Key Popejoy Aide Chooses to Leave : Crisis: Walter Fath plans to return to retirement despite offer from incoming county CEO Jan Mittermeier, who spends day in a series of briefings with officials.

As Orange County’s incoming chief executive officer was briefed Monday by top administrators and consultants, at least one key staffer in the CEO’s office said he will leave with his current boss at month’s end rather than work with the new regime.

Walter Fath, a retired assistant sheriff who returned to work in January to help the county’s bankruptcy-recovery effort, said CEO-to-be Jan Mittermeier asked him to stay, but he refused.

“I don’t see a solution to this problem. I just don’t,” sighed Fath, who has spent the last six months helping slash the county’s budget and serving as a top aide to CEO William J. Popejoy, who announced last week that July 31 will be his last day in the post.

“I was very committed to what Bill was doing. I thought he had a very good program. I put all my energy into that, and I ran out of gas,” said Fath, who will now return to retirement hobbies of hand-carving wooden pens and making toys for his grandson. “I put everything I had into what Bill needed. I think it’s time to let some other folks try this and see what they can do.”

Popejoy said the cadre of volunteer executives he brought to the county to help with everything from asset sales to restructuring government also are likely to leave with him. Other county employees who have taken on extra responsibilities in the recovery effort said Monday they are not sure whether they will continue with those duties after control changes hands.

Sheriff Brad Gates, who has spent virtually every day for the last seven months at the CEO’s office, said that the key projects he is working on are close to being wrapped up, and that he has not yet talked to Mittermeier about the future. Several county sources, however, said there has been bad blood between the airport director and the sheriff, who is elected. They expect Gates to return to his old job soon.

“I saw her briefly between two meetings and said, ‘Hello’ and ‘Congratulations,’ but that’s it,” Gates said of Mittermeier Monday. “I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’ll have to wait and see when the time comes.”

Health Care Agency Director Tom Uram, who served as interim CEO before Popejoy was appointed and has continued to work for him, declined to comment Monday on his future. Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi, who with Gates and Uram formed the budget-cutting Operations Management Council, was out of town at a conference and could not be reached for comment.

One person who will probably stay on the team is Kathleen Freed, an aide to Supervisor Roger R. Stanton whom Popejoy brought to the CEO’s office shortly after he arrived in February. Freed and Mittermeier were scheduled to discuss plans Monday evening.

“I’d love to stay,” Freed said. “I’d be happy to help out in whatever capacity she’d like.”

Mittermeier, a 21-year veteran county employee who will take over as CEO on Aug. 1, did not return telephone calls Monday.

She started the day at 8 a.m. in a 45-minute staff meeting with half a dozen department heads, but let Popejoy run the show and asked few questions.

Later, Mittermeier met with Fath and other budget experts from the CEO’s office, spent several hours with Popejoy, who handed over stacks of confidential documents, and for the first time talked extensively with county bankruptcy attorney Bruce Bennett and financial adviser Chris Varelas of Salomon Bros.

“This is going to be a period of intense information absorption. She’s doing that today; I think she will be doing that for several days,” Popejoy said. “This is a chance for her to get up to speed on the various projects we’re working on.”

Popejoy said he would sit in the CEO’s chair at today’s Board of Supervisors meeting, but that Mittermeier probably would take the hot seat next week for the board’s once-monthly nighttime session, which tends to draw the largest and most volatile crowds.

“I think Jan is really what the doctor ordered right now: someone that the supervisors feel more comfortable with,” said Popejoy, whose public battles with his bosses led, in part, to his resignation four months before the expiration of his contract.

As for Popejoy, his lame-duck status did not keep him quiet.

Supervisor William G. Steiner “said that his mother told him that if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything. That’s probably good advice, but I bet she never lost $2 billion,” Popejoy quipped, referring to Steiner’s remarks last week that the CEO should refrain from criticizing the board. “I bet your mother would raise holy hell if someone lost $2 billion.”

Times staff writer Matt Lait contributed to this story.