County board to weigh options on hiring of chief

Los Angeles County supervisors will regroup next week after the latest setback in their search for an executive to manage the nation’s largest county government, officials said Wednesday.

The board will meet in closed session Tuesday to discuss what to do after a second candidate’s rejection of an offer to become chief administrative officer, said board Chairman Zev Yaroslavsky.

He declined to detail the board’s options but said supervisors must decide whether to select one of the two remaining finalists or contact additional candidates.

He also wondered whether some viable candidates had been overlooked because of tough county standards.

“It may be that we’ve set our bar too high, and we’ve narrowed the pool,” Yaroslavsky said.

Retiring county administrator David Janssen said he is not worried about the county’s ability to find a qualified candidate, because “there are always options.”

Thomas G. Mauk, 63, Orange County’s chief executive, turned down the position Tuesday, a day after agreeing to accept it and being formally appointed by the board. He told Janssen by telephone that he had changed his mind.

“Los Angeles County deserved better than what I gave them in respect to how I ended the conversation,” Mauk said in an interview Wednesday.

Last month, Sandra Vargas, a county executive from the Minneapolis area, turned down the post to run a charitable foundation there.

She was among five finalists interviewed; two others also dropped out.

The remaining finalists are Wally Hill, deputy administrator in Hillsborough County, Fla., which includes Tampa, and Mark Saladino, Los Angeles County’s treasurer and tax collector.

The county has spent six months searching for a replacement for Janssen, who retired in January but has agreed to stay for up to four months while the search continues.

Los Angeles County’s weak executive structure, in which the top administrator reports to the board but does not have hiring or firing power, could be a deterrent to out-of-state applicants, Janssen said.

Supervisor Don Knabe said that although Mauk’s decision to stay in Orange County came as a surprise, the board was in no hurry to hire someone.

“The important thing is to not overreact, do something too quickly in the sense that you’re hitting the panic button,” Knabe said. “We don’t want to just give this job to just anyone.”

Candidates rejecting job offers is not uncommon in local government, Yaroslavsky said. Mauk was chosen as the Orange County chief executive in 2004 after two others had turned down that position.

Two rejections in a row won’t be a liability for the county in attracting more potential managers, Janssen said. “Everyone knows that coming to L.A. is a challenge.”

susannah.rosenblatt

@latimes.com

jack.leonard@latimes.com

Times staff writer Christian Berthelsen contributed to this report.