Crisis-Savvy CAO Picked in Ventura County

Harry L. Hufford, a folksy former administrator for Los Angeles County who in recent years has built a reputation as a financial Mr. Fix-It, was named Tuesday to take the reins as Ventura County’s interim county administrator.

“I’m back in the saddle again,” said Hufford, 68, a slender, white-haired man with a smiling demeanor, who appeared at the Board of Supervisors meeting shortly after the board voted unanimously in closed session to hire him.

His crisis-tempered experience as L.A. County’s interim administrator in 1993 was perhaps as strong a selling point to supervisors as his lengthy tenure as CAO in that county from 1974 to 1985.

He was brought in after the ouster of the county’s then-CAO Richard B. Dixon, to steer the county out of a financial morass characterized as its worst period since the Great Depression. Hufford faced down threats of an employees’ strike, cut hundreds of jobs, and slashed library, welfare and health care funding to balance the budget.

Those rocky times should prepare him for the task ahead in Ventura County, from which Hufford’s predecessor left after only four days, citing a $5-million deficit and what he found to be a fractious political atmosphere and a messy budgetary process.

“In light of the situation in Ventura County, he’s absolutely ideal,” said L.A. County Supervisor Don Knabe, who has known Hufford since 1982. “He filled that role here in L.A. He’s not a bomb thrower or a flame thrower. He’s a very calm and stabilizing influence.”

One thing in Hufford’s favor: L.A. County’s budget was $13 billion, compared with Ventura County’s more manageable $1 billion. Hufford is scheduled to begin work Jan. 3. His seven-month contract, which was agreed upon by a handshake, is expected to be worth roughly $134,000. The board is scheduled to formally vote on the pact Jan. 11.

Just as important as his role as a steadying influence will be his counsel to the board about how much power to give the next full-time administrator. One of the criticisms leveled by David Baker in his resignation letter last month was that the county’s administrator has been too weak, allowing individual department heads to cut special deals with the supervisors.

Supervisor Kathy Long said that although a dozen candidates were under consideration for the interim job, Hufford--with whom the board met privately last Friday--was the only one formally interviewed.

Long decided to pursue Hufford when she was attending the annual California State Assn. of Counties conference, held the same week Baker resigned. “Whenever I’d talk to any CAO [at the conference], they said, ‘If you can get Harry you can accomplish what you’ll need to accomplish.’ ”

The association’s executive director, Steve Szalay, called Hufford “the dean of county administrators in California,” among whose strengths are that “he knows county programs inside and out and is a very skilled consensus builder.”

Supervisor Frank Schillo said he is confident Hufford won’t be afraid to make cuts and layoffs if necessary, given his experience in Los Angeles County. “He’s not afraid of those kinds of things,” Schillo said.

Supervisor John Flynn said Hufford’s hiring should help to counter the notion that the county is in a crisis. “When you bring on a person of his stature, it does a lot of things,” he said. “It impresses the public, the bond rating companies, it’s bringing on a legitimate person that people have a lot of respect for. We’re lucky to get him for the next seven months.”

Assistant CAO Bert Bigler, who has been filling in as acting CAO, will resume his previous duties once Hufford begins work.

“I intend to pitch in and do what I can to help them for the next seven months,” Hufford said.

He said he had not been planning to return to government work. But the challenge of ridding Ventura County of its deficit and improving its structure was too tempting to turn down. “The game plan was golf, tennis and world travel, but we have to stay in Southern California next spring for personal business reasons, so I was available,” he said.

Hufford is a Pennsylvania native who moved to Los Angeles during his childhood, and served two years in the Army. He began his career as an administrative trainee for Los Angeles County in 1953, just after graduation from UCLA with a political science degree. He moved up through the ranks, and was a key behind-the-scenes player on the groundbreaking city-county health merger in 1964.

After earning a master’s degree from USC in public administration, he became the county’s chief administrator in 1974. After voters passed Proposition 13 in 1978, Hufford inherited the financial challenges the controversial property tax cut measure would bring to the county. In 1985, Hufford left county government to become chief administrative officer for the law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Between 1994 and 1997, he worked as an executive for the investment firm Bear Stearns & Co.

Times Staff writer Tina Dirmann contributed to this report.