County’s Protocol Office to Close

Orange County’s protocol office, which helps the region’s international marketing efforts, will close Dec. 15 after supervisors voted Tuesday against spending $60,000 to keep it open.

Four supervisors said they took the action reluctantly after promises of private support by the office’s private fundraising foundation never materialized.

Duties such as arranging tours by international visitors and heads of state should be the task of private companies and should not be funded with public money, they said.

“I just think we’ve come to the end of the road,” Supervisor Bill Campbell said.

Protocol Officer Joanne Sokolski said the office is a vital liaison between government officials and foreign business leaders interested in expanding trade in Orange County.

The office has coordinated visits by visitors from official delegations, as well as coordinated goodwill foreign travel by Orange County officials on trips paid for by the host countries.

The lone supporter of the office, Supervisor Chuck Smith, said Orange County’s economy benefits from the relationships the office promotes.

If Orange County were a country, it would have the world’s 30th-largest economy, he said.

“It’s penny wise and pound foolish not to support them,” Smith said.

The closure shouldn’t come as a surprise, board Chairman Tom Wilson said.

The county voted in 2003 to cut funding, only to restore it after a vigorous campaign by the protocol’s foundation, which promised to find other financial support.

The $40,000 in partial funding authorized by supervisors in June came with a warning that the office would eventually lose its public subsidy.