Chief of County’s Top Anti-Poverty Agency to Lose Job

The board of directors for Orange County’s largest anti-poverty agency will not renew the contract of John Flores, the agency’s president, who embittered the board by taking an administrative leave to highlight his contract dispute, it was announced Thursday.

The decision, reached late Wednesday during a meeting of the Community Development Council board of directors, was made after members voted 9 to 3 in executive session against renewal of Flores’ contract when it expires May 7.

Flores, reached by telephone Thursday in Oxnard where he is attending a business conference, said he intends to meet with board members and fight, legally if necessary, to retain his job.

“I question the motives of the board,” Flores said, “especially in view of the kind of success we have had with the agency in the last three years.

Board Accused of Wanting Control

“This displays their feelings for the poor in Orange County. Ask people in Orange County who give services to the poor, and they’ll tell you, we’re doing a better job than before. Yet if you talk to the board, they want control, and that’s more interesting to some of them than the product, which is providing programs for the poor,” Flores said.

He said he intends to seek renewal of his contract, “if the proper forum exists.” If not, he’ll pursue legal action, he said.

Flores was scheduled to return to Orange County late today and to be at work Monday.

What effect Flores’ anticipated termination would have on services to the county’s poor is uncertain.

“We’re just devastated, especially in light of the fact that Mr. Flores was the best director the staff has had in a number of years,” said Julius Cartwright, the agency’s chief financial officer.

During the three years he has managed the agency, Flores has been credited with helping the anti-poverty organization transform from a troubled agency on the brink of bankruptcy in 1984 to a healthy one with a $6-million annual budget.

Flores earns $47,700 a year, but it was his demand for a pay raise of at least 15% and better benefits this year that led to a battle with board members.

Flores’ decision to take a self-imposed administrative leave in March for one week when contract negotiations reached an impasse and then his failure to communicate his interest in the job to the board represented a “lack of leadership,” said Fausto Reyes, who chairs the board’s personnel committee.

“He has done a number of positive things for CDC. But we expect a CDC president to take the leadership role when it comes to contract negotiations. We wanted John to come up to us and say, ‘Hey look, this is the way I feel about the job, and this is the way I want to go,’ ” Reyes said.

“I think he expected board members to contact him and say, ‘We want you to stay.’ But he broke off negotiations, and it was . . . (his obligation) to notify us of his desire,” Reyes added.

‘Turned Their Backs’

But another board member, Marta Lopez-Digby, who fought to renew Flores’ contract, said the board had “turned their backs” on Flores’ achievements as part of an effort to “discredit and hurt” him because of his walkout and personality differences with some board members.

In early March, negotiations began and were progressing, Reyes said, until “all of a sudden” the board received notification that Flores was being represented by an attorney. The action stirred a flurry of letters between both parties and ended with Flores’ taking administrative leave.

“Taking leave was not in his contract, and he told (Herbert) Schwartz, our board president, that he wouldn’t return unless he had a contract,” Reyes said.

Flores left his job March 30 and named chief financial officer Cartwright acting president during his absence. Flores returned a week later.

Lopez-Digby, a welfare mother of two, who is the board’s only representative from the poor, said the board is made up of people who have allowed the agency to become mired in board politics and personality contests, rather than helping the agency’s mission to the poor.

And some directors for social service centers have expressed concern that the Flores dispute has obscured the agency’s stated mission to help the poor become self-sufficient.

Council’s Services

The council provides vital services, including free food, weatherization of homes, energy crisis intervention and housing.

Health services which were largely provided with the agency’s mobile health van were discontinued in January for lack of insurance. The program may begin again in June, a spokesman said.

Before Wednesday’s meeting, Lopez-Digby criticized the board for failing to “let the staff” run the agency, a reference that she said was aimed at several board members who have pushed to oust Flores.

“They don’t care about this agency. It has nothing to do with John Flores’ work performance. It’s a personal thing,” she said.

Reyes said the board’s action “had nothing to do with a feud.”

“I like John, I think he’s a good guy, but the board has expressed a few things they would like him to do, which he hasn’t done,” Reyes said.

Flores was hired May 7, 1984, from among 120 applicants. He replaced Thomas Dolan, an interim director who succeeded Norine W. Miover, who left the agency when she was under internal review for alleged mismanagement and improperly receiving $1,500 in agency funds for personal use.

Dolan later became director for the Orange County Consolidated Transportation Service Agency, which was created by the Community Development Council, then spun off to become independent.