Emasculated. Impotent. Ineffectual. Powerless. Debilitated. Cowardly. Weak.
Anyone of these adjectives is an appropriate descriptor of the current five members of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors individually and as a not-so-well functioning governing board. Never was it so obvious as it was on Tuesday.
More than a year and a half ago many astute observers began to realize the Board of Supervisors had a problem. Several high-ranking staffers, including County Counsel Ruth Stringer, had become disloyal. In reality, the situation worsened to far beyond disloyal.
Insiders started to take notice that something was amiss during the early stages of the Assessor’s Office scandal when Stringer, the attorney for the Board of Supervisors, began to base her legal advice upon the politics of which supervisor she thought would protect her rather than on sound legal principles. It was during that scandal when she first rendered the board impotent with her second-rate advice, leaving its members looking foolish and ineffectual while the public demanded blood.
That taste of power became addictive and the driving force behind Stringer’s future actions. As this past year wore on, Ruth became less concerned with her responsibilities to the Board and more interested in using her privileged information to control the Board and harm those members whose intentions didn’t fit into own agenda.
Stringer became more and more brazen about violating attorney-client privilege with each new breach. She openly interfered in the Hueston investigation of the Assessor’s Office, the sexual harassment investigation of the District Attorney’s Office, and the Colonies scandal. She went so far as to pass along tainted and inaccurate information to her confidant, District Attorney Mike Ramos, which resulted in a million dollar witch hunt launched by the Ramos against the Board with no findings of misconduct whatsoever.
A majority of board members has been dissatisfied with Stringer for a year now but their fear of her has left them unable to facilitate change or govern this county. Although Stringer reports directly to the Board of Supervisors, as soon as a new County Administrative Officer, Greg Devereaux, was hired, the Board quickly delegated her termination process to him. However, he has been trying for seven months with no success.
That brings us to yesterday. A “happy” ending was finally negotiated. Stringer was scheduled to announce her “retirement” at Tuesday’s Board meeting and Jean-Rene Basle would be appointed as an interim to replace her.
But retiring with over $500,000 in payouts was not enough for the greedy Ms. Stringer. She had to show one more time where the real power in San Bernardino County government lay. That she did.
In a way only Stringer could do it, Tuesday she told the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors to “go to hell.” She refused to announce her retirement. And why shouldn’t she?
If Stringer forces the Board to fire her, she will earn an extra year’s salary according to her contract. At $300,000 a year, that is too good to pass up.
If board members were smart, and they are not, they would have placed Stringer on Administrative Leave yesterday and put Basle in charge. From there they could have put together the package necessary to terminate Stringer for cause. Heaven knows she has given them plenty to terminate her for and she has certainly conducted so much wrongdoing in the county that her State Bar card could easily be at risk.
But as we said, they are not smart. Who knows how much longer this fiasco will go on. In the meantime, not only does each and every member of the Board of Supervisors look like a fool, the taxpayer must continue to foot the bill for their lack of fortitude while Stringer metes out costly inferior legal advice.
Our county is not run by power-hungry politicians. Ours are castrated wimps.
