The Antithesis of Planning
The Orange County Planning Department misconstrued building trends, misspent money on SUVs and computers, and by some accounts misplaced $18 million. The Board of Supervisors shouldn’t reward such bumbling by letting the department raise fees by a planned 58%. But this board forked over an $8-million loan to the agency in August without asking serious questions, so its ability to manage this crisis is in question. An outside hand is needed.
Taxpayers were kept in the dark until earlier this month when 39 workers were told to expect pink slips. But clues are emerging that the Planning Department kept increasing its spending in recent years despite a downturn in building activity. It kept its staff full even though there wasn’t enough work. It bought them a fleet of Ford Explorers and a $7-million computer system.
The cockamamie rationale: Business would soon pick up. Never mind the economic downturn, the near build-out of county land and the ongoing incorporations that are transferring vast swaths of real estate to cities. The department’s lack of proper planning was evident in a staff-written “trend analysis” that predicted permit applications would rise last March. “We are not considering any reductions in staff,” the staff wrote.
The public can only hope that the authors of that report were first in line for layoff.
The department knew its accounts receivable were in for a downturn because supervisors had lowered building fees a couple of years ago, after an audit found that the county might have overcharged developers by $10 million. The county faces a lawsuit over its building fees, which are not supposed to amount to more than the cost involved in processing them. The courts might want to have a say in this latest proposal for a fee increase as well. No one wants to furlough workers into a slow job market. But the agency’s profligate ways during a time of uncertainty display incompetent management and blatant disregard for public funds. Any householder knows not to buy a shiny new SUV and computer when the family income takes a drop. The department’s failure to show similar common sense creates a larger sense of public mistrust: What other mistakes has this agency been making in its crucial work of examining development in the county?
And just what were all those public servants doing when there wasn’t enough work to keep them busy? Not shelving books in short-staffed libraries, that’s for sure. Beyond that, the department may be unable to account for an $18-million reserve that seems to have gone missing.
The supervisors’ actions were just as troubling. The board ordered a financial report on the department’s problems, which it received in September. But it examined the report behind closed doors, failed to reveal its contents to the public and took no action on it. So it’s time for this sad matter to move into stronger and more transparent hands.
An $18-million reserve depleted, an $8-million loan nearly used up, in a county that could squeeze out only $2 million extra this year for medical services to the poor. Auditor-Controller David Sundstrom needs to step in with a full independent inquiry before the county takes any more missteps.
