CEO’s Vanishing Act Leaves Board in Market for Magician

If dismissed O.J. Simpson jurors can write books, surely some publisher has contacted Bill Popejoy. You say you feel sorry for the Simpson jurors’ long sequestration? Imagine being holed up since Feb. 10 with the Orange County Board of Supervisors . . . and not even getting the $5 a day and 15 cents a mile. As a working book title, how about: “The Popejoy Memoirs: What’s the Point of Having Common Sense and Political Courage When You’re Working for Ninnies?”

No wonder Popejoy pulled one or two questionable stunts during his five-month tenure. You hang around those people long enough, you’ll start acting crazy too. Any day now, look for Marian Bergeson to throw a cream pie at an unsuspecting department head.

Now that Popejoy has announced his resignation, some four months early, the board can get on with its business at hand. Which, for the last few months, has been mainly to gum up the works.

Everywhere you look, the board has made enemies. In Orange County, citizens and many municipal officials trust the supervisors about as far as they can throw them. In Sacramento, legislators of both parties have treated the board with a disdain normally reserved for lobby reformers. On Wall Street, Orange County is listed as M-U-D. Popejoy entered the fray cold five months ago and, after that short period, now leaves with thinly veiled contempt for the board majority.

What’s wrong with this picture?

Within a few weeks, the county will have its third chief executive this year. Ernie Schneider resigned under fire for not knowing enough. Popejoy is resigning under fire for knowing too much. Kind of makes you wonder what the board is looking for in CEO No. 3, doesn’t it?

As a practical matter, Popejoy had to go. As a symbolic gesture, I thought he should have quit two weeks ago, after Measure R failed. He had done his civic duty in volunteering for the job and then hung his hat on the sales tax proposal.

Measure R’s defeat effectively ended Popejoy’s run, and he would have been justified in holding his head high and riding off into the sunset. When he didn’t do that immediately, it almost forced the action by the board, which in a rare burst of clarity may have realized sooner than Popejoy that his clout was heading south.

Popejoy deserved a better finish, and I, for one, hope his contact with public service doesn’t leave him with an upset stomach for too long. He may well look back on his short reign and feel that the board only used him to do the dirty work--such as give the ax to hundreds of county employees. That isn’t a fair way to remember Popejoy, given that the layoffs were part of his overall plan, which included the sales tax increase.

We should remember that Popejoy said repeatedly on the Measure R campaign trail that he hoped to be around long enough to help restructure Orange County government and to see the sales tax removed. He apparently won’t be around that long, but his page in local history will be that of the citizen who acted in the best spirit of noblesse oblige.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch. . . .

The supervisors are now back at square one. If nothing else, Popejoy had buffed up some of the county’s tarnished reputation with state legislators and various creditors. Now those outsiders must wait to see who replaces him and to learn the details of the long-awaited Plan B.

Thus far, the various Plan Bs sound like the formulas for disaster that Popejoy predicted--namely, plans guaranteed to produce long-running enmity and litigation. Local municipalities say they won’t settle for reneging on paying them the money the county lost in the investment pool, and Measure M (the transportation fund) backers say they won’t stand for diverting unspent dollars to the bankruptcy recovery effort.

Whatever plan emerges, someone has to carry the ball for the supervisors. They need a heavyweight, and they just forced one out of office.

For the next go-round, maybe they should forget about someone with financial smarts and look for someone both charming and able to pull rabbits out of a hat.

Heavens, that’s it!

Quick, someone see if David Copperfield is booked for the next few months.

Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by writing to him at The Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, or calling (714) 966-7821.