity of advising a first-term supervisor with no future political aspirations (Bailey is 65 and has no interest in running for higher office).

“It’s easier working for a person whose judgments aren’t made with an eye toward how a decision might look when it comes time to raise campaign funds,” she said. “It’s unusual to have someone starting out so fresh in a job whose ego isn’t getting in his way.”

Ekard, however, is just as excited about latching on with Bilbray, one of the Republican Party’s up-and-coming stars. At the rather tender age of 33, Bilbray boasts almost a decade in elected office, and many believe he has the style and verve to someday make a successful run for an office higher than county supervisor.

“Brian’s potential was definitely a factor in my decision to come to work for him,” Ekard said. “I admire a guy who’s been in elected office since his early 20s. I have no idea what his future ambitions are, but he has the potential to be one of the real leaders in San Diego County.

“It will be a challenge to enhance his reputation and help him become the kind of leader he has the chance to be.”

Ekard admits to having entertained thoughts of running for office someday himself. “It’s one of the reasons I wanted to work for politicians,” he said. “The thought is still there--I might be interested in something like that, though I’ve found I really enjoy advising, and I find myself leaning more and more in that direction as I assess my future.”

Woodard thought of running for elective office when he was employed by political consultant Tom Shepard and worked on Hedgecock’s first mayoral campaign--the subject of the mayor’s current perjury and conspiracy trial. But he said he “never would do it now after I’ve seen what happened to Roger. Nothing could be worth having to go through the stuff he has.”

And Barlow? “I could do other things, but I can’t imagine I’d enjoy them as much as this,” she said. “I think I’ve found my niche.”