ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : The Importance of a Strong Example

Orange County Chief Executive Officer William J. Popejoy has hit the deck running and is off to a strong start in confronting the bankruptcy crisis. But for its part, the Board of Supervisors, as a whole, is yet to signal an appropriate willingness to share in the budgetary pain.

Shortly after assuming office, Popejoy began to clean house, firing or trying to get rid of some top officials associated with the bankruptcy. About 200 county employees already have been laid off, and, unfortunately, many more not tied to the fiscal collapse are likely to lose their jobs in the sweeping cuts that are planned. Popejoy is prodding, pleading and arm-twisting. He obviously is trying to do more than just close huge budgetary gaps; he has been addressing the larger issue of perception. His decisive action is aimed at restoring the image of Orange County’s government locally, across the state and on Wall Street. And the remake must reach into the empires of the county supervisors, over whom Popejoy has no direct authority.

Previously, we urged the supervisors to send a far stronger message by making reductions in their own offices, and now Popejoy is acting to see that they do so. Last week, he tore into a supervisor in a way no county administrative officer has publicly in years, or perhaps ever. Popejoy sent Supervisor Jim Silva a memo accusing him of supporting deep cuts in county services but not trimming his own budget.

Popejoy met with Silva to pressure him to cut his office budget to $387,000, which seems to be a reasonable goal for each of the supervisors, but Silva refused, sources said. Later, Silva changed his position and said he would cut his office budget deeply if other supervisors did likewise.

Soon after the Popejoy memo became public, Supervisor William G. Steiner made the encouraging announcement that he will decrease his personal $82,500 salary by 10%. That’s the deepest cut yet by a supervisor, and we think it’s a good target for each board member.

Earlier, Supervisors Gaddi H. Vasquez and Roger R. Stanton cut their personal salaries and benefits 5%. Marian Bergeson and Silva have not made any announcement on salary; they should do so.

Vasquez and Stanton have succeeded in reducing their overall office budgets to the $387,000 figure. Before the bankruptcy, the supervisors’ office budgets averaged more than $550,000. If all five supervisors cut their budgets to the targeted figure, the savings would be less than $600,000, not a lot when the county is struggling with a loss of $1.69 billion. However, the cutbacks are symbolic, and symbols are important. They transmit a picture of shared pain.

There is more that can be done. Vasquez, Steiner and Stanton can and should give up their county cars, just as Bergeson and Silva have done. Notice that these two are newcomers who haven’t had the perks of office for long and apparently find it easier to relinquish things to which they are not yet accustomed.

The supervisors at least still have jobs. They should cut salaries as necessary and do without county cars, cellular telephones and other perquisites. Many county employees who had nothing to do with creating the crisis are suffering because they have been laid off. The supervisors must show the people they are supposed to lead that this is not a time of business as usual.