Supervisors Seek Transfer of Orange County Recorder : Government: Board also asks grand jury to look into misconduct claims. Official has refused to resign.

In an unprecedented move, the Orange County Board of Supervisors Tuesday publicly condemned Recorder Lee A. Branch and asked the county grand jury to determine whether allegations of misconduct warrant his removal from office.

The double-barreled decision was met by quiet applause from more than a dozen recorder employees, one of whom compared Branch’s treatment of workers to “child abuse” in testimony to the board.

Supervisor William G. Steiner said the grand jury’s involvement is necessary because Branch has refused to resign his obscure elected office, although a county personnel investigation had found he mismanaged his office and sexual harassed employees.

The county investigation, which was made public last week, also found that Branch’s romance with an office supervisor, Nancy L. Smith, created such a hostile work environment that nine employees sought medical treatment for stress and depression.

At home Tuesday afternoon, Branch declined comment on the board’s actions. But Smith, who answered Branch’s home phone, called the decisions unfair.

As part of its unanimous action, the board recommended that Smith be transferred from the recorder’s office to another county job.

“I’m just horrified by this entire thing,” she said. “I don’t take this as a joke.”

Branch has said that the investigation of his office has been part of a political “hidden agenda” initiated by the board to remove him from office to make room for another candidate, County Clerk Gary Granville.

Longtime government observers said they could not remember any other time when the board had publicly condemned another elected official or sought an official’s removal from office through the grand jury.

“I think the board is justified in its action,” said William Mitchell, director of Common Cause in Orange County. “There appears to be gross mismanagement in every facet of the recorder’s job. I think the supervisors are doing the only thing they can do.”

Prior to their vote, the supervisors heard testimony from three recorder employees who came to the Hall of Administration Tuesday morning on their work breaks to detail years of office turmoil.

“We have been degraded, harassed, prejudged, lied to, slandered and forced to work in a mentally and physically unhealthy environment,” said 12-year employee Cyndi Viall.