OC supervisors to consider removing public guardian role from public administrator

The Orange County Board of Supervisors tomorrow will consider stripping the public guardian role from the county’s current public administrator. The discussion comes after the public administrator has come under fire in recent months.

John S. Williams is the county’s elected public administrator and its appointed public guardian.

The public guardian’s job is to keep an eye on elderly and ill people who don’t have anyone else to look out for them.

But the Orange County Grand Jury blasted Williams in two reports in 2009, saying he’s mismanaged the “top heavy” department, costing the county what the grand jury called “significant and unnecessary expense.”

So county supervisors might remove Williams from the public guardian position. He would keep the elected public administrator post – and the supervisors would appoint someone else to handle the public guardian duties.

Tomorrow’s discussion is simply the beginning of the process. If the supervisors move ahead, a new guardian could be in place by mid-April.