County to rehire top manager for a time
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to temporarily rehire retiring Chief Administrative Officer David E. Janssen and agreed to consider dramatically expanding the power of his post as they plan a new search for a successor.
Setting the stage for what could become a major shift in the nation's largest county government, they called a pause in their search for Janssen's replacement and agreed to weigh making almost all county department heads report to the administrator rather than the board itself. Four of the five supervisors support that proposal.
"We have a unique opportunity, a unique window here, to change county governance, change the culture," said Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who has previously advocated such reform though he would prefer to see an elected county executive.
The administrator currently acts as an advisor to the supervisors but does not have decision-making power -- a point of discussion apparently noted recently when two top candidates turned down Janssen's job. Unlike Los Angeles, other populous California counties have strong chief executives with broad authority to set policy as well as to hire and fire.
If approved, the companion motions by Supervisors Don Knabe and Yaroslavsky would tell county lawyers to draft an interim ordinance that would let Janssen make hiring and firing decisions, with board approval. Janssen officially retired Jan. 16, but the board voted to retain him for up to 120 days at a monthly salary of $20,176 -- the same rate as his previous $242,000 annual pay -- while they conduct a new search for his replacement.
The proposal the supervisors appear likely to approve would address a question that has periodically consumed county officials for more than a decade: how to bring a centralizing authority to a government overseen by five elected leaders, none of whom has to answer to any of the others. That structure has contributed to county problems, with district needs at times trumping countywide concerns.
"It's always better to report to one person than five," Supervisor Gloria Molina said.
The timing of this debate is accidental, supervisors say, and not a ploy to draw more job applicants. The failed search process for a new administrator and Janssen's extended stay provided the right moment to make permanent structural changes to empower the county's chief officer.
