Effectiveness of Government

The League of Women Voters has carefully considered the recent grand jury report on the “Organizational Effectiveness of County Government in Orange County” prepared by consultants from Claremont Colleges.

We congratulate the present grand jury for making this current assessment and hope that the next grand jury will follow up on some of the good and positive suggestions made in the report. We hope that the Board of Supervisors takes a closer look at the total report and acts on some of the suggestions made.

We would very much like to see a citizens committee formed, preferably along the lines of the now-defunct Citizens Direction Finding Commission to continue the work started by the long-range planning committee of the grand jury.

We are in favor of a strong county administrative officer (CAO) and favor the suggestion made for a periodic comprehensive report on the state of the county, its needs, its programs and its planning options.

The league also supports the plea for more long-range planning. The suggested creation of a Unit for Planning Evaluation and Control in the CAO’s office that “would serve as a catalyst for translating paper plans into actions today to solve tomorrow’s problems” sounds like a most interesting possibility.

In the day-to-day operations of county government, we have seen the need for more interaction between the CAO and other agencies as well as interaction among the agencies. The grand jury’s suggestion that the supervisors find a way to more coordination with the cities to solve mutual problems is something of value.

And, finally, an organization such as ours is solidly behind the grand jury proposal to encourage the supervisors to more actively educate the public about the long-term needs of the county and the priorities of county government.

We congratulate the 1986-87 grand jury on a job well done.

JESSICA DEAN,

President

League of Women Voters

of Orange County