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Orange County’s Chief Financial Officer Michelle Aguirre is in a unique position to offer local residents a real CEO, one that focuses the $9.5 billion county government bureaucracy on improving quality of life rather than serving inside special interests and politicians.
This week, the seven-months long selection process for finding a new CEO for the county government was derailed as county supervisors couldn’t agree on who will replace OC’s outgoing top executive.
[Read: Santana: Finding Orange County’s Next CEO Just Got Complicated]
By not coming to an agreement, they turned down about a half dozen internal and external public sector executives – in addition to a last-minute CEO candidate that gained momentum as the result of political jockeying by an outgoing county supervisor mired in controversy who partnered with the county employees union.
With current Orange County CEO Frank Kim leaving office July 11 and county supervisors unlikely to gather a majority for a public meeting until August, Aguirre is in a rare position to actually turn the tables on inside interests and county politicos – ushering in a true era of civilian government.
[Read: Santana: Who Gets The Reins At The County of Orange?]
Aguirre – who has spent years at the county and is credited with understanding the budget and agencies – could represent a shift away from the politicized hiring process plaguing the county in recent years.
She just has to take bold action.
Question is whether she’s that kind of leader.
And whether she is surrounded by the kinds of executives, workers, civic leaders and residents who can rally to take back their county government.
Given that Aguirre is a budget expert, she knows how to say no.
She understands the long term financial and policy implications of decisions.
Aguirre understands the agencies.
And she was smart enough to say no to a lucrative job unless it came with the empowerment to do the right thing.
Aguirre is reportedly the only person offered the CEO job who said no.
That’s why she’s likely the best fit.
The question now is what will she do when county supervisors come and likely order her to take over the reins of government?
Will she say yes, and ride out her last year or so before she’s eligible to retire with the max package available to an executive?
Or will she play hardball and call supervisors’ bluff, demanding a strong contract with a hefty payout if she gets fired over political reasons.
Aguirre could tell county supervisors that without being a true CEO – meaning that she runs the county government like a professional operation focused on improving resident quality of life – she’s not stepping in to save them.
For supervisors, going into an election year, it might make sense to actually leave the county bureaucracy alone.
For the past 20 years – since I have covered the County of Orange – we have seen able chief executives have to operate in very political environments.
That means executives had to watch and manage the implications of county supervisors making very political choices over the budget.
For years, that meant big salary contracts for the Sheriff’s department, whose main union, showered supervisors with election support.
It’s worked for the department – spending there has spiked.
It didn’t work that well for residents – who deal with the funding shortages in other areas.
Such as public health.
[Read: OC Supervisors Spent More Covid Response Money on Sheriff Staff Than Health Workers]
That’s a big reason why when the Covid pandemic hit – the public health department was unable to meet the challenge.
Something that left vulnerable residents in a hard position.
Going forward now, Aguirre and the people around her have a chance to change that dynamic.
Forever.
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