Just weeks away from retirement, Los Angeles County's top administrator offered a frank assessment Wednesday, saying that the major problems facing the region -- such as overcrowded jails, failing medical services, chronic homelessness -- are for the most part intractable.
"There isn't enough money in the world to solve those problems, and no one should be led to believe that they can," said David E. Janssen, chief administrative officer of the nation's largest county government.
As the Board of Supervisors prepares to select Janssen's successor in the coming weeks, the veteran administrator said the next executive would be wise to demand better ways to measure the performance of county programs.
The new executive should also be given more power, Janssen said. A stronger administrator -- whether appointed or elected -- with control of hiring and firing would create "clear lines of authority and accountability." His previous job as San Diego County's administrator had such a system.
Though he is proud of what he accomplished over a decade in the top post, Janssen said many good things happened despite a "very awkward" government structure in which the five elected supervisors wield both legislative and executive authority. Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, the current chairman, recently floated the idea that the county shape a ballot initiative asking voters to create a strong executive, even though they have rejected it in the past.
Managing such a vast county government would be difficult even under the best circumstances: It employs more than 90,000 workers who serve a population of 10 million, with many programs disbursing state or federal funds to poor, elderly, homeless and needy residents. The county runs the nation's largest jail system, houses about 3,500 youths in detention camps and juvenile halls each day, provides child support services to 500,000 families, and treats more than 3 million outpatients a year.
Janssen, 61, is credited with restoring the county's fiscal health after years of budget shortfalls while wrangling 37 wayward departments to work together better. A trusted advisor to the occasionally divisive supervisors, Janssen balanced a $20-billion budget while the board wrestled with a dangerously mismanaged county hospital and growing problems in juvenile halls and probation camps.
The county's financial picture was bleak when Janssen took over in 1996, with a $90-million deficit and several years without salary increases to county employees.
