Granville Is the Choice for Clerk-Recorder : Unlike His Opponent Branch, He Can Capably Lead the Consolidated Agency

Orange County taxpayers will reap financial benefits next month when they vote for clerk-recorder, but they have a chance for more. Combining what were two separate posts will save one salary. By voting for Gary L. Granville to handle the job, they can also help clean up a mess.

As county clerk, Granville did a good job supervising 300 employees who handled paperwork for the courts. It was on his recommendation that the Board of Supervisors combined his office with that of the recorder. That should save hundreds of thousands of dollars by trimming staff and eliminating duplication.

Granville realized that he would lose his job Dec. 31 when the merger becomes complete, but he went ahead, and later decided to run for the combined post. He deserves election.

His opponent, Lee A. Branch, has been a disaster as recorder. This year the supervisors took the unprecedented step of censuring him; since then the county administrative office has been forced to lend staffers to the office to help it operate. Putting Granville in charge will let the administrative office move its people back to other tasks.

Granville, a former businessman, was an able and energetic aide to a county supervisor. In 1985, after county judges complained about Branch’s management of the combined office of clerk-recorder, the supervisors broke the office in two. They appointed Granville clerk and left Branch as recorder. Granville won two subsequent elections, improved morale in the office and oversaw its entry into the modern age of computers. He has been eager to improve service to the public, lawyers and judges.

Branch, meanwhile, was repeatedly denied raises by county supervisors trying to get him to do better. Yet one county report last January found him unresponsive and isolated. Another report, by the county’s affirmative action officer, concluded that he should resign. His involvement with a woman who worked for him was blamed by recorder’s office staff as a contributing factor to their poor morale.

In a four-person race in June, Granville finished first but just missed getting the 50% needed to avoid a runoff. He deserves election as clerk-recorder Nov. 8. It will be difficult correcting the problems of the recorder’s office, but Granville has shown he is up to the job.