Decision on Graves On Hold for 2 Weeks : Resignation or Firing of County’s CAO Considered to Be No Longer If, But When

Clifford W. Graves’ future as San Diego County’s top administrator will not be formally decided for at least two weeks, the county Board of Supervisors agreed in a closed session Wednesday.

But speculation, some if it confirmed, continues to run rampant at the County Administration Center downtown that Graves is a lame duck whose seven years with the county will end with the completion of this month’s 1985-86 budget deliberations.

Supervisor Paul Eckert, acting as spokesman for the board, told a news conference Wednesday afternoon that the board would decide Graves’ fate at its already scheduled evaluation session June 19.

Eckert said the four members of the board present Wednesday--Chairman Leon Williams was absent--did not discuss Graves’ performance or a scathing county grand jury report issued Tuesday that all but called for the board to fire Graves.

Eckert said no board member moved that Graves be fired, and Supervisor Susan Golding said in an interview that Graves did not offer to resign.

As Graves left the meeting Wednesday, he told reporters that he was going back to his office.

“I’ve got a lot of work to do,” he said with a smile.

Asked how long he would be working, Graves replied as he walked down a staircase, “Oh, ‘til 10 tonight . . . and tomorrow and the day after that.”

But interviews with board members, their aides and others in county government indicate that Graves’ firing or his resignation are no longer a matter of if, but when.

With the approach of the six-month deadline the board set for Graves to prove himself after three new supervisors took office in January, the supervisors’ office suite on the third floor of the county building has been abuzz with talk of his future. Supervisors have been gathering informally in groups of two--a meeting of three would be a quorum and thus subject to the state’s public meeting laws --to discuss their thoughts on Graves’ performance.

According to several sources close to the situation, Supervisor Susan Golding, who has made no secret of her displeasure with the CAO, had been working slowly to build a consensus that would force Graves to resign.

That consensus apparently had come together earlier this week, with Golding and Eckert secure in their decisions and Supervisor Brian Bilbray leaning toward the same position. Supervisor George Bailey was said to be the lone holdout, only because he did not want to commit to a decision until after the six-month period he promised Graves in January.

But if any decision was in the offing, it was scuttled with the release Tuesday of a two-page grand jury report that cited a litany of problems and said they added up to a county government in “disarray.”

“One clear fact stands out,” the report said. “No one is in control of San Diego County governmental responsibilities.”

Though each of the four supervisors in town Wednesday said they agreed with much of the grand jury’s report, they apparently were reluctant to fire Graves in a way that would make a decision reached over several months appear as a reaction to a single event or, in this case, a single report.

Golding refused to confirm that she had spearheaded an effort to oust Graves. But she noted that she had asked that Graves be evaluated two months ago, and had found no support for that position from her colleagues.

“We have to do these things as a minimum three-vote majority,” Golding said. “No matter what any one of us feels at any one time, it really has very little relevance to a concerted action of the board.

“I would have preferred an earlier resolution, but I’m content to do it in two weeks. I don’t anticipate any marked change in my opinion in the next two weeks.”

Eckert also would not confirm that he had made up his mind about Graves. Like Golding, though, he was far from issuing the top administrator a public vote of confidence.

“I think everybody will agree I’ve had a great deal of patience since the first of the year,” Eckert said. “I’ve been waiting for those first five or six months to get by so we can get through the budget and get down to work.”

Bailey, asked if he had held out against firing Graves Wednesday, would say only, “It’s no secret that I have advocated we wait until the six months are up before doing anything.”

Williams’ absence also apparently contributed to Graves’ two-week reprieve. Williams has been on an extended trip to China and was expected to arrive in San Diego late Wednesday night and return to work this morning.

“I can’t hardly believe that anyone would feel confident in the board discussing anything dealing with the evaluation of a county executive without the full board being present,” Eckert said.