EMA Director Named to Top Post in County

Ernie Schneider, a 20-year veteran of Orange County government, marathon runner and head of the county’s powerful Environmental Management Agency, was chosen Wednesday to be the county’s new chief executive.

Schneider, 42, will be formally named as the county administrative officer at the board meeting next Tuesday. A West German immigrant who arrived in New York a few weeks shy of his sixth birthday, he won out over four other top county officials who were finalists for the job. In all, 12 county executives submitted applications for one of the highest-paying government jobs in California.

Supervisors, who unanimously selected Schneider after shelving plans for a national search, hailed him Wednesday as a consensus builder with a keen knowledge of the intricacies of Orange County government and able to get a handle on the county’s escalating financial woes. Part of Schneider’s pitch for the job included a broad plan to restructure county government, interviews indicated. But one critic complained that he was too much of an insider and too close to developer interests.

Board members declined to discuss specifics of his proposals but acknowledged that his suggestions for streamlining county operations and keeping board members better informed on fiscal matters played a key role in their decision.

“When you’re talking about a budget of $3 billion, we need to have continuing monitoring of where we’ve been and where we’re going so we don’t run into periods of panic, which those of us in county government are very familiar with,” Supervisor Don R. Roth said, adding:

“I don’t want to read in your paper that the county is going to lay off three or four hundred people. I want to know about it ahead of time. . . . I just think he’s one of the best men for the job.”

The other finalists for the job were Transportation Commission Director Stanley T. Oftelie, Associate CAO John Sibley, Fire Chief Lawrence J. Holms and Chief Probation Officer Michael A. Schumacher.

Schneider will replace retiring CAO Larry Parrish, who as the fourth-highest-paid county administrative officer in California, earns $129,910 a year. Schneider’s salary is under negotiation as is his official start date. Parrish is scheduled to retire in mid-December.

Schneider declined to discuss specifics of plans for streamlining county operations but said his first action would be to meet with the heads of all county departments. He said he plans to be more of a “hands-on” administrator than Parrish.

Schneider’s selection drew a mixed, though mostly positive, reaction from environmentalists and community activists, many of whom have dealt with him on development issues during his three years at the Environmental Management Agency.

Elisabeth Brown, president of the slow-growth-minded Laguna Greenbelt, credited Schneider with “opening up the process” at the agency and giving more serious consideration to the concerns of community activists. Shirley Grindle, a former planning commissioner who wrote TIN CUP, Orange County’s campaign-contribution and lobbying regulations, also applauded the board’s choice.

“I hope he can teach the board to say no” to development, Grindle said. Voters want a tough stance on development, which they clearly signaled Tuesday when they rejected Measure M, a half-cent sales tax that would have paid for transportation projects, Grindle declared.

But Russell Burkett, chairman of the committee that successfully fought passage of Measure M, expressed dismay at the board’s decision to drop a search outside the county for a new CAO. Burkett criticized Schneider as part of “an ol’ boy network” of powerful developers and their advocates, noting Schneider’s history of acquiring high-paying county appointments.

Schneider was an aide to former Supervisor Bruce Nestande when he was selected to head the EMA in December, 1986. Schneider, whose salary jumped by $20,000 to $80,000 a year with that appointment, beat four assistant EMA directors who had also applied for the job. Schneider was among three supervisors’ aides to receive high-paying county jobs during a 15-month period.

“I just think there’s an incestuous relationship of people moving up the ladder . . . ,” Burkett said. “They suffer from a disease called ‘don’t-rock-the-boat-itis.’ They all went to the same school of public management. They have a degree in getting along with developers.”