Supervisors Debating When to Replace Chaffee

After a second session behind closed doors, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Wednesday failed to make a final decision on whether Robert L. Chaffee, who resigned last week as chief of the county’s Department for Children’s Services, should remain in office until October or be replaced immediately by an interim director.

However, the board is leaning toward hiring an interim director, and is seriously considering asking a retired judge to take the job, according to Supervisor Ed Edelman and an aide to Supervisor Michael Antonovich.

Neither Edelman, who has been pressing for an interim director, nor the Antonovich aide would name the judge, and both said that the judge is not certain he can accept the job. “We don’t have a definite commitment” Edelman said. “The point is we are moving in that direction, which is the direction that I favor.”

Chaffee resigned last week amid mounting criticism of his agency.