The Brief

Orange County’s elected treasurer was found to have thrown office keys at a subordinate out of anger, according to an investigation county officials commissioned and funded. The report, from 2022, was obtained by LAist through a records request. Its findings were not known to county supervisors until recently.

A secretary who witnessed the incident quit her job the same day as a result, according to the report, which found the September 2021 incident was a likely violation of workplace violence policies.

It’s one of numerous complaints of mismanagement against O.C. Treasurer-Tax Collector Shari Freidenrich, including employee allegations documented by investigators that she’s been an “extreme micro-manager,” and allegations from the county chief executive that she has been late in pursuing $36 million in property taxes owed to the county.

O.C. supervisors now say these findings and other concerns were behind their unusual decision late last year to yank Friedenrich’s authority to oversee the investment of $17 billion in taxpayer dollars. Until recent days, they weren’t telling the public why Friedenrich — who was first elected in 2010 and has run unopposed since — had lost that authority.

Board members addressed the situation at this week’s regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday and released a “fact sheet” from the county CEO’s office detailing allegations. That includes investigators’ findings that Friedenrich ran a department with a “highly charged atmosphere of mistrust, suspicion and the belief that Freidenrich has engaged in demeaning, condescending and unfair behavior.”

How we got here

LAist reached out to all five supervisors for comment after receiving public records documenting the investigation, an employee survey critical of her leadership and complaints in a resignation letter by a high-ranking executive under her. Supervisor Janet Nguyen did not respond before publication.

Supervisors Katrina Foley and Vicente Sarmiento told LAist that the board pulled back Freidenrich’s authority to invest after a meeting last fall where Foley and Supervisor Don Wagner heard directly from department employees alleging that Freidenrich created a hostile work environment for her department’s staff.

“ The level of toxicity that the employees uniformly shared was alerting,” Foley said of concerns she says she heard directly from employees.

That fall 2024 meeting was the first time Foley learned of the key-throwing incident, she told LAist.

During that meeting, Foley said, the employees also told her Freidenrich’s behavior was causing widespread problems, including delays in cashing checks, a lack of training for new employees and delays in collecting $36 million owed to the county in unpaid property taxes. The alleged collection delays were in filing liens that pressure owners to pay overdue taxes, and in auctioning off properties with long-overdue tax bills.

Additionally, Foley said Freidenrich missed an important deadline to list county assets, a failure she said caused the auditor-controller to be late on the county’s comprehensive annual financial report — one of the county’s most important financial filings. These delays, Foley said, were of concern because they put at risk the county's credit rating and had the potential to delay state and federal funding if the CEO and CFO had not intervened to get the report done.

The list of allegations against Freidenrich were shared in a document prepared by the office of Michelle Aguirre, the county’s chief executive. The document, which is labeled as a “fact sheet,” was distributed to the press by Foley this week.

In a statement to LAist on Wednesday, Freidenrich said, “These allegations claim to create a pretext for disrupting my honest, ethical and effective stewardship of $17 billion in public funds.”

The allegations and Freidenrich’s response

Regarding the alleged delays in filing liens to collect property tax, Freidenrich wrote to LAist that her office has the highest collection rate in the state for the largest type of property tax. She pointed to state data, which show Orange County ranks fourth among California's 58 counties in total property tax collections. She also said that it is not cost-effective to hold annual auctions of properties whose tax bills are years overdue, another issue raised in the county CEO’s allegations. The CEO’s document says Freidenrich hasn’t held an auction since 2021, causing the county to miss out on $4.4 million.

When LAist asked Freidenrich about the allegations of a hostile work environment, including the key-throwing incident, she said: “There has never been any findings of this type of environment related to my management by the County, who investigated some isolated incidents based on allegations several years ago.”

In a written statement to LAist, Freidenrich said the key-throwing incident was due to her being a “klutz.” She said she “tripped on the way to the door to give the staff the keys. The keys flew out of my hands.”

When Freidenrich spoke to investigators in spring 2022, she also told them she tripped and the keys fell out of her hand. The investigators did not find her account credible, stating in their report: “The evidence supports a finding that Freidenrich intentionally threw keys.”

Freidenrich also told LAist she has never previously heard a complaint of lack of staff training. Gaps in employee training were mentioned in a 2021 county performance audit of her department — a finding she provided a written response to at the time — as well as in a union summary of an employee survey it conducted later that year.

Asked for comment, the county CEO’s office said Freidenrich’s comments didn’t address the specific complaints LAist was reporting on.

“The Treasurer-Tax Collector’s responses appear to deflect rather than respond to the specific questions asked by the LAist,” said a statement Wednesday from the office.

“The CEO’s office has been working since 2017 to address long-standing and pervasive issues with the Treasurer-Tax Collector that has been thoroughly vetted in our eight-page fact sheet that we provided to the Board of Supervisors prior to yesterday’s Board meeting,” the statement read.

“Through the PRA process, media outlets have also received reports that further illustrate a long-standing pattern of dysfunction that have caused harm to the department and the employees who work there.”

Public comments from supervisors this week

Orange County Civic Center

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Yusra Farzan

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LAist

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County supervisors discussed concerns about Freidenrich at their regular board meeting on Tuesday in Santa Ana.

“ I do not ... relish bringing these items up in a public setting, which show the mismanagement and improper behavior of the Treasurer Tax Collector,” Doug Chaffee said. Chaffee declined to respond to LAist's separate requests for comment.

“But the board cannot simply sit idly by while a county elected department creates an environment which is ripe for fiscal mismanagement, plus the welfare and well-being of our county employees being put at risk.”

Supervisor Wagner, who also declined to respond to LAist, said at Tuesday's meeting that he and Foley first learned of the scale of alleged mismanagement when they met last fall with a dozen high-level employees who work for Freidenrich.

“They were telling us stories that were hair curling about that office. And that's what finally prompted us to act,” Wagner said, referring to the board’s decision to yank the investment authority from Freidenrich.

About the treasurer’s department

Freidenrich oversees a staff of dozens who collect about $9 billion each year in property taxes, according to state data. She also serves as the banker for public school and community college districts and the county government.

And until the end of last year, she oversaw the $17 billion investment pool for taxpayer funds held by the county, school districts and community college districts. That’s the only part of her job the supervisors can take away, because the rest of her duties are assigned to her under state law as an elected official, according to the county CEO’s office. She remains responsible for the duties assigned to her by law, including collecting taxes, a spokesperson for the CEO’s office said.

When she was elected in 2010, she jumped from managing fewer than 10 full-time staff as Huntington Beach’s elected treasurer to overseeing about 100 employees at the county in her first year, according to data published by the state.

A county spokesperson told LAist that a professional coach was hired to work with Freidenrich when the investigation report was completed in 2022. The county paid $2,200 for the coaching, she said, and also over recent years provided additional internal coaching by Colette Farnes, the county’s HR director, and Michelle Aguirre, the interim county CEO.

Details of the workplace violence investigation

The probe into Freidenrich’s department was conducted by a law firm the county hired following complaints from employees “of abusive conduct and retaliation” by Freidenrich. The report — dated April 29, 2022 — is marked “confidential.” LAist obtained it earlier this month from the CEO’s office through a public records request, citing court precedent requiring release of such investigation reports.

“The allegation that Freidenrich threw office keys at [employee name redacted], in violation of the County's Workplace Violence Prevention Policy, is SUBSTANTIATED,” states the report.

A temporary secretary quit the day of the incident because of Freidenrich’s actions, according to the report, citing testimony by Freidenrich and a witness.

Other employees corroborated the key-throwing incident, according to the report, and investigators did not find Freidenrich to be credible in claiming the keys accidentally flew out of her hands.

The investigation report also stated that among employees there is a belief that “Freidenrich has engaged in demeaning, condescending, and unfair behavior. Complainants contend that Freidenrich created this situation through conduct that is punitive, abusive, and belittling, and that Freidenrich excessively monitors and micromanages employees, thus resulting in a chilling effect on the entire workplace.”

The report states that the evidence supports many complaints from staff “regarding Freidenrich’s condescending behavior and occasionally demeaning conduct, as well as the excessive micromanaging.”

A few weeks after the investigation report, the county’s human resources director noted the findings in a “cease-and-desist” letter to Freidenrich.

“The independent investigator’s findings raise serious concerns about your treatment of Treasurer-Tax Collector employees,” wrote Farnes, the human resources director.

“Physical violence in a County workplace will not be tolerated,” Farnes added.

“As the County’s Chief Human Resources Officer, I am obligated to instruct you to cease and desist from any and all verbal or physical conduct that violates County policy,” she continued. “As an elected Department Head, it is your duty to provide a safe, healthy, and positive working environment for the County’s employees assigned to you.”

Freidenrich told LAist that she disagreed with the investigation’s findings “but accepted it, retained an executive coach and moved on.”

“Taxpayers expect me to do my official duties in a common-sense, efficient and cost-effective manner and to keep public funds safe …” she added, “from time to time, over the past 14 years, I have had to hold some [department staff members] accountable to ensure that the processes in the office are meeting the high standards expected by taxpayers.”

The records the county disclosed to LAist, which include the employee survey and performance audit, show numerous other allegations of mismanagement by Freidenrich in recent years. One is a resignation letter from early 2024 by a high-ranking executive. She alleged that Freidenrich caused high turnover in the department through a “dysfunctional organizational culture.”

The letter was written by Jennifer Burkhart, who resigned in January 2024. She wrote that Freidenrich’s “obsessive micromanagement, paranoia, dishonesty, and bullying” and “disregard for County employees” made for an unhealthy work environment. She added that these issues and Freidenrich’s “unrealistic expectations of perfection and continual criticism” contributed to high turnover within the department.

Concerns about high turnover were also separately highlighted by the county audit and employee survey.

The audit found that Freidenrich’s department had a “significantly higher” share of employees leave their jobs compared to other departments, resulting in a higher workload for remaining staff. About one-third of all staff left the department in 2019, the report found.

Later that year, an Orange County Employees Association survey of 30 employees found that Freidenrich was overly involved in low-level work processes and caused inefficiencies within the department, according to a report summarizing the responses. Employees surveyed by the union said processes and directions changed often. In the survey, employees used words like “Toxic,” “Unhealthy,” “Hostile” and “Fearful” to describe the department’s culture.

Why is the board taking more action now?

Despite the investigation report being provided to the county HR director in spring 2022, two county supervisors told LAist they only learned of it toward the end of 2024.

Sarmiento told LAist that employee concerns about a hostile work environment compelled him to “ reconsider” Freidenrich’s authority over the investment pool.

The board voted in late December to not renew Freidenrich’s investment authority starting in the new year. At that point, Sarmiento said he was aware of general information about challenges at the department — “ the turnover rates, some of the employee comments. But I didn't know with specificity what some of the specific incidents were.”

Since then, Sarmiento said, he has learned more details from the CEO’s office.

Foley said she and other supervisors learned of the mismanagement allegations against Freidenrich last fall at the same time they were learning of problems with former Supervisor Andrew Do’s handling of taxpayer dollars. Do pleaded guilty in October to a bribery scheme to steal millions of dollars meant to feed needy seniors, following an LAist investigation and federal probe.

“ One of the cultural shifts that's happening on the Board of Supervisors is to do away with what I think has been a historical failure to take into consideration employee complaints,” Foley said. “We are no longer allowing those complaints to just sit to the side and be ignored.”

The board, she said, will now take action on staff complaints so issues don’t fester and become a scandal.

“ It's a new board, a new CEO, new management,” she said when asked why it took so long for the board to be alerted. “All I can do is move forward.”

Even so, Foley said the Board of Supervisors is responsible for monitoring Freidenrich’s actions as a county official.

“ We have a legal duty to supervise the official conduct of all county officials, including the county treasurer,” she said. “And this is as it relates specifically to functions and duties of county officers relating to assessing, collecting, safekeeping, management, or disbursement of public funds.”

The shadow of a painful history

The board’s supervision of the treasurer position — or the lack thereof — has been the subject of controversy in the past.

In the 1990s, two of the then-supervisors were indicted by a grand jury for failing to properly safeguard public funds handled by former O.C. Treasurer Bob Citron. His high-risk investments lost $1.6 billion in O.C. taxpayer dollars and prompted the largest local government bankruptcy in U.S. history up to that point.

The county’s 1994 bankruptcy prompted slashes to programs for people in need, including canceling half of the county’s contracts with therapists serving thousands of families at risk of child abuse, the New York Times reported at the time.

An appeals court later dismissed the indictments against the supervisors, but the memory of the bankruptcy lives on.

“ We've seen — many, many years ago — predecessors of ours allow what turned out to be too much independence at the treasurer-tax collector role,” Wagner said during Tuesday’s board meeting.

“ We have suffered through some incredibly difficult and painful lessons when the Board of Supervisors does not act quickly and decisively  when exercising our authority as it relates to public finance,” Chaffee said.

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Since 1977, Richard Santillan has been to every Opening Day game at Dodger Stadium. 

“The tradition goes from my father, to me, to my children and grandchildren. Some of my best memories are with my father and children here at Dodger Stadium,” Santillan told The LA Local, smiling under the shade of palm trees near the entrance to the ballpark Wednesday morning. He was there to protest the team less than 24 hours before Opening Day.

Santillan, like countless other loyal Dodgers fans, is grappling with his fan identity over the team’s decision to accept an invitation to the White House and owner Mark Walter’s ties to ICE detention facilities.

More than 30 people joined Santillan on Wednesday morning for a press conference held near 1000 Vin Scully Drive to convey a message directly to the team. 

“We are demanding the Dodgers stop participating in funding of inhumane treatment of families and do not go to the White House to celebrate with the criminal in chief,” Evelyn Escatiola told the crowd. “Together, we have the power to make a change.”

Escatiola, a former dean of East Los Angeles College and longtime community organizer, urged fans to flex their economic power by “letting the Dodgers know that we do not support repression.”

Jorge “Coqui” Rodriguez, a lifelong Dodgers fan, spoke to the crowd and called on Dodgers ownership to divest from immigration detention centers owned and operated by GEO Group and CoreCivic.

Jorge Coqui H Rodriguez speaks at a press conference outside Dodger Stadium on March 25, 2026, to demand the Dodgers not to visit the White House following their 2025 World Series win.

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J.W. Hendricks

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The LA Local

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In a phone interview a day before the protest, Rodriguez told The LA Local he did not want the Dodgers using his “cheve” or beer money to fund detention centers. 

“They can’t take our parking money, our cacahuate money, our cheve money, our Dodger Dog money and invest those funds into corporations that are imprisoning people. It’s wrong,” Rodriguez said. 

Rodriguez considers the Dodgers one of the most racially diverse teams and said the players need to support fans at a time when heightened immigration enforcement has become more common across L.A.

The team’s 2025’s visit to the White House drew ire from the largely Latino fan base, citing the Trump administration’s ongoing attacks on immigrants. 

In June, the team came under further scrutiny when rumors swirled online that federal immigration agents were using the stadium’s parking, which immigration authorities later denied in statements posted on social media accounts.

The team again came under fire after not releasing a statement on the impacts of ICE raids on its mostly Latino fan base at the height of immigration enforcement last summer. The team later agreed to invest $1 million to support families affected by immigration enforcement.

When he learned the Dodgers were pledging only $1 million to families in need, Rodriguez called the amount a  “slap in the face.” 

“These guys just bought the Lakers for billions of dollars and they give a million dollars to fight for legal services? That’s a joke,” Rodriguez said. “They need to have a moral backbone and not be investing in those companies.”

According to reporting from the Los Angeles Times, former Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershawsaid last week that he is looking forward to the trip.

“I went when President [Joe] Biden was in office. I’m going to go when President [Donald] Trump is in office,” Kershaw said. “To me, it’s just about getting to go to the White House. You don’t get that opportunity every day, so I’m excited to go.”

The Dodgers have yet to announce when their planned visit will take place. 

Santillan sometimes laments his decision to give up his season tickets in protest of the team. His connection to the stadium and the memories he has made there with family and friends will last a lifetime, he said. On Thursday, he will uphold his tradition and be there for the first pitch of the season, but with a heavy heart.

“It’s a family tradition, but the Dodgers have a lot of work to do,” he said.

A local favorite mom-and-pop bookshop in Eagle Rock is facing displacement due to a steep rent hike. The owners say theirs is just one of several small businesses along Eagle Rock Boulevard struggling to keep up with lease increases.

Over the past 19 years, many in the neighborhood have come to love READ Books for its eclectic collection of used titles and shop dog Florence.

Co-owner Jeremy Kaplan said it’s been a delight to grow with the community over the years.

“Like seeing kids come back in, who were in grade school and now they’re in college,” Kaplan said.

But the building where Kaplan and wife Debbie rent was recently sold, and the rent increased by more than 130% to $2,805 a month, Kaplan said. He told LAist it was an increase his small business simply could not absorb.

Kaplan said he originally was given 30 days notice of the rent increase. After some research, assistance from Councilmember Ysabel Jurado’s office and some pro-bono legal help, Kaplan said he pushed back and got the 90-day notice he’s afforded by state law.

California Senate Bill 1103 requires landlords to give businesses with five or less employees 90 days’ notice for rent increases exceeding 10%, among other protections.

Systems Real Estate, the property management company, did not immediately respond to LAist’s request for comment.

What can small businesses do? 

Nadia Segura, directing attorney of the Small Business Program at pro bono legal aid non-profit Bet Tzedek said California law does not currently allow for rent control for commercial tenancies.

Outside of the protections under SB 1103, Segura said small businesses like READ Books don’t have much other recourse. And even then, commercial landlords are not required to inform their tenants of their protections under the law.

“There’s still a lot of people that don’t know about SB 1103. And then it’s very sad that they tell them they have these rent increases and within a month they have to leave,” Segura said.

She said her group is seeing steep rent hikes like this for commercial tenants across the city.

“We are seeing this even more with the World Cup coming up, the Olympics coming up. And I will say it was very sad to see that also after the wildfires,” Segura said.

Part of Bet Tzedek’s ongoing work is to advocate for small businesses, working with landlords who are increasing rents to see if they are willing to give business owners longer leases that lock in rents.

What’s next 

After READ Books posted about their situation on social media, commenters chimed in to express their outrage and love for the little shop.

While he looks for a new spot, Kaplan says he’s forming a coalition of local businesses and activist groups to see what can be done to help other small businesses facing similar displacement. He wants to address the displacement issue for businesses like his, which have made Eagle Rock the distinctive neighborhood that it is today.

Owl Talk, a longtime Eagle Rock staple selling clothing and accessories in a unit in the same building as READ Books, is facing a “more than double” rent increase, according to a post on their Instagram account.

Kaplan said he’s been in touch with the office of state Assemblywoman Jessica Caloza and wants to explore the possibility of introducing legislation to set up protections for small businesses like his, including rent-control measures or a vacancy tax for landlords. Kaplan said he also reached out to the office of state Sen. Maria Durazo.

By his count, Kaplan said there are about a dozen businesses within surrounding blocks that are at risk of closing their doors or have shuttered due to rent increases or other struggles.

When READ Books was founded during the Great Recession, Kaplan said he knew it was a longshot to open a bookstore at the same time so many were struggling to stay in business.

“It was kind of interesting to be doing something that neighborhoods needed. That was important to me growing up, that was important to my children, that was important to my wife growing up,” Kaplan said.

“And then somebody comes in and says, ‘We’re gonna over double your rent.”

Topline:

Frozen budget: Most of the city’s Bureau of Street Lighting budget comes from an assessment that people who own property illuminated by lights pay on their county property tax bill. The amount people pay depends on the kind of property they own and how much they benefit from lighting. A typical single-family home currently pays $53 annually, and in total, the assessments bring in about $45 million annually for the city to repair and maintain streetlights. Changing the amount the Bureau of Street Lighting gets from the assessment requires a vote among property owners who benefit from the lights.

Ballots: L.A. City Council’s vote gives city staff the green light to prepare and send out those ballots. Miguel Sangalang, who oversees the bureau, said at a committee meeting earlier this month that he expects to send out ballots by April 17. Notices about the ballots will be sent out prior to the ballots themselves.

Near unanimous vote: L.A. City Councilmember Monica Rodriguez was the only “No” vote Tuesday, saying she wanted to see a more current strategic plan for the bureau. Sangalang said the bureau developed a plan in 2022 that lays out how money will be spent. Councilmember Imelda Padilla was absent for the vote.

Vote count: Votes will be weighted according to the assessment amount. Basically, the more you’re asked to pay yearly to maintain streetlights, the more your vote will count. Ballots received before June 2 will be tabulated by the L.A. City Clerk.

How much more money: According to a report, the amount needed in assessments from property owners to meet the repair and maintenance needs of the city’s streetlighting in the next fiscal year is nearly $112 million.

Use of the money: Sangalang said at a March 11 committee meeting that the extra funds would be used to double the number of staff to handle repairs and procure solar streetlights, which don’t face the threat of copper wire theft. That would all potentially reduce the time it takes to repair simple fixes down to a week. Currently, city residents wait for months to see broken streetlights repaired. The assessment would come with a three-year auditing mechanism.