The Changing of the Guard

Jan Mittermeier no longer will be receiving brickbats and bouquets for her management of Orange County government. Her departure last week as county executive officer followed a rancorous period of disenchantment on the Board of Supervisors with her stewardship, and the battle she waged over prerogatives in the planning of a new airport at El Toro. In her place on an interim basis will be Health Care Agency Director Michael Schumacher, a veteran bureaucrat skilled in maneuvering through the warrens of county government.

The county now has the opportunity to get a fresh start, which is also a challenge. Mittermeier’s departure is a benchmark both as an occasion to continue important work she did in organizing county government after the bankruptcy, and to install a new spirit of openness in governmental operations. The county also faces two significant senior management decisions, finding a permanent replacement for Mittermeier, and a new El Toro planning manager.

Schumacher brings a very different style to the job, one likely to soothe ruffled feathers. He is credited with consensus building and administrative skill, two needed qualities at any time, but especially so in the current environment. He also has demonstrated imagination and innovation in such initiatives as the program to target repeat offenders while serving as head of probation. All of these qualities are encouraging.

So far so good. But now Schumacher will be dealing with five supervisors who have independent constituencies and personal policy objectives at a time when there are serious questions about their ability as a group to lead. The county’s poor marks in handling El Toro planning were reflected in the overwhelming passage of a ballot measure requiring an airport and other major projects to win two-thirds approval of voters. The county is facing a rebellion from many in the health care community over tobacco settlement money.

Schumacher already has some imprint on the health care debate, although his tenure as head of the troubled Health Care Agency has been relatively short. But the impasse over how to use tobacco settlement funds is a barometer of the larger credibility crisis in county government, and Schumacher could get quickly in trouble if he does not handle this situation adroitly. Both the health care debate and the El Toro issue illustrate a community concern that county government is unresponsive and inflexible. The county can change the players at the top, but ultimately those people, whoever they are, must make good policy decisions.