Supervisor Takes a Stand Against ‘Grandstanding’

Underscoring growing tensions between members of the Ventura County Board of Supervisors, the chairman of the panel said Tuesday he wants a law that would ban “grandstanding” by the politicians.

Supervisor Frank Schillo said some cities have adopted similar laws and that the county needs one to govern how individual board members deal with each other and the public.

“There may be some definition about what grandstanding is, if it’s something we can all adhere to and all agree upon,” Schillo said.

Schillo scheduled the item for debate at a future meeting. But if his colleagues’ initial reaction is an indication, a behavior code may have a tough go.

It makes no sense to legislate “personality conflicts,” Supervisor Judy Mikels said. Board members should try to work out their differences.

“We’re all adults and we should be able to handle ourselves in a public forum and act professionally,” said Mikels of Simi Valley. “What is said behind closed doors is something else.”

During a lunch break, Mikels said tensions and competitiveness have been growing for months among the five board members, whom she described as “strong-willed, independent and egotistical.”

Schillo and Supervisor John Flynn were furious when Steve Bennett, a Ventura-based supervisor who joined the board in January, led an effort to strip supervisors of extra pay received for serving on community boards and commissions.

“It’s a new guy on the block trying to find his way with the other guys on the block,” Mikels said.

Bennett has also called attention to a number of county financial policies that had previously gone unchallenged.

Conflict Involves Strong Personalities

Schillo, a conservative who is retiring next year, may be piqued that Bennett has essentially usurped his role as the board’s fiscal watchdog, said Herb Gooch, a political scientist at Cal Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks.

“A lot of it is the old man on the hill being pushed off,” Gooch said. “It’s one generation telling the next, ‘Hey I’m here and I’m going to be the financial watchdog.’ ”

Flynn, long known as a maverick, may also be upset that his vote is not as crucial as it has been in the past, Gooch said. That is because Mikels, Bennett and Supervisor Kathy Long are frequently voting together, he noted.

“Flynn loves to sort of fan the fires,” Gooch said. “He likes a good fight. It’s a kind of personality wrestling match.”

Schillo Says Intent Is to Set Standards

Schillo said his intent is not to lash out against Bennett but to institute good public policy. The code would govern not only behavior, but set up protocols for when board members can schedule staff’s time or bring up a new issue, Schillo said.

“You are just setting a standard and everyone can be judged by that standard,” he said. “And it gives everyone the right to say you are not following the norms.”

Schillo said Thousand Oaks and Ventura have adopted similar protocols.

Flynn defended Schillo as taking the “high road” to deal with difficulties on the board. But Flynn acknowledges it will be difficult to codify what kind of behavior board members should follow.

“How far it will go, I don’t know,” he said. “But we should make that attempt. Just the discussion of it would be good.”

Bennett said he also wasn’t opposed to the idea of looking at protocols for the flow of information, but that he didn’t know how you could define grandstanding. He could not be reached after the meeting for further comment.

It is not unusual, or even a bad thing, for politicians to disagree as they vigorously defend their positions, Gooch said.

“That’s what democracy is about,” he said. “The whole idea of politics is to give voice to the competition for resources. You just hope the politicians can regulate themselves.”

The Board of Supervisors has been no exception over the years.

Flynn and Mikels have traded insults in the past. And tensions ran high over a disastrous decision in 1998 to merge the county’s mental health and social services departments. That action sparked a series of costly state and federal investigations.

But a financial crisis in county government two years ago brought on a temporary truce as board members voted together to implement reforms and hire a new chief executive.