SANTA ANA — On Tuesday, the Orange County Board of Supervisors tackled the final report from the Bates/Nelson Subcommittee formed to address the problems highlighted in a performance audit of the County Human Resources Department. The report from earlier this year found significant violations of county policies regarding raises and promotions granted to senior managers in county departments.
The subcommittee recommendations included the reversal of several promotions and raises for senior managers in the CEO’s office and OC Public Works. The final decision on the reversal of raises has been put off to allow CEO Tom Mauk to respond. However, it was clear from the discussion yesterday that there are at least three votes on the Board, Bates, Nelson, and Moorlach, to approve the recommended actions.
Supervisors Bates and Nelson recommend that Assistant CEO Rob Richardson be demoted back to the Administrative Manager III level resulting in an 11.2% drop in compensation. They recommend that the 13.1 percent unjustified raise Deputy CEO for Infrastructure Alisa Drakodaidis received be reversed. If Santa Ana City Councilman Carlos Bustamante was still employed as OC Public Works Administrative Services Director, he would have suffered the same fate as Richardson. The Subcommittee recommends reclassification of that position back to the Administrative Manager III level as well.
The Board did approve some of the recommendations on Tuesday including the approval of Audit recommendations regarding employee benefits, directing the Human resources Department to come back to the Board with Classification Specifications for Executive Management positions, and directing the CEO to come back with a recruitment plan for the Human Resources Director position.