Time to Overhaul County Government

* County Supervisor Jim Silva objects to expansion of the Board of Supervisors (“O.C. Board Expansion Gets Warm Response at Forum, July 28) and claims that “part-time supervisors means part-time representation.”

What Silva does not reveal is that he, along with Roger R. Stanton and William G. Steiner, are part-time supervisors now. They have districts with 95% of the residents living in full-service cities. The only county activities in Districts 1, 2 and 4 are a few regional parks and half a dozen flood-control channels. All other significant services are provided by the cities and special districts not controlled by the county board.

It is time to consider a plan that replaces the current five-member elected board with an appointed CEO.

The current board could be replaced with an advisory board composed of ex officio members, one member from each city. The unincorporated areas could be represented by an adjacent city according to the spheres of influence already determined by the Local Agency Formation Commission.

Current supervisorial districts are too large, with more than 500,000 residents each, which leads to obscenely expensive elections, if they are contested. Supervisor Stanton is reported to be sitting on a $180,000 campaign fund. Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez will leave office next year carrying away $300,000 in campaign funds. Neither supervisor has run a contested election since their first.

With a city-based ex-officio board, supervisors could concentrate on long-range policy guidance, selecting a non-political CEO and serving on subcommittees for oversight of the treasurer, auditor and management performance. It seems that the current board is focused only on what will encourage a District 3 or District 5 developer to buy a 10-seat table at their next fund-raiser dinner.

The independent Sanitation District of Orange County has a 42-member ex-officio board and is a national prize-winning district. Our county supervisors could be as successful as these directors if supervisors were not always running after campaign contributions and insisting that their CEO place her first (only?) priority as protecting their ego-driven political careers.

ALAN J. NESTLINGER

Santa Ana