NEWS ANALYSIS : Observers Fear It’s Business as Usual in O.C.

In choosing Jan Mittermeier as the county’s new chief executive Monday, the Board of Supervisors appears to have rewarded a county insider who will follow direction rather than seek an outside administrator willing to buck them and overhaul county government.

To many observers, the selection of Mittermeier, with her 21 years of local government experience, represents more of the same in a county that got itself into trouble by relying on the counsel of longtime bureaucrats in the first place.

“The message this sends is that everything is business as usual,” said Laguna Niguel Mayor Mark Goodman, a former county staff aide. “I will be very surprised if Jan Mittermeier makes any substantive changes. If the supervisors wanted to send a message to the public that they intended to make radical change, they would have gone outside.”

Added Vic Opincar, an engineering executive who served on the county’s privatization task force: “It’s a typical county procedure. They talk about bringing in the best from the outside and then they choose someone internally. Jan will do what the supervisors tell her to do.”

Supervisors culled through the names of two dozen candidates recruited by an executive search firm after initially announcing a nationwide search and then cutting it back to a statewide search.

They interviewed four prospects, including Mittermeier, but have declined to name the other three, other than to say they had extensive experience in government and came from outside Orange County. On Monday, Mittermeier was unanimously chosen the new chief executive officer.

Supervisor William G. Steiner said those who would criticize Mittermeier don’t understand her talents.

“She will be in charge,” Steiner said. “She is not going to be holding the hands of the supervisors. She may be an insider, but she sees the big picture. I expected her to have her critics, but she will prove them wrong.”

Given high marks for her role in crafting the county’s bankruptcy recovery plan, Mittermeier is intelligent, experienced and amiable, able to keep others at ease, her fans say.

“The Board of Supervisors needed someone with an Orange County background to fill the position,” said Randal J. Bressette, a Laguna Hills city councilman. “They needed someone they could count on to take direction and follow it. These next few years are going to be very difficult, very frustrating and full of anguish.”

But those very qualities are what has some people nervous, fearing that Mittermeier will simply follow the instructions she is given instead of making decisions unpopular with the board.

“She will facilitate roadblocks to change so the supervisors can keep their power base,” Goodman said. “From day one, she is an insider and she can play the game. But we needed someone with a healthy dose of cynicism to make radical change.”

Goodman and other city officials, particularly in South County, believe county government has outlived its usefulness and that many of the services it provides--from library operations to road maintenance and land planning--should be shifted to individual cities.

“We need to give Ms. Mittermeier every benefit of the doubt and we look forward to working with her,” Irvine Councilman Greg Smith said. “But if we get down the road 180 days from now and the same old path is being followed, then just not our City Council but all city councils will have to look at our options to make change.”

Perhaps unfairly, Mittermeier will always be compared with retired millionaire businessman William J. Popejoy, the interim chief executive officer who preceded her and worked for free.

Time and again, Popejoy clashed with the supervisors, while suggesting a overhaul of county government that included a part-time board of directors instead of the full-time supervisors. But Popejoy’s ideas resonated with many local residents, who came to believe that the county bureaucracy was unwieldy.

“Bill was the right person for the job at the time,” Supervisor Marian Bergeson said. “He jerked us into a perspective of definition and we would not be where we are had he not made the decisions he made.”

After Popejoy left, supervisors made it clear they were looking for a chief executive who would run the county day to day while carrying out the directives of the board.

Although Popejoy is a strong Mittermeier booster, he doubts that a majority of supervisors will allow her to make the changes that Orange County needs.

“In terms of restructuring, I doubt this Board of Supervisors, with the exception of one or two board members, is one bit interested in changing the structure of county government. If they do allow it, then Jan could be the person to help that happen,” Popejoy said.

Bergeson, who believes the county’s role in delivering services must be re-examined, said Mittermeier will be given the authority to make changes.

“The question here was who was the best person for this job and Jan was that person,” Bergeson said. “There is a tremendous need for stability right now and to implement the [bankruptcy recovery] plans that have already been developed. She has the ability to make tough decisions.”

Opincar, the engineering executive who has never met Mittermeier, said Monday’s action is further evidence that the county is getting too complacent less than 10 months after it filed for federal bankruptcy protection.

“The county is backsliding,” he said. “Everyone thinks they have the bankruptcy solved because they moved some money around. They’ve lost the incentive to make change.”