Interim CEO Could Get Job Monday : Government: Board sets closed session to decide on permanent chief executive. Mittermeier has won rave reviews from supervisors since taking over in July.

The Board of Supervisors has called for a closed session Monday to discuss the selection of a permanent chief executive officer and if recent comments from supervisors are any indication the front-runner is Airport Director Jan Mittermeier.

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“With Jan, it’s hard not to notice when the lady keeps hitting home runs,” Supervisor Jim Silva said Thursday. “She’s able to identify the problems and has the ability to focus on the solutions. I knew she was going to be good, but I didn’t know just how good.”

Other supervisors have been equally glowing in their praise of Mittermeier, who has been the interim CEO since July. They have credited her with spearheading the county’s recent recovery plan, which won state legislative approval last week.

“She’s a breath of fresh air,” Supervisor William G. Steiner said at a recent board meeting.

Supervisors have said they are impressed with the way she has stepped into her role as interim CEO.

Unlike her predecessor, William J. Popejoy, an outspoken businessman who frequently tangled with the supervisors, Mittermeier is a 21-year county employee known for working well within the county’s bureaucracy.

Supervisor Roger R. Stanton said the county has benefited from having a “a seasoned insider” at the helm.

For the past several weeks, supervisors have been interviewing a number of candidates for the job. The list of candidates has been narrowed to half a dozen people, including Mittermeier. County sources said a decision on the CEO could come as early as next week.

The search for a permanent CEO has gone on longer than expected. The board originally planned to have a chief executive in place by midsummer.

Board Chairman Gaddi H. Vasquez has said he wants the new CEO to be hired before he steps down from office Wednesday. If a CEO is not selected by his resignation date, Vasquez said he may postpone his departure until Oct. 2.

The next CEO is expected to earn about $140,000 a year. The board has said it wants the CEO to have broad powers to run county government, and has given the position hiring and firing authority over non-elected department heads.

In other developments Thursday, Irvine City Manager Paul O. Brady Jr. said that pool investors have been “fine-tuning” the recovery plan term sheet over the last few days so it conforms with the exact wording of bankruptcy bailout legislation approved in Sacramento last week.

“These are just word changes, correcting numbers, nothing major,” he said. “There is nothing here that threatens the ongoing terms of the documents.”

Brady said that pool investors hope to have a new term sheet ready for investors within the next few weeks. All cities, school districts and special districts are required to vote on the plan--a process Brady said could be completed by late October.

Pool investors are also working to select two members of the special five-person panel that will oversee the recovery plan. One of the members will be a representative of the cities, and the other will likely come from a school district or special district, he said. The two members representing pool participants should be named within the next few weeks.

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Staff writer Rene Lynch and correspondent Shelby Grad contributed to this report.