ORANGE COUNTY IN BANKRUPTCY : County Seeking in Vain to Replace Departing Counsel

Recruiters have yet to find a replacement for departing County Counsel Terry C. Andrus, in part because potential candidates fear coming aboard during such turbulent times, officials said Monday.

More than 20 possible replacements have been considered, but so far no one has emerged as a leading candidate.

As a result, a March 30 deadline for applications was extended indefinitely, and officials are redoubling recruitment efforts. Andrus, who hopes to train the newcomer, has had to postpone plans to leave.

“I think things are improving, and as things improve I think the field of candidates will hopefully and significantly expand,” said Gaddi H. Vasquez, chairman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors. “In the end, I’m sure we will be able to find a very competent candidate.”

While county officials may still be looking for the perfect candidate, an internal memo shows that they are also having difficulty persuading applicants to take on a key role while the bankrupt county struggles to overcome its fiscal woes. Perhaps most telling: The first crop of applicants contained only one candidate from within the county counsel’s office, according to the memo.

The candidates seemed to be most concerned about staff cutbacks in the county counsel’s office, according to a March 23 memo to the county’s Operations Management Council from C. Kenley Mays, who is heading up efforts to find Andrus’ replacement. Andrus’ staff of 81 will lose 15 positions because of the bankruptcy crisis.

“Every (candidate) characterized the current level of staffing as marginally adequate and the projected level as clearly inadequate,” Mays wrote, adding that one applicant characterized it as “courting disaster.”

Candidates who were unhappy in their current jobs said they still feared moving into “an unknown and chaotic situation,” according to the memo.

Each candidate also voiced reservations about the low pay--and the likelihood that the pay will be cut even further due to the county’s financial problems, according to the memo.

Andrus currently makes $114,000 a year advising the Board of Supervisors on legal matters. The salary of his replacement will be negotiated. It is generally conceded that attorneys could reap higher salaries in the private sector.

Andrus announced in February that he would not seek to renew his four-year appointment, which ended in March. At the time, he was under fire for not telling his bosses that federal authorities had earlier raised questions about the investment practices of then-Treasurer-Tax Collector Robert L. Citron.

The county’s ill-fated investment pool ultimately lost $1.7 billion and plunged the county into bankruptcy.

Andrus, who could not be reached for comment Monday, told a state Senate committee examining the financial crisis that he did not disclose a meeting with officials from the Securities and Exchange Commission because he feared it could trigger a run on the investment pool.

Andrus is still well regarded in county circles for his work. Even county Chief Executive Officer William J. Popejoy, who earlier criticized Andrus for his “disservice” to the supervisors, has openly praised the county counsel’s work at recent board meetings.

Supervisor William G. Steiner said Andrus will be difficult to replace.

“I don’t know how we can do much better in terms of competent county counsel, and I frankly wish he would stay on,” Steiner said. “But we are seeing the impact here. I think the crisis is making it difficult, making it very hard, to attract good talent.”

Said Paul Nussbaum, an adviser to Popejoy, “It’s not surprising that a qualified professional would be reluctant to step into a complex situation like this.”