[ad_1]
Orange County Supervisors continue grappling with how to examine themselves and the bureaucrats that failed taxpayers on the heels of an FBI raid on former Supervisor Andrew Do’s house and his ensuing guilty plea on bribery charges.
It all stems from relaxed contract oversight in a county government that manages a $9.5 billion budget for roughly 3.2 million residents.
Ironically, this Friday marks the 30th anniversary of the 1994 OC bankruptcy – a similar oversight failure that shocked the nation and spurred a host of thoughtful reform proposals at the time – all eventually thwarted by politicians, bureaucrats and special interests.
Today, much like the wake of the 1994 bankruptcy, it’s no easy task facing county supervisors.
How do these apex politicians check themselves?
Especially since they keep asking the same executive team that was dominated by Do and remains under fire for shoddy oversight on a mounting list of contracts and vendors.
Over the past decade, again under Do’s leadership, county officials became adept at instituting the veneer of transparency.
Independent agencies, like Performance Audit and the Auditor Controller were gutted while others – the Office of Independent Review – were given mandates that run counter to their public billing.
Can Government Agencies Investigate Themselves?
For more immediate proof of how county bureaucrats avoid finding things, consider the directives from a few months back and how one key review already got trimmed back.
On the heels of Do’s admission of corruption in his public plea, Supervisors authorized a series of actions to flesh out how lax contract oversight triggered millions in losses on COVID contracts – losses now tied up in local courts.
[Read: Santana: Are Reforms and Transparency Coming to Orange County?]
Yet at a recent public meeting in late November, county supervisors found out their internal auditors didn’t plan to look over every one of $200 million in COVID contracts – a review supervisors publicly ordered in September to much fanfare.
Instead, the county’s internal auditors announced under questioning they were only looking at a sampling of contracts.
That’s not what Supervisor Katrina Foley called for back in September – something she called out county executives about during the public meeting.
The episode calls into question whether government bodies can investigate themselves.
Independent Reviews Flesh Out Pathways to Reform
Look what Anaheim city leaders found – and Irvine city leaders avoided – when they authorized an investigation into themselves in the wake of FBI affidavits: A review that painted a very ugly picture of influence peddling at city hall.
[Read: What Does Another Corruption Scandal Mean for Orange County?]
While Anaheim leaders didn’t like the investigation results going public, the experience did drive the most far-reaching transparency reforms ever at that city hall.
It led to what city leaders now say is Orange County’s most transparent city – mainly because of more public gift disclosures, expanded lobbyist registration, publishing calendars online and the appointment of an ethics officer who oversees compliance with transparency laws, like campaign finance disclosures.
Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento has become the loudest proponent of an outside investigation into the county Hall of Administration, saying the only bright side of the current scandal is that it offers taxpayers a unique opportunity for reform.
“There is this moment in time, to be able to ask some very profound questions about whether these abuses were isolated or a systemic problem,” Sarmiento told me in a recent interview.
“That’s my question,” Sarmiento said, adding, “We have to ask that now.”
Just like the fleeting window of reform during the bankruptcy decades ago, Sarmiento warns, “This moment will pass.”
Sarmiento – who also recently led board authorization of an outside review at the county’s health plan for the poor and elderly, CalOptima – sees more of a process like what Anaheim experienced rather than just internal audit reviews.
[Read: Anaheim’s Own Look at City Hall Finds Disneyland Resort Businesses Improperly Steer Policymaking]
Yet not everyone sees value in an outside investigation.
Supervisor Katrina Foley bristles at the comparison to Anaheim, saying the city had to go with independent investigators because it doesn’t have its own audit departments like the county does.
Yet Anaheim does have an Audit Division, which sits in the City Manager’s office – a chief executive who was also detailed in the 353-page corruption probe conducted by independent investigators.
[Read: Fear and Loathing at Anaheim City Hall: Working Under the Gun of Retribution]
“I think it’s appropriate to have an external review of the audit that we have done,” Foley said, adding she values an outside look but is concerned about timing.
“I don’t want to impede our litigation,” Foley said, referring to county lawsuits against two nonprofits implicated in the FBI probe.
[Read: Orange County Sues County Supervisor’s Daughter and Nonprofit Over Missing COVID Money]
“It’s important because we have to get the money back,” Foley said referring to about $10 million in contract funds misspent.
Supervisor Don Wagner argues against overreacting and establishing a bunch of new agencies and initiatives that don’t actually target the problem.
Do, as he sees it, was involved in criminal activity, which by its nature isn’t easy to ferret out.
“How do you write an ordinance, a law that says you shall not steal and we mean it?” Wagner told me in an interview.
Fair enough.
Yet reading about Do’s ability to steer county contracts in a series of federal court filings raises hard questions about the resolve of county executives to manage public contracts.
Time to Bring Back Performance Audit?
In addition to strong internal auditing, Orange County Supervisors can consider a number of successful good government initiatives that in some cases have been terminated because of their success.
Given the specialties involved in this particular case – investigating executive culture and its impact on fair contracting for vendors – it might be time to bring back the county’s former Performance Auditor, Steve Danley, who helped create the agency and spearheaded it’s most ambitious audits like Sheriff department overtime expenses, IT contracting and the Human Resources department.
County supervisors downsized the department in 2015, gutted its ability to do audits independently and instead decided to select audits themselves each year with outside firms.
I can’t think of any major impacts from those self-ordered audits in recent years.
Danley still does management audits and has been utilized in recent years to examine response problems during recent fires and at the District Attorney’s office, a review that DA Todd Spitzer recently told me was credible and helpful.
Internal audit staff already told county supervisors last month that if they want a full deep dive into the $200 million in COVID contracts, they have to consider the impacts on other responsibilities by staff.
The controversy behind COVID contracts at the County of Orange – and the questions about lax contract oversight – could also prompt county supervisors to consider a host of reforms, some going back to the 1994 bankruptcy.
Things like a strong, independent chief executive overseeing the bureaucracy – with the aim of lessening the power of politicians against bureaucrats – or oversight panels in key areas like the flash point of 1994, investments.
Need for a Strong Independent CEO
Like Danley, acting CEO Michelle Aguirre – who is getting good reviews as an ethical leader – is a career technocrat that may have a chance to institute basic procurement reforms, something she recently hinted at in a brief public update.
Yet Aguirre is also a short-timer, reportedly eyeing retirement next year, which means supervisors need to figure out a recruitment that takes into account a more transparent approach at the top,
To ensure any CEO is successful, taxpayers need to have more eyes at the table – again one of the main themes of the frustrated reform effort from 1994.
Supervisors could return some of the duties and staff taken away from the Orange County Auditor-Controller years back when the former head of that office, Eric Woolery, asserted the office’s role in approving and reviewing contracts.
[Read: OC Supervisors Move to Take Away Independent Oversight]
Supervisors could also consider expanding the current powers of the county Ethics Commission, which was set up in recent years with a narrow focus to only to help manage campaign finance oversight.
[Read: OC Supervisors Have Chosen an Ethics Director]
For example, supervisors currently appoint representatives to the panel. Maybe that should change.
Another change could be to remove the County Fraud Hotline from going straight to the attorney for county supervisors, the Office of County Counsel.
Maybe reports about fraud should go to the Ethics Commission?
It may also be time for county supervisors to give up their discretionary funds, which in some ways contributed to Do’s ability to steer money, ultimately to himself.
As in Anaheim, there might also be changes to lobbyist registration to ensure that any time inside political players – like lobbyists – are working with nonprofits like the Viet America Society those relationships are disclosed.
[Read: Disney’s Representative Could Soon be Considered a Lobbyist at Anaheim City Hall]
For starters, supervisors’ meeting’ calendars could be published – as in Anaheim – so residents and taxpayers can actually see who’s holding official meetings with elected officials and executive staff inside the Hall of Administration.
County supervisors could also consider moving their meetings from the morning hours – when few taxpayers can attend live – to later hours where public attention might be better focused on what they do and the contracts they award.
In addition, supervisors could require themselves to state in public whether they have any ties, or have taken meetings or campaign contributions from interests getting public contracts in real time.
County supervisors could even consider restricting themselves from voting on any contracts where they have received campaign contributions from those interests.
•••
Can you support Voice of OC with a donation?
You obviously care about local news and value good journalism here in Orange County. With your support, we can bring you more stories like these.
Related
[ad_2]
Source link
