Protection Racket: Supervisor Bates pulls former assistant Probolsky back into her nest

OC Supervisor Pat Bates Photo: Chris Prevatt, TheLiberalOC
OC Supervisor Pat Bates Photo: Chris Prevatt, TheLiberalOC
OC Supervisor Pat Bates Photo: Chris Prevatt, TheLiberalOC

On July 1, Voice of OC reported that Supervisor Bates’ former executive assistant Brian Probolsky, a manager with OC Community Resources department and also an elected member of the Moulton Niguel Water District – has come under fire because his time cards rarely show time off on days he’s attending water district meetings. Now, less than a month after this revelation, Bates has brought Probolsky back under her wing of protection. Probolsky has been “loaned” to Bates office to act as her Chief of Staff. Given Probolsky’s new position, we doubt that anything will come of the HR investigation.

Supervisor Pat Bates recently publicly informed CEO Mike Giancola from the dais that there needed to be some accountability for promised additional staff training to facilitate the placement of executive assistants in county jobs prior to, or upon, her and Supervisor Moorlach’s departure at the end of this year. Now that Probolsky is in her office, it is naturally unlikely that Giancola will permit the investigation to continue. If any conclusions have been reached that Probolsky may have acted improperly, they will not see the light of day. We are certain Giancola will not want to answer for negative results from the investigation of Bates’ Chief of Staff.

Over the past several years the County of Orange has endured a number of high profile instances of senior management executives “taking care of their own” by covering up improper conduct of their fellow executive managers. The actions of former CEO Tom Mauk, former Director of Human Resources Carl Crown in protecting former OC Public Works executive Carlos Bustamante is the most high profile of these examples. Bustamante is currently awaiting trial on multiple charges of harassment and assault on female subordinates. So not only is it a great gig to get a job working for a County Supervisor, if you land it, you are guaranteed a high-paying management job in a county department, and protection from investigation for alleged improper conduct.

Do any of our Supervisors have ethics?

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