Hiring an El Toro Chief Is a Flight of Fancy

Members of the Orange County Board of Supervisors are looking for a new county executive officer now that Jan Mittermeier has moved on to calmer pastures. The supervisors are also searching for a new manager who will oversee planning of a commercial airport at El Toro.

Airport planning used to be part of the CEO’s job, but supervisors now want an independent department on El Toro answerable directly to them.

I’m among those who doubt this two-pronged approach to county government--with separate executives answering to the board--will be effective.

Supervisor Jim Silva strongly disagrees with me. He believes that it’s critical to have a separate manager to plan redevelopment of the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Base because it’s so complex. So far that’s the board’s thinking.

“It’s the largest land reuse in the country,” said Supervisor Cynthia P. Coad, explaining why she supports a separate manager.

My guess is that once the supervisors begin talking to top-flight candidates nationwide for county executive officer, they may take a new look at this double-barreled approach. The El Toro planning job has such a high political profile, it would amount to co-CEOs, which is why Mittermeier refused to go along with it.

Yes, a new El Toro planner must be hired. But a new CEO may insist on taking overall control when that person is brought aboard.

To me, it’s like the Disney board telling Michael Eisner it will run the ABC network separate from him because he has so many other mice to run. Or the Fluor Corp. board telling CEO and Chairman Phillip J. Carroll Jr. that it will find someone to take over new ventures because he’s so busy with the old ones.

It’s the school board telling the principal that it will take over sixth grade because she or he is so busy with the other five grades, plus that cantankerous kindergarten.

Some supervisors have indicated they see the problem.

“Any good CEO would probably demand full control,” Supervisor Tom Wilson said. “That person would probably see separate executives answering to the board as weakening his or her position starting out and wouldn’t like it.”

Supervisor Todd Spitzer, like the others, had supported a separate El Toro planner. But Spitzer was a foe of Mittermeier. With her gone, he might change his tune too.

“There was never anything wrong with the model,” Spitzer said. “If you had a CEO who had the confidence of the entire board, one voice would be the way to go.”

Coad said she’s open to anything right now.

“We need to choose a CEO who is excited about the job but also knows the peaks and valleys of what’s been going on in Orange County,” she said.

And with the right person, she said, maybe she would support the one-voice approach.

Riding Different Waves

A colleague has pointed out to me that it’s not that unusual for county department heads to answer directly to the Board of Supervisors. County Counsel Laurence M. Watson, for example, doesn’t go through the CEO on matters of importance to the board. A fellow reporter who covered the supervisors in the 1980s told me many department heads dealt directly with the supervisors, even though on paper they were supposed to answer to county Administrative Officer Robert E. Thomas.

But those were pre-bankruptcy days, before the supervisors agreed that a strong, centralized county executive officer was necessary. And the county counsel’s office doesn’t swim in the same highly political seas that the new El Toro planner will have to navigate.

One of Mittermeier’s objections was that the El Toro leader would be using county staff to operate. She suggested a “firewall” exist between her staff and the El Toro planner’s. The supervisors didn’t consider that workable, with good reason. You can’t take a chance you’ll wind up with executives riding different waves.

One way to assure that, of course, would be the “one-voice” approach that Spitzer talked about.

Was this two-pronged board suggestion simply a way to get around Mittermeier, who--right or wrong--did not have the full board’s confidence? I can’t envision any candidate worthy of being interviewed for CEO accepting a partner who will be borrowing the CEO’s people.

I see an interesting comparison to an anecdote mentioned by noted Hollywood industry reporter Kim Masters in her new book, “Keys to the Kingdom.” Masters wrote that the late Frank Wells, who later became Disney president, proposed to Eisner in the beginning that they be co-CEOs, each with separate responsibilities and answering separately to the Disney board.

Eisner’s response was a quick, flat no. You can’t run a major shop that way, Eisner said. Wells backed off his suggestion and agreed to be Eisner’s No. 2.

Orange County’s new CEO doesn’t have to be an airport expert. That person needs to be an expert in management and political savvy, for dealing with elected officials.

Right now, finding a new CEO is the priority.

The ball seems to be in the court of Jan Walden, director of the county Human Resources Division. She’ll soon be leading the effort to hire a consultant to help with a nationwide search. One of Walden’s first tasks will be to define the job.

Public officials often talk about nationwide searches for top people, then declare they found the very person they wanted in their own backyard. Which means they’re more comfortable with an old shoe they already know will fit.

The old shoe in this case is interim CEO Michael Schumacher, who has spent his career in county government, primarily running the Probation Department. Schumacher has proven skills at working with elected officials. Schumacher, if he becomes the Chosen One, may ultimately agree to a separate El Toro planner.

But deep down in his soul, Schumacher must be saying to himself, one CEO, one voice.

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Jerry Hicks’ column appears Monday and Thursday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling (714) 966-7789 or e-mail to jerry.hicks@latimes.com.