ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Quarreling in the Lifeboat

Months of bankruptcy and uncertainty about recovery and what lies ahead clearly are taking their toll at the Hall of Administration. This week, evidence of quarreling in the lifeboat was seen.

In some cases, the public benefits from having differences on the Board of Supervisors aired publicly. That at least is better than having things decided beforehand and behind the scenes. However, a rancorous atmosphere cannot be constructive. It is hard to imagine that bickering and taking potshots will do anything but contribute to whatever public cynicism there may be about the ability of the supervisors to accomplish the difficult task at hand.

Against the backdrop of last week’s unfortunate rejection of the sales tax component of the recovery plan by Supervisor Jim Silva, the board suffered a case of testy nerves at its meeting on Tuesday. Roger R. Stanton criticized a proposal floated earlier by colleague Marian Bergeson to have the position of county supervisor be part time. The idea, Stanton said, was an “off-the-wall, cotton-headed idea.” Bergeson countered, “Perhaps these proposals are scary to Mr. Stanton.”

As we suggested when the idea first appeared, the status of the board does not really guarantee anything. What matters is the quality of the people who serve the public. However, in view of the larger crisis facing the county, no good idea should go unexamined in the effort to help the county streamline, reorganize and generally do business better. Certainly, nobody on the current board ought to be dismissing anything out of hand. Anything and everything should be on the table.

The larger point is that the public is watching the board to see how it goes about steering the county through the period of recovery. This is an especially sensitive time in which county Chief Executive Officer William J. Popejoy, the board’s handpicked recovery leader, has proposed a complex plan. With the exception of Bergeson, the board has been unwilling to embrace Popejoy’s proposed way out, even in the absence of any credible alternative. This is hardly the time to be saying that a new way of doing business on the Board of Supervisors is a ridiculous idea.

We do not need off-the-cuff criticism at this critical hour. The board as a group should be concentrating entirely on the recovery. The proper attitude is to keep unity of mission and purpose uppermost in mind. That approach, by the way, might very well be accompanied by a dose of collective humility for a past failing in oversight by the institution.

The board needs to get together on the recovery and resolve to put the best interests of Orange County above all things.