Sigoloff Visits, Mulls Taking County Reins : Management: L.A. man is known as a rescuer of businesses. He’s unsure if he can spare time to work here.
A Los Angeles businessman known for rescuing doomed businesses spent Saturday at the Orange County Hall of Administration, meeting with supervisors about possibly taking the reins of the beleaguered county government for six months.
Sanford C. Sigoloff, 64, said he is unsure whether he has enough time to devote to being interim county administrative officer, but that he finds the prospect of helping the county recover from the largest municipal bankruptcy in history challenging and exciting.
Sigoloff is one of six people nominated for the interim post, which is expected to be filled within a couple of weeks.
“It’s fascinating. I don’t know of any Chapter 9 (bankruptcies) that are this interesting,” Sigoloff said Saturday in a telephone interview. “This is a crisis-management problem--both in finance and in making sure they find a safe way out of the cave. They’re looking for help.”
But with his post as chairman and chief executive officer of a Los Angeles management consulting firm, and his confirmation last week to serve on the state’s Board of Education, Sigoloff might be too busy to steer Orange County through the massive budget cutbacks and reorganization it faces.
Still, he appears to be the front-runner for the job.
Supervisor Marian Bergeson nominated Sigoloff, and Supervisor William G. Steiner said Saturday that he is backing Sigoloff too, since his own candidate, Irvine Co. Executive Vice President Gary Hunt, withdrew. Steiner said that a third contender, talk-show host and attorney Hugh Hewitt, even told him Sigoloff would be a better choice.
“Hugh Hewitt called me and indicated that if we could get Sanford Sigoloff that it would be a real plus for the county,” Steiner said. “I think he’s got instant credibility with the business community. He’s got a proven track record of turning around and restructuring businesses in trouble.”
Steiner also noted that Gov. Pete Wilson had nominated Sigoloff last year as state superintendent of public instruction, though Sigoloff backed out when his prospects for confirmation looked dim. Wilson later tapped him for the state school board.
The other nominees for the Orange County post include Jan Mittermeier, manager of John Wayne Airport; former Huntington Beach City Councilman Wes Bannister, who ran unsuccessfully for state insurance commissioner in 1990; and former Garden Grove Unified Supt. Ed Dundon.
Sigoloff met Saturday with Bergeson and Board Chairman Gaddi H. Vasquez. The board is scheduled to discuss the nominees Tuesday.
“I just have tremendous confidence in his ability. He has a tremendous background in crisis management,” Bergeson said. “Our situation is so unique that I think it really calls on a very special expertise that is rarely found.”
Vasquez, who had nominated Mittermeier, added: “I was very, very, very impressed. Very knowledgeable and a great depth of experience. I certainly think that he has the abilities and background to do a good job.”
A graduate of Beverly Hills High, UCLA and Pepperdine University, Sigoloff now lives in Bel-Air. He is a former nuclear chemist best known for his “We got the message, Mr. Sigoloff” television commercials for Builder’s Emporium and his turnaround of Wickes Companies in the 1980s.
He has been nicknamed “Ming the Merciless” after a comic strip villain for imposing drastic personnel cuts to eliminate red ink.
Also Saturday, the supervisors met individually with Vasquez, a handful of county department heads and the county’s chief legal and financial advisers to discuss the projects each is working on to help the county recover.
Bergeson said she had productive meetings Friday with state legislators and was confident the governor would call a special legislative session--possibly as early as Feb. 10--to address Orange County’s situation.
