Latest Episode of ‘Mittermeier’s Island’

For the last couple weeks, I’ve surfed over to CBS’s top-rated show “Survivor,” and it’s left me wondering about the fate of poor Orange County CEO Jan Mittermeier.

The show features two “tribes” that each began with eight everyday people. The tribes engage in weekly competitions on the Malaysian island of Pulau Tiga, and each week the losing team votes one of its members off the island. Eventually, the lone “survivor” will win $1 million.

Viewers have come to know tribe members by their first names and, in time, supposedly will pick up on their petty jealousies, hidden agendas, personal foibles and latent talents.

Any wonder it reminds me of the Board of Supervisors and its handling of Mittermeier?

If you haven’t been keeping up locally, here’s the latest:

Chuck wants to vote Jan off the island, and so does Todd. Jim sort of does but sort of doesn’t. (He’s sort of like that.) Cynthia likes Jan, but that’s probably because she sees how cutthroat the men can be and feels sorry for her. Everybody thought Tom didn’t like Jan, but it turns out he does. For now, at least.

Jan wants to stay and thinks she’s twice as smart and savvy as the other five put together. But she’s got her principles and won’t be anybody’s toady.

Jan has another friend in Wylie. He’s not only Wylie, he’s wily. And he’s a lawyer. In recent weeks, he’s tossed out terms like “breach of contract,” and that scares Chuck, Todd, Jim, Cynthia and Tom half to death.

How will it all turn out? It’ll probably boil down to who needs whom, and for how long.

Now do you understand why there was such a clamor to televise the supervisors’ meetings?

Polling the Tribe

On this week’s “Survivor,” the tribe voted Stacey off the island. She didn’t take her ouster all that well, and who could blame her? The week before, she scarfed down a live grub that helped her team win the competition.

This is the thanks she gets? I wouldn’t eat a live grub if my mother begged for her life, but you didn’t see Stacey complaining when it went down the hatch.

Oh, how Stacey’s tribal mates loved it when she did something they wouldn’t do.

And then there’s Richard. He seems a little full of himself, and there’s a suggestion that at least some of his tribal mates don’t like him. He could be in trouble down the road, but he demonstrated this week on the show that he’s got some unique talents--notably the ability to swim out in snorkel gear with a spear and come back with a fish for food.

That impressed his mates. They have to be asking themselves whether they can afford to expel someone with that kind of talent. Who knows when you might need him? Can anyone else on the team fish for food?

So it is with Jan. Give her a spear and she’ll come back with fish. Put a live grub in front of her, tell her to eat it and voila.

Her mates loved her when she was steering county government away from its bankruptcy problems. Wall Street liked her style, and the five board members didn’t dare kick her off.

But as Stacey found out, the name of the game is, what have you done for me lately?

All of a sudden, the tribe thinks Jan is too imperious, too secretive. Sure, she can work a budget, but can she get along on the island?

Nowadays, board members see her as too much like her predecessor, Bill Popejoy, a businessman-turned-county CEO who operated under the philosophy that the less he told the board the better. He left the island long ago.

Todd and Chuck tried to oust Jan a couple of months ago, but Tom, Cynthia and Jim voted to keep her.

Now all five have voted to hire someone to direct the El Toro airport project, which had been Jan’s pride and joy. That’s a more bitter pill to swallow than a live grub.

On TV, you have to leave when they tell you to.

In real life, we’ll see.

What the board really wants to say to Jan is, “We have some lovely parting gifts for you, and thanks so much for playing our game.”

The question Mittermeier has to ask herself is, “Is it time for me to leave the island?”

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