Orange County Executive Officer Leaving

I just came from the OCEA Leadership Conference in Anaheim today. Board of Supervisors Chairman Chris Norby was our last speaker of the day and he confirmed that County Executive Officer Thomas Mauk is leaving Orange County for Los Angeles County.  The news will hit the papers tomorrow (OC Register.com) (LATIMES.com), but I wanted to give everyone a heads up.

One of my favorite quotes from Mr. Mauks’ tenure as CEO was his statement that the “Health Care Agency is the best, if not one of the best, run departments in the County” in response to questions from the Orange County Register (article) regarding the Agency being ordered to return more than $143,000 in mismanaged federal grant funds.  Add to this his lack of supervison of Registrar of Voter’s Neal Kelley has led to hunderds, if not thousands, of voters having their right to vote thwarted by long lines, faulty voting equipment, insufficient paper ballots, etc.

Can’t really say I’m sorry to see the guy go.  His lack of oversight and inability to supervise the senior department managers in the County, has cost the taxpayers of Orange County enough.  In my not so humble opinion, Tom Mauk wouldn’t know a well run department if it bit him in the rear-end.