Bureaucratic Divorce Is Sought in O.C.

A county official elected to oversee the estates of people who have died without naming an executor has been stymied in his effort to separate his office from the bureaucracy of Orange County’s health agency.

And politics may be to blame.

John S. Williams, who has been trying to free his 70-member staff from the Health Care Agency this year, recently was caught up in a dispute over the use of excess interest earned from the estates his office oversaw.

Williams said the excess interest -- $824,271 since 2003 -- should stay in his office. County officials said that the money should go into the county’s general fund. Late last month, Williams was ordered by County Counsel Ben deMayo to hand over the funds.

At the same time, Williams’ request to make his office a separate department was suddenly pulled from a Board of Supervisors agenda.

The excess-interest dispute and the office’s financial transactions have drawn attention to what has been an otherwise obscure area of county government.

As the elected public administrator, Williams oversees the burials and estates of Orange County residents who die without an executor. In his larger role as public guardian, to which he was appointed by the Board of Supervisors in March 2003, he acts as court-appointed conservator for the mentally ill and those with other medical conditions that leave them unable to care for themselves.

Between the two offices, Williams handles about $30 million a year of other people’s money. He is required to pay interest equal to what someone would have received by investing the money themselves; any excess interest earned must go to the general fund.

A county warehouse and vault are filled with the furniture, firearms, jewelry and stock certificates that comprise the estates held in trust. Williams’ offices also sell real estate, cars and personal items, as well as manage businesses, until a court decides their distribution.

The most eclectic is the El Matador, a landmark Costa Mesa restaurant that the office has run since July after a court named Williams executor of the late owner’s estate.

Williams, a genial former deputy marshal, said he could run his department more efficiently if it were freed from the bureaucracy of the 2,700-employee Health Care Agency. As an elected official, he deserves his own department, he said in an interview. “You don’t see very often an elected official forced to rely on another office,” he said.

Disagreement over the excess interest earnings was an honest one, he said, spurred by his worry that he would need a reserve if the county treasury failed to pay enough interest to match outside investments.

“I made my pitch to keep [the money] and they said no,” he said. “I can live with that.”

Williams’ request to create a separate office was pulled from the supervisors’ agenda after County Executive Officer Thomas G. Mauk balked at giving him more autonomy. Mauk said the public guardian side of the office should be more accountable, and that Williams refused to participate in performance evaluations or to provide financial information.

Board Chairman Bill Campbell said last week that he was willing to consider the separation now that the interest earnings dispute has been settled. The county’s internal auditor also is reviewing whether the money was properly handled.

“I’d say, ‘Let’s get the dust to settle,’ ” Campbell said.

“He believed what he was doing was lawful, but you have to make sure you’re complying with the law.”

Others say simmering unease over the issue is driven more by internal county politics.

Williams won a close runoff election in 2002 over Vicki Landrus, a favorite of county bureaucrats who had been deputy administrator of the county’s Community Services Agency. Williams also went outside county government to hire an assistant, Nancy Padberg, who sits with him as an elected board member of the South Orange County Community College District.

“He kind of upset the apple cart because an insider didn’t get the job,” said Treasurer-Tax Collector John M.W. Moorlach, who supports Williams having his own shop.

The office Williams holds has always been a hybrid. His elected job pays about $26,000 a year and constitutes about a quarter of his duties. His appointed job pays about $70,000 a year and comprises the rest.

Williams’ predecessor was William A. Baker, who served as director of the Community Services Agency until his March 2003 retirement. For years, the agency included the public administrator and public guardian, as well as the office on aging and veterans services -- two smaller offices that Baker funded with excess interest earned from his other investments.

When Williams took over, the county reorganized several departments, eliminating the Community Services Agency. The offices on aging and veterans services were sent to a new Housing and Community Development Agency, while the public administrator and public guardian were put under the Health Care Agency.

Becoming part of the health agency created a potential conflict, Williams said, because county psychiatric staff recommend whether people could continue to handle their own money. If not, the public guardian could be appointed. Mental health officials and the public guardian have different objectives, Williams said.

He cited other more mundane problems, including delays in processing purchase orders and travel reimbursements, and a mistaken double payment for a printer.

Julie Poulson, head of the Health Care Agency, declined to comment on whether the office should be split from hers. Spokeswoman Pat Markley said the office had made “numerous and sincere efforts” to accommodate Williams’ needs.

Williams said he would make another attempt to ask supervisors to approve the office split at their April 19 meeting.