Long Urges Expanding Powers of County CAO

Supervisor Kathy Long said she would ask the board today to formally expand the powers of acting county Chief Administrative Officer Harry Hufford while weakening the role of supervisors, a change her colleagues agree would centralize the budget process and reduce divisive internal politics.

In an announcement issued Monday, the board chairwoman said Hufford should be able to hire and fire most department heads, act as spokesman on most board issues and analyze all new programs and budget proposals before they’re presented to the public.

“It gives Harry a strong position in order to do his job,” she said.

The board is expected to discuss expanding Hufford’s powers during its meeting today and then vote on whether to extend his contract through April 2001. Long said her plan envisions more authority specifically for Hufford, but that the board may decide to permanently restructure the position.

Long’s four colleagues say they support increasing Hufford’s power, though it would effectively muzzle them from speaking publicly on policy recommendations or items discussed in closed sessions and keep them from meeting with department heads without Hufford’s approval.

Hufford, hired by the Board of Supervisors in January on a seven-month contract, agreed last week to stay until next April to guide the county through its budget woes and divisive fight with Community Memorial Hospital regarding $260 million in tobacco settlement funds.

Supervisors have been considering enhancing the chief administrator’s powers since late last year when David Baker left the job after four days, saying the position lacked the decision-making power necessary to steer the county out of fiscal and management crises.

Shortly after his departure, Baker said a strong executive could have blocked Supervisors Long, Susan Lacey and John Flynn in 1998 before they approved the doomed merger of the county’s mental health and social services agencies.

Long said the announcement of her proposal prompted a fiery exchange Monday between her and Flynn during a telephone conversation. During that talk, Flynn criticized her for unveiling what he considers a copycat proposal, and he threatened to support Mike Morgan against Long in the November election.

“He said, ‘Do you want me to get into your race? Are you threatening me to get into your race?’ ” Long said. “I said, ‘No, but I will not be bullied for the next six and a half months on every decision I have to make just because you’re threatening to get into my race.’

“I’m just furious,” she said. “If he thinks he’s a kingmaker, then have at it.”

Flynn said he had not planned to endorse Morgan, but “if she keeps doing what she’s doing, I’m inching toward it.”

“If I were her, I’d be really friendly with everyone right now,” Flynn said. “She’s in a campaign. Why be in a war? I wouldn’t be doing that at the moment.”

Flynn, who had scheduled a performance review for Hufford during a closed session meeting of the board last week, accused Long of “political plagiarism.” The performance review was postponed because of time constraints.

“This is my issue,” Flynn said of the idea of expanding Hufford’s powers. “It makes we wonder why she’s doing that. That’s her choice to do, but it seems strange.”

Long said she didn’t know Flynn wanted to raise the same issues in the performance review session, and that she was merely trying to exercise leadership as board chairwoman.

Moreover, she said, Flynn’s surprise announcement last week that he wanted to stop using tobacco settlement dollars to pay off a $15.3-million Medicare fine--against an earlier Hufford recommendation--convinced her that immediate action was needed.

Supervisor Judy Mikels said Long’s proposal was nothing new, but that a strong executive could end the bickering among board members and salvage their shaky credibility.

“It doesn’t diminish the effectiveness of the elected person to do things through a chain of command,” Mikels said. “[But] when everybody agrees to do something and somebody goes spinning out into the galaxy to do something different, it just blows credibility.”

Lacey, noting that Supervisor Frank Schillo and Flynn criticized the tobacco tax commission, which Long chairs, believes it suggests they are ganging up on the chairwoman. Lacey said she hopes delegating more power to Hufford would ease those problems.

“I think Kathy’s taken a leadership role and we should all try and live by this,” she said.

Talev is a Times staff writer; Piccalo is a Times Community News reporter.