Activist Group’s Queries Fielded by Mittermeier

On the eve of deadline day in Sacramento for the Orange County bankruptcy plan, the county’s chief executive met Thursday night with a crowd of residents looking for answers.

Jan Mittermeier, interim chief executive officer, briefly outlined the county’s recovery plans and took questions from the crowd of about 50 gathered at the Orange City Council Chambers for the monthly meeting of the Committees of Correspondence.

Many audience members were hoping Mittermeier could offer insights into the decision-making process underway in the state capital. Lawmakers in Sacramento have been racing the clock to piece together an acceptable Orange County recovery plan before the session recesses tonight.

“If this goes down [in failure] on Friday, then the only plan is take another run at it in January,” Mittermeier told the watchdog group. “We will have to keep trying at this until we are successful.”

She added that the consensus among county leaders and participating agencies would probably “unravel” if the Legislature turns away the package of bills before them today. In that situation, she said, the county would probably fail to meet debt obligations in the months to come.

Mittermeier told critics of large government in the crowd that Orange County would continue to shrink by necessity.

“I don’t see revenue growth coming to the county. They’ll continue to downsize because they need to downsize.”

Mittermeier said she could offer no insights into the likelihood that lawmakers would embrace the Orange County recovery proposals, but she did respond when a crowd member asked about her own future. The man asked if Mittermeier, an administrator at John wayne Airport, would accept her interim position on a full-time basis.

“Would I take [the chief executive position] at the same salary I make at the airport? No. It’s not worth it.”