The final connections to former Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona's troubled administration were severed Tuesday when county supervisors agreed to go outside the department for a new leader.
County supervisors chose as finalists Santa Ana Police Chief Paul Walters and retired Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Division Chief Sandra Hutchens to rebuild a department damaged by Carona's indictment and a series of other scandals that tarnished his nine-year administration.
In doing so, they jettisoned the acting sheriff, Jack Anderson, a member of Carona's command staff who was elevated to run the department by Carona as he resigned.
The vote underscored a prevailing opinion that sweeping cultural change was needed within the state's second-largest sheriff's department, eliminating the only insiders lobbying heavily for the job: Anderson, who has served as acting sheriff for five months; and former Lt. Bill Hunt, the favorite of the deputies union, who finished second to Carona in the 2006 election.
"The only two department choices are the acting sheriff, who has done a good job, and also Bill Hunt. And they didn't garner much support," said Mario Mainero, chief of staff for Supervisor John Moorlach. "So I think both of these choices suggest" that the board wants a change.
Hutchens and Walters, who each received four votes, said they were honored by the outcome and hoped to make the final cut.
Anderson, who mustered only one vote from the board, said he believed his ties to Carona hurt his chances, but that he was "not upset by it." He did not rule out running for sheriff in 2010. In the meantime, he said, he would be ready and willing to assist whomever lands the job "any way I can."
A final decision is expected by June 17, depending on when background checks are completed. The winning candidate will inherit a budget of more than $700 million, more than 4,000 employees and the task of resurrecting a department decimated by allegations of corruption, cronyism, mismanagement and a series of embarrassments that has sunk morale among the troops.
A key task will be fixing an Orange County jail system that has been plagued by overcrowding and undermined by a series of incidents that have exposed a disturbing culture among some jail deputies.
A grand jury report revealed that in 2006 a guard watched "Cops" and sent cellphone text messages to friends as an inmate was beaten to death by other prisoners.
