NEWS ANALYSIS : Sheriff Gates Criticized as Inaccessible

While other Orange County department heads were crunching numbers or seeking out supervisors in quiet discussions of a looming budget crisis, Sheriff Brad Gates reacted to the prospect of a $6.5-million cut in his operation with all the diplomacy of a jackhammer.

At a news conference last week, his top aides said there was no choice but to shut down the minimum security James A. Musick Branch Jail in Irvine and release inmates to the streets.

County supervisors said the public announcement caught them flat-footed and preceded any discussions with Gates about how the Sheriff’s Department would deal with the latest accounting of the county’s fiscal troubles.

Board of Supervisors Chairman Harriett M. Wieder said the sheriff’s grim prediction, coming only days before public hearings on the budget, smacked of “intimidation.”

Although county officials have grown accustomed to Gates’ penchant for hardball politics, supervisors and county executives say his recent actions in the midst of a serious financial crisis are testimony to an increasingly estranged relationship between Orange County’s top law enforcement officer and the county’s governing board.

Orange County Budget Director Ronald S. Rubino said Gates is inaccessible, which has sometimes stalled budget deliberations for days. He said it can sometimes take two weeks just to schedule routine government meetings with Gates.

Wieder said Friday that she “can count on one hand” the occasions when Gates has visited her Hall of Administration office to discuss his department’s needs.

With county officials scheduled to hold a critical budget session Tuesday to grapple with proposed cuts totaling $80 million, Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez said that Gates has yet to knock on his door.

Orange County Fire Chief “Larry Holms, (Dist. Atty.) Mike Capizzi, they’ve all been through my office,” Vasquez said. “I haven’t seen Brad Gates to have a sit-down discussion about this budget.”

For Gates, the growing sentiment among the supervisors can only be described one way: “That’s baloney! My general is the people of Orange County,” he said.

It is a curious relationship given the fact that the Sheriff’s Department is dependent on the board for about $100 million annually. And while the supervisors and others have complained about Gates’ inattentiveness, the department has fared better than most in the county staff’s recommendations for cuts.

For example, according to budget documents released last week, some county departments have been recommended for budget reductions of 10% or more while the proposed cut to the Sheriff’s Department stands at just more than 6%. The most damaging cuts are expected to be absorbed by county libraries and the Orange County Fire Department, the latter of which stands to lose nearly 20% of its work force.

Gates said in a recent interview that he was both “amazed” and “flabbergasted” by the county officials’ comments, going as far as to call Rubino “a liar” for his remarks about scheduling delays.

“He (Rubino) continually lies about this department,” Gates said. “My staff has been in continual contact with the county administrative office, that’s what we’re supposed to do.”

Rubino, however, said Gates’ management style is unlike any other county department head, in that there is little delegation of authority. As a result, more meetings are required to solve outstanding issues.

“It could take me two weeks to organize a meeting. That’s not unusual,” Rubino said. “That’s his management style. I’m not saying that’s bad. But he is definitely in charge.”

Rubino said it has also been standard practice for the Sheriff’s Department to file budget documents at the last minute. The plan to close down the Musick jail, for example, was submitted about an hour before a draft of the county’s overall budget recommendations were due at the printer.

Gates admitted that his department has had a difficult time meeting deadlines for budget reports because he and his aides have been occupied in Superior Court by a lawsuit filed by the city of Orange.

But Gates said he and his staff have provided the supervisors with more than adequate warnings about the budget, beginning in April when, during a public hearing, Gates said he would have to shut down Musick and the Theo Lacy Branch Jail in Orange if the department was forced to swallow a then-proposed 20% budget cut.

“If they are all saying that they were not aware of what the results of these cuts would be, I am just flabbergasted,” he said. “Do they want me to walk over to their offices every day and tell them the same thing? Maybe I am guilty of not doing that.

“I just don’t understand where the lack of communication is. . . . Communication--is that a word that goes just one way?”

Only two weeks ago, Gates said, he and his top aides met with county administrators to discuss the new budget proposals. The sheriff described the discussion as a frank exchange of positions. County officials, however, recall the gathering as rocky at best with Gates unyielding on virtually every staff suggestion for possible cuts within his department.

At the board level, Vasquez said, it is often the case that supervisors only hear from Gates indirectly.

“Increasingly, there seems to be situation developing when we either read his responses in a letter, hear it through the press or hear it in a public meeting,” Vasquez said. “More than anything else, we should be trying to create a team spirit among administrators to get through this difficult time.”

Vasquez said he took particular notice of the fact that the announcement about the closure of Musick was delivered by two of Gates’ top aides, and not the sheriff.

“I’m not being critical, but I believe in direct communication between elected officials,” he said.

Gates, on the other hand, said the news conference held last week was meant only to accommodate reporters who had been asking questions about the Sheriff’s Department’s budget.

“I assumed that (the supervisors) understood the situation,” Gates said. “There was no Machiavellian design about meeting with the press.”

Supervisor William G. Steiner, who replaced Don R. Roth in March, said he has “heard all the war stories” of colleagues’ experiences with Gates.

“I’m hearing that he is sending messengers to communicate his positions to staff,” Steiner said. “But on the other side of the coin, I can’t fault him for his running of the jail operation.”

Steiner said Friday that Gates recently invited him to meet with him on June 15. Steiner said he doesn’t approve of the sheriff’s recommendation to shut down Musick but is looking forward to his meeting to discuss concerns about overall jail staffing problems.

“I’m hoping that I can continue to have a constructive relationship with him,” Steiner said.

Nevertheless, Steiner appears to be in the minority on the board. Last week, after hearing of Gates’ intention to close Musick, Supervisor Thomas F. Riley said he believed a shutdown could be averted if only there was more communication between Gates and the board.

“Right now, a dialogue just doesn’t exist,” Riley said last week. “I don’t know how it is other places, but he just doesn’t talk.”

That assessment is apparently shared even by some outside county government whose business brings them in close contact to board members.

“When Brad Gates’ name comes up in a conversation with supervisors,” said one political insider who asked not to be named, “there is a roll of eyes and a knowing wink that means he is a very difficult person to appease.”

Friday, an agitated Gates said board members should take more initiative if they feel ignored by the Sheriff’s Department.

“I’m ready to talk now, but I’ll bet that if I called them right now I’d hear a recording,” he said, referring to the fact that most county offices are closed every other Friday to save money. “If it’s a real serious situation, I’m ready to talk.”

NEXT STEP

Here are the key dates in the Orange County budget deliberations. On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors will vote to approve strategies for making $80 million in recommended budget cuts. Then, a preliminary budget will be approved when supervisors meet on June 22, before the state’s July 1 deadline for budget adoption. The public’s opportunity to comment on the spending plan will come during hearings Aug. 24-Sept. 2. Supervisors will adopt a final budget on Sept. 28.