Plan to Close CAO Talks Dropped

The Board of Supervisors has abandoned plans to privately discuss whether it should give interim Chief Administrative Officer Harry Hufford additional powers, and now plans to take up the matter publicly at next week’s meeting.

On Thursday Supervisor John Flynn removed a scheduled review of Hufford’s performance from the closed session agenda after The Times disclosed such a review could be illegal and advisors told Flynn it could be perceived as a violation of public meeting laws.

“If there’s any hint of impropriety, I don’t want to be involved in that,” Flynn said.

While performance evaluations may be conducted behind closed doors, supervisors last week said the review could evolve into a broader discussion on whether to extend Hufford’s contract to next April, give him the power to hire and fire department heads, control the budget process to a greater extent and serve as a mandatory intermediary between supervisors and department heads.

Lawyers interviewed this week by The Times said under public meeting laws any debate on expanding an administrator’s power could not be held in closed session.

“You can review a chief administrator’s performance in closed session,” Flynn said. “But the idea that at the same time we were going to discuss granting him more authority left a little too much confusion.”

To erase any confusion, debate over expanding Hufford’s powers will be conducted during the public portion of Tuesday’s supervisors meeting, Flynn said. A review of Hufford’s job performance will be rescheduled for a later date and may still occur in closed session.

Without an extension, Hufford’s contract would expire in August.

Flynn said he would like to transfer more authority over the budget from county Auditor Tom Mahon to Hufford and give Hufford strategic control over the county’s health care strategy.

That would gives Hufford the power he says he needs to shape the county’s strategy for blocking Community Memorial Hospital’s plan to turn the county’s $260-million tobacco settlement over to private health care providers. It also gives Hufford the authority to negotiate with Community Memorial in Ventura, and six other private hospitals across the county in the hope they will back away from the plan.

Board Chairwoman Kathy Long said she supported Flynn’s move to hold the discussion in public but said she felt Flynn’s proposal did not expand Hufford’s power enough. Long would like to see supervisors cede some power to Hufford by making him an intermediary between individual supervisors and department heads and by requiring supervisors to run policy ideas past him before discussing them with the public.

“I think the board will have a good healthy discussion,” Long said.

Supervisors Susan Lacey, Judy Mikels and Frank Schillo could not be reached for comment. Schillo earlier this week said he wanted the discussion to be conducted before the public.

Hufford said he would recommend the board grant him additional powers by writing them into his contract extension, and then wait until later this year to amend a county ordinance that would make permanent whatever changes are made in the chief administrator’s position.

A temporary expansion of powers is needed now to quickly address challenges facing county government, Hufford said. But adopting permanent changes requires “a more thoughtful process, a more carefully developed and designed process” because its effects are more lasting, said Hufford, who was hired in December.

Meanwhile, candidates in November board races agreed the public should be involved from the beginning in discussing how to expand the administrator’s role.

“It’s something that would be healthy for the public to be very clearly aware of,” said Steve Bennett, one of two candidates in a runoff to replace Lacey, who is retiring from the District 1 seat covering Ventura and portions of Ojai.

Jim Monahan, Bennett’s opponent, agreed and said he hopes the board will revamp the ordinance now.

Supervisors would very likely be less motivated to expand those powers permanently once Hufford gets the county through this rough patch, Monahan said, particularly if supervisors cede any of their own power to Hufford in the short term and then decide they want it back.

Meanwhile, Monahan said, union leaders will pressure supervisors not to give the permanent administrator too much power because it would cut into the union’s ability to lobby individual supervisors.

“They would not at all like having to work through the chief executive officer of a county,” Monahan said.

Camarillo Councilman Mike Morgan, who is challenging Long, could not be reached for comment.

Supervisors began talking about expanding the top administrator’s powers after the resignation last fall of chief administrator David Baker after four days on the job. Baker said without more power, he could not control bad budget decisions.