3 Supervisors Are Urged to Step Down

Two days after the county administrator’s sudden resignation, a taxpayer watchdog on Wednesday called for three of the five elected county supervisors to resign.

“Your longevity on the board has been an asset to you but a liability to the taxpayers,” Jere Robings wrote in a letter to Supervisor John Flynn, calling for Flynn and Supervisors Susan Lacey and Kathy Long to resign, and allow Gov. Gray Davis to appoint their replacements.

In the brief letter, Robings blamed the supervisors for David L. Baker’s resignation Monday after less than a week on the job.

Robings said the county’s current fiscal mess, including an estimated $5-million deficit this fiscal year, can mostly be traced to erroneous Medicare billing that occurred during the supervisors’ terms in office. He pointed to a resulting $15.3-million civil fraud settlement and a failed merger of the county’s mental health and social services agencies early last year. The departments were separated again in December 1998.

Flynn, Lacey and Long supported the merger, against the recommendation of Baker’s predecessor, Lin Koester. Supervisors Frank Schillo and Judy Mikels opposed the merger.

“That scandal has resulted in the largest financial fiasco in recent memory, perhaps in the entire history of the county,” wrote Robings, a local fiscal watchdog and former head of a taxpayer advocacy group.

A stunned Flynn at first said he had no intention of dignifying Robings’ letter with a response, but later called the letter a “pipe dream.” He accused Robings of sour grapes over having lost a bid to become supervisor in 1994.

“He needs to get over his loss,” Flynn said. “He needs to get a life.”

Robings called Flynn’s retort “absurd.”

“That’s the whole problem,” he said. “These guys won’t admit they’ve done anything wrong. We’ve got to start putting pressure on them and let them know we’re totally dissatisfied with the way the county’s being operated.

“If they don’t resign and another CAO [chief administrative officer] comes in, he’ll run into the same problem. The board is just working independently of the CAO.

“When the CAO advised the board not to move ahead with the merger of mental health, they totally ignored him. For a CAO, that’s awfully unsettling,” Robings said.

Lacey and Long did not return calls for comment, but their staffs said they did not expect either to consider resigning.

Robings said if Flynn and Long wouldn’t resign he would campaign on behalf of qualified challengers when they run for reelection next fall. Lacey is not seeking reelection.