CAO Chalks Up Successes, but Some Issues Are Still Unresolved

Six months ago Harry Hufford reported for his first day as Ventura County’s interim chief administrative officer.

His assignment:

* Close a $5-million budget gap.

* Bring unruly department heads back in line.

* Restore order and stability to the increasingly divisive Board of Supervisors.

Hufford, who served as Los Angeles County’s chief administrator from 1974 to 1985, quickly went to work. He immediately imposed a hiring freeze and began plotting his strategy for putting the county’s finances back in order.

More importantly, Hufford, 68, established himself early as a likable but shrewd manager, one who earned the respect of even his political foes with his straight-forward talk and his determination to stay focused.

“He nails the issues and just knocks people back on their heels,” board Chairwoman Kathy Long said.

Confident in their new administrator, supervisors rewarded him with unequivocal support. It didn’t take long to see the results.

By summer, Hufford had closed the budget shortfall, put the brakes on back-room deals between individual supervisors and department heads, increased the budgetary and hiring power of the chief administrator and smoothed relations among supervisors.

Some issues, however, remain unresolved.

A legal battle with Community Memorial Hospital over the county’s $260-million tobacco settlement money remains a potential threat to the county’s future financial stability.

Also, Hufford appeared last week to back off a proposal to scale down a guaranteed annual budget increase given to public safety agencies to cover inflationary costs, a move that could save the county general fund millions of dollars. Hufford issued a report suggesting only that he might recommend such action at a later date.

“The debate goes on,” he said last week. “Let’s leave it at that.”

Still, officials give Hufford high marks for his demonstrated leadership during such a tumultuous period for the county.

“He has a bearing that says, ‘I know what I’m doing,’ which has been good not just for the county family but for the broader community,” Supervisor Susan Lacey said.

“I think he has reestablished the position of CAO as someone who has integrity and who has a door that’s open equally to everybody. That was very important and needed to be done.”

Hufford arrived in his new job in January. He was hired to fill the position left vacant by David L. Baker, who stunned county officials when he quit a month earlier after only four days on the job.

Baker left behind a blistering six-page resignation letter that warned the county was on the brink of “financial chaos.” The chief administrator’s role was too weak to control the budget, rein in politically powerful department heads and institute meaningful policy changes, he said.

Baker also advised the board to revamp a local ordinance that funnels as much as $40 million a year in sales tax revenues to law enforcement budgets. Unless altered, he said, the ordinance would create a “dramatic and ongoing” imbalance between funding for public safety and all other county-run programs, such as libraries and health care.

Overwhelmed by the task before him, Baker quit and returned to San Joaquin County, where he was eventually rehired as chief administrator.

Ventura County supervisors immediately launched a search for a new county manager, one who was up to the challenges outlined by Baker--a needed firm hand in a crisis.

To be sure, Hufford wasn’t the first choice for the job. That candidate was Keith Comrie, a former Hufford employee who later became administrator for the city of Los Angeles.

But Comrie, who was committed to another project at the time, suggested officials call his mentor and longtime friend. When Hufford’s name came up at a county government conference, Long said everyone told her to snatch him for the job.

With his folksy demeanor, bad hearing and often rumpled appearance, it would be easy to underestimate “Harry” at first glance, some officials and friends acknowledge. But that would be a mistake.

A quick read of his resume reveals the other side of the man.

Hufford spent nearly 40 years in Los Angeles County government, including his stint from 1974 to 1985 as chief administrative officer. After the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, Hufford saw the county through the many challenges brought on by the property tax cut measure that devastated county treasuries.

He returned to the top administrative post as interim manager in 1993, after the ouster of Richard B. Dixon during a financial crisis described as the county’s worst since the Depression. Hufford faced down threats of an employees’ strike, slashed library, welfare and health-care funding and cut hundreds of jobs.

In addition to his government experience, Hufford spent 15 years in the private sector as head of the prestigious Los Angeles law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and as an executive with the investment firm Bear, Stearns & Co. He took over the fund-raising committee for the Walt Disney Concert Hall when the project was languishing and helped bring it to fruition.

Ventura County officials were impressed. Hufford possessed the right skills, experience and fortitude necessary for the job.

“When David Baker came, I don’t think the county was ready to give more power and authority to a CAO,” said Penny Boehm, former chief lobbyist for the county. “But he forced the issue by leaving. And you see what happened. Here comes Harry, the right man at the right time for the right job.”

Hiring Freeze One of Hufford’s First Acts

Two weeks after his arrival, Hufford imposed a countywide hiring freeze, exempting only law enforcement. But he proved flexible when convinced it was in the public’s best interest.

When a resident complained to him that a child abuse investigator had refused to look into a case because the hiring freeze had stretched the staff too thin, he took the matter into his own hands.

By going public with the allegation, Hufford compelled Human Services Agency chief Barbara Fitzgerald to investigate. She confirmed three such cases, apologized on behalf of her department and promised to put an end to the practice.

Rather than punish her, Hufford rewarded Fitzgerald for working with him, and agreed to add two child abuse investigators to her department.

In March, Hufford was confronted with a much larger problem. Community Memorial Hospital announced it would push a November ballot initiative that sought to turn over the county’s $260-million tobacco settlement revenue to private area hospitals.

Michael Bakst, executive director of Community Memorial, argued the money was intended to go to health care and instead was being earmarked to help resolve the county’s financial problems.

Hufford hunkered down with lawyers and supervisors to develop a counter strategy. He became the county’s lead negotiator, meeting with Community Memorial and other private hospital representatives to try and hammer out a compromise.

But Community Memorial forged ahead with its plans, gathering enough signatures to petition the Board of Supervisors to place its measure on the ballot.

The day before the board was to vote on the matter, Hufford issued a 29-page report denouncing the initiative as a “transparent attempt” to shut down the county hospital, which Community Memorial has long considered a rival. The two hospitals are a few blocks apart in Ventura.

But there was more at stake, Hufford said in his report. If the initiative were successful, he warned, it could be the “death knell” for local governments across the state.

“This initiative proposes to interfere with the county’s budgeting and appropriations process by carving off a piece of the county treasury for a special interest,” Hufford said. “If it were successful, there would be nothing to stop any number of other special interests from doing the same thing.”

On Hufford’s advice, supervisors refused to place Community Memorial’s measure on the ballot. They then immediately filed a lawsuit against Bakst, author of the initiative, contending the measure is unconstitutional. Community Memorial has since filed a countersuit.

Sheriff, D.A. Respond to Hufford’s Proposals

Meanwhile, other battles were being fought. Hufford proposed $12.4 million in departmental and program cuts in order to balance the county budget.

He challenged Sheriff Bob Brooks and Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury to rein in public safety spending. Hufford proposed slashing $3.5 million in the Sheriff’s Department, and cutting another $666,000 in the district attorney’s office.

His plan drew angry public responses from the two powerful elected politicians, who had their own constituencies to worry about. The sheriff threatened layoffs and elimination of gang enforcement programs, while the district attorney warned of fewer prosecutions.

But behind the scenes, Hufford was building a personal rapport with Brooks and Bradbury, meeting with them over lunch or coffee and speaking openly of his intentions.

Despite their adversarial goals, there was mutual respect among the three officials.

Hufford is “the best thing that’s happened to Ventura County since I can remember,” Bradbury said. “He’s smart. He’s savvy. He’s as honest as the day is long, and if he tells you something you can take it to the bank.”

Hufford remained firm on his budget-cutting plan. Because of its financial troubles, the county’s long-term bond rating had been downgraded, making it more expensive to borrow money for future capital projects.

In early June, Hufford and other county officials headed to New York to persuade bond-rating agencies the county was committed to passing a balanced budget, even if it meant cutting services.

As a result, Standard & Poor’s lifted the credit warning it had placed on the county. Moody’s Investor Services, however, has yet to restore the county’s stellar long-term bond rating.

That could change now that the county’s fiscal status has improved, officials said. Flush with new revenues from Sacramento and other unexpected savings in various departments and agencies, Hufford earlier this month was able to lower his proposed $12.4-million budget cuts to $7.9 million.

Last week county supervisors unanimously approved Hufford’s $1.07-billion financial plan, which closed the budget shortfall without layoffs, without spending any tobacco settlement money and with only limited cutbacks to public safety and mental health programs.

It has not all been smooth going, though.

Assessor Dan Goodwin, who couldn’t get the chief administrator to agree to restaff some of the vacant positions in the assessor’s office, said Hufford hasn’t paid as much attention to the assessor’s needs as others with more political clout, such as the sheriff. Clerk Richard Dean takes issue with the board for ordering him, on Hufford’s advice, to keep Community Memorial’s initiative off the ballot. Now Dean finds himself at the center of a legal battle.

“All reason has been lost,” he said of the ensuing fight.

And during budget talks, sheriff’s deputies at the county courthouse were overheard grumbling about Hufford as a highly paid out-of-towner who was going to thoughtlessly cut their jobs.

Hufford shrugs off the criticism for the most part, saying it’s all part of the job.

“The CAO’s job is not a popularity contest,” he said. “There are a number of people who are not going to understand what you’re doing, be they the sheriff’s deputies or the mental health advocates who have heard about you third-hand, and there’s nothing I can do about it. And they have cause. Look at the fear their [bosses] have put out there.”

Barry Hammitt, chief of the largest county employees’ union, said he immediately noticed a difference in style between Hufford and two of his predecessors, Richard Wittenberg and Lin Koester.

Wittenberg never wielded tremendous power and Koester had the support of only three of the five supervisors, but both liked to play up their roles, Hammitt said. Hufford, he said, wields considerable power but casts himself as an everyman.

“When he’s going to make a presentation before the board, he comes down to the well and does it,” Hammitt said. “Richard and Lin never did that. They’d sit there [on the dais], as if they were one of the supervisors. Mr. Hufford does it just like any citizen, and I think that says a lot about his approach to the job.”

Hufford’s Wife Says He’s Consumed by Job

Hufford’s wife, Jan, who travels between the couple’s Pasadena home and the Ventura bed and breakfast where Hufford stays most weeknights, said her husband is consumed by the job.

“He talks about it, every morning and every night,” she said. Despite his outwardly calm attitude, she said, Hufford “gets frustrated at times when he thinks he’s got things lined up and they fall apart, or if somebody lies to him, or if he’s gotten staff work, and he presents it, and then he finds out there was an error in it.

“He feels his credibility is one of the absolute essentials for his success in the job. If he loses credibility, he can’t do the job.”

Comrie, who remains close with the couple, said his onetime mentor thrives on fixing problems in government and doubts Ventura County will be Hufford’s last stop. Although Hufford has told board members he has to leave by April, because of a promise to his wife to permanently retire and travel, Comrie suspects Hufford will take on more interim jobs such as his current post.

“I could see another Disney Hall or another county or city that’s in trouble,” Comrie said. “He thrives on challenge.”

“I told him what I wanted for my 60th birthday was for him to retire,” Jan Hufford said. “But, we’ll see if it sticks or not. I really can’t see him full-time retired.”

Flynn agreed. “The Harrys of the world should never retire,” the supervisor said. “A person like that owes it to society. For Harry to take off in an RV with his wife would be a terrible mistake. It would be a terrible waste.”