Will Supervisors Switch Off Some of CEO’s Powers?

When the Board of Supervisors tapped Jan Mittermeier to run county government during the depths of Orange County’s historic bankruptcy, the chief executive officer won much praise for her hard-charging attack on the county’s fiscal problems.

Two years later, the county’s fiscal crisis has passed, and a new group of supervisors is questioning whether Mittermeier’s style and unprecedented control over the county’s bureaucracy still meshes with today’s political climate.

The question has been whispered around the Hall of Administration for months.

But it probably will be debated loudly, if privately, on Tuesday, when the Board of Supervisors meets behind closed doors to discuss whether Mittermeier should be disciplined for refusing to provide one of the supervisors with information about lobbying trips related to the county’s plans to convert El Toro Marine Corps Air Station into a commercial airport.

At the same meeting, supervisors will discuss whether to have the board--instead of Mittermeier--oversee the base conversion plans.

The showdown could lead to a standoff between the three supervisors who support an airport and the two who oppose it.

Yet, on another level, the eventual board vote will be a referendum on Mittermeier, who is credited with helping orchestrate the county’s recovery from bankruptcy but whose management style strikes some as arrogant and secretive.

“I support a lot of what she is doing, but she has too much power for an unelected official,” said Bruce Whitaker, a leader of the Committees of Correspondence, a citizens watchdog group that helped spearhead the opposition to the county’s failed ballot measure levying a half-cent bankruptcy recovery tax.

“Her style might have been warranted in an emergency situation, but it’s not anymore,” Whitaker said.

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Others, however, say Mittermeier could not have achieved the county’s financial recovery without the added powers the board gave her, including the authority to hire and fire most county managers at will and directly oversee most departments.

“When you have five [supervisors] with different views trying to run the county, it creates a confused process of government,” said Sheriff Brad Gates, a close Mittermeier ally. “We’ve had that in the past, and it’s created terrible problems.”

The current flap centers around Mittermeier’s refusal to provide Supervisor Thomas W. Wilson with information about the lobbying trips scheduled by El Toro planners. Wilson and Supervisor Todd Spitzer, the board’s two airport opponents, blasted her for refusing to provide public information to her bosses.

Mittermeier was defended at the time by the three pro-airport supervisors--William G. Steiner, Charles V. Smith and Jim Silva--who accused Wilson of micro-managing.

But Mittermeier later acknowledged that her response to Wilson was less than tactful.

Wilson said his concerns go beyond El Toro. In several instances, he said, Mittermeier has failed to provide him with information he considered pertinent. As an example, Wilson cited a report looking at alternatives to incarceration.

A draft of the report was the subject of a newspaper article in June, but Wilson said his office has yet to receive a copy of the document. “I’m anxious to see it,” he said. “I haven’t seen it yet.”

Spitzer has been at odds with Mittermeier since shortly after he took office in January and accused her of withholding information about problems in the housing department--a charge both she and most other supervisors dispute.

But Wilson’s falling out with Mittermeier is more surprising because he has been generally considered a supporter of the CEO.

“Coming up on one year, we have been communicating well and working well together,” he said. “So, it was truly a surprise to see her response to my request for the travel information.”

Wilson declined to say what actions he will propose during the closed-door session on “personnel matters.” But he suggested that a solution might be a change in “management style” rather than radically changing the CEO’s duties.

“I think the CEO model is a good one that I think can be effective,” he said. “Perhaps this comes down to a personality issue that can be corrected.”

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It remains unclear whether Wilson and Spitzer will gain a third vote for any of the changes they are promoting.

Both Smith and Steiner support the airport plan and have expressed satisfaction with Mittermeier’s performance. Silva also backs Mittermeier but has repeatedly suggested that her title be changed from “chief executive officer” to “chief operating officer,” which he says better describes her duties.

Before 1995, the title was “county administrative officer” and the position carried far less authority. After the bankruptcy, the board relinquished most of the power to run day-to-day county operations to retired Newport Beach businessman William J. Popejoy, who now heads the state lottery.

A popular and colorful figure who worked for free, Popejoy was only an interim appointee and often clashed publicly with supervisors. He resigned after only five months in office, saying board members were meddling in routine management decisions and undermining his authority.

Mittermeier, then the airport director, was tapped to replace Popejoy and become the county’s first full-time CEO.

Popejoy believes that the county might have avoided the bankruptcy if it had had the kind of centralized management system it does under the CEO system.

“I hope they don’t forget lessons learned and slip back into their old ways,” he said. “Without a CEO, there is an atmosphere where no one takes responsibility, where no one is accountable.”

It is unclear how much tinkering with her duties the strong-willed Mittermeier would stand before deciding to step down. After the county emerged from bankruptcy in June 1996, some speculated that she would return to her old job as airport director.

But at the time, she said wanted to remain as CEO to accomplish a reorganization of county government that has already resulted in the merging of several departments and the layoffs of several top managers.

Other parts of her restructuring plan remain in progress, including efforts to work with cities to deliver government services more efficiently.

Any major changes in management could affect the county’s efforts to win a higher investment rating from Wall Street. Rating agencies said a higher rating will come only if the county can sustain a stable and effective management team.