
Although it is not unheard of, it is rare in the County of Orange for a manager to leave their job and then shortly later receive a consulting contract from the department they worked in. Usually this happens when a manager retires and in that case they are brought on board to handle critical issues until their replacement is found. But when Jordan Brandman left his job at the County Clerk-Recorder’s office as a External Relations Manager, about a year after he was hired by then Clerk-Recorder Tom Daly, he picked up an unusual contract to study whether the department should open up a branch office. Voice of OC reports:
Brandman’s firm, Jordan Brandman Consulting, was to be paid $24,900 to prepare a facilities needs study on possibly opening a clerk-recorder’s department branch office in west Orange County, according to the contract.
The contract’s end date was supposed to be July 31, 2012. But then the county gave Brandman an extension through Jan. 31. His compensation amount was increased to $26,400, a contract amendment shows.
Initially, the Interim Clerk-Recorder Renee Ramirez had refused to release the work product produced by Brandman to the public because it was an incomplete draft. However, following the Voice of OC story, the report was released to county Supervisors, who then shared the report with Voice of OC investigative reported Adam Elmahrek.
To say that at two Supervisors were upset about what they received would be an understatement. Elmahrek reports today that Supervisor’s Moorlach and Spitzer are demanding answers from Ramirez.
After reviewing Brandman’s draft report, Supervisor John Moorlach estimated it could have been prepared in approximately five hours. At a going-rate of $200 per-hour, the work submitted so far should not have cost more than $1,000, Moorlach said.
County Supervisor Todd Spitzer questions whether Brandman should have been paid at all.
With the exception of one initial $4,800 payment, the contract, Spitzer notes, only allows Brandman to collect payments – in $4,800 installments – after “completion” of sections of the report.
Ramirez is one of the eleven candidates selected as a finalist for appointment to the Clerk-Recorded position by the Board of Supervisors. The position was vacated by Tom Daly who is now a State Assemblyman. While it is clear from records uncovered by Elmahrek that Daly was the decision maker regarding Brandman’s contract and its multiple extensions, Ramirez may end up suffering a consequence in her bid for the Clerk-Recorder position given her role as primary contact related to the contract and his performance.
You can follow the complete Voice of OC story here and here.
It sounds like Brandman should be giving the County a Refund. And he got a bonus of 1500 dollars for basically doing nothing. Where do I sign up? Also, Spitzer and Moorlach are the only ones upset about this? Are Janet Nguyen and Shawn Nelson and Bates buddy buddy with Brandman? Also, with the FBI investigating Janet Nguyen, can you do a review of her fundraising forms to see if Brandman has been a contributor to her campaign(s)? And with the news about the FBI investigating Janet Nguyen when are we going to see a story about that subject here at the Liberal OC?
Renee claimed, in Adam’s previous article, to have “cleared out and deleted” Jordan’s “hard drive, network account and email account …upon conclusion of his County employment.”
And she claimed that was “standard policy for those no longer employed by the Clerk-Recorder.”
That doesn’t sound right, does it Chris? I’m interested in what you have to say about that. I think that’s much worse, and better grounds to keep her out of Daly’s old seat than what you describe above. Destroying embarrassing evidence for the benefit of her boss’ cronies. That CAN’T be standard policy, can it? And if it is, it can’t be legal, can it?
Vern,
It is not unusual for the email account, and schedule, of former employees to be deleted upon termination. In fact, it is the normal practice. The records can however be found in archived daily tapes. All one would need to do is go back to the tape of the last date before termination to get the information. The problem is that it is unlikely there is anything there. Most of the time, the calendars are incomplete.
The HARD DRIVE even? Sounds fishy to me.
The hard drive is indeed common. I manage the asset allocation in my office in the county. When I transfer a computer to a new user, I have the drive cleared out before giving it to the new user. In most cases nowadays users save their data on their network drive, which is backed up routinely. Before an employee leaves, historical records that need to be saved are transferred to a different user since once they are gone, their network drive is deleted.
While back-up tapes probably exist, getting at them is a costly endeavor.
There is really nothing fishy with what was done with Brandman’s outlook files and hard drive.
You know that I am one of the first people to shout from the rooftops when the county does something nefarious. Sorry to disappoint you but, there’s nothing here to shout about.
Nothing will come of this – there is no accountability in government bureaucracy. You liberals love the damn government so much, then fix it yourselves..
Um… HELLO? That’s what we’re trying to DO here??? And where is YOUR contribution???
You wouldn’t have your hair on fire if was a liberal dem pulling the same shit.
Who are you talking about? You realize this is Jordan Brandman, and Tom Daly, who ARE Democrats, and (depending on their audience) like to call themselves liberal or “progressive.” I’m not sure exactly how they’re progressive though, except that they’d like to take away your guns, junior.
They are not liberal or progressive enough for the likes of you Vern.
And you forget, dodo bird, that the guy I’m sticking up for here is an honest competent conservative Republican, Hieu Nguyen.
Democrats and progressives have to start appreciating those types of public servants; they are so preferable to the crooks on either side.
You shouldn’t be sticking up for people like Daly and Brandman, Junior. My problem with them is not that they’re not “liberal” enough, but that they believe in crony capitalism and corporate welfare, which YOU should not be defending as a conservative.
I am not defending anyone – I am saying that is the way government works .. or rather, doesn’t work very well.