San Joaquin County Leadership exodus viewed as 'cyclical'

Changes at the top in the County

By Zachary K. Johnson, Record Staff Writer - Posted Sep. 28, 2014

Many in top positions in San Joaquin County either have retired recently or plan to retire soon. Here's a list of some, including the year in which they were hired.

Planning to retire:

County Counsel David Wooten, 1985

District Attorney James Willett*, 1980

Environmental Health Director Donna Heran, 1979

Health Care Services Director Ken Cohen, 2003

Human Services Director Joe Chelli, 1981

Public Health Services Director Bill Mitchell, 1989

Public Works Director Tom Gau, 1984

New hires replacing retirees since the start of 2013:

Agricultural Commissioner Tim Pelican for Scott Hudson

Auditor-Controller Jay Wilverding** for Adrian Van Houten

Child Support Services Director Lori Cruz for Judith Grimes

Clerk of the Board Mimi Duzenski for Lois Sahyoun

County Administrator Monica Nino for Manuel Lopez

General Services Director Rob Lim for Gabe Karam

Human Resources Director Ted Cwiek  for Cindy Clays

Public Health Officer Alvaro Garza for Karen Furst

Purchasing and Support Services Director Jon Drake for David Louis

Veterans Services Officer Virginia Wimmer for Ron Green

 

STOCKTON — By the end of the year, San Joaquin County government will see the departure of top managers leading the bulk of the county’s operations, including the directors of health, human services and public works. Added to other retirements from key positions over the past year, most county departments will see leadership changes, soon, if they haven’t already. Officials said it is a long-awaited shift that has been expected as county leadership reached retirement age.

“It’s been a bit of a rush, but I wouldn’t say it’s unexpected,” Human Resources Director Ted Cwiek said.

It is a trend that is playing out nationally, with the a crush of Baby Boomers reaching retirement age, though it has appeared it had been temporarily delayed as some people waited out the economic uncertainty of the last recession. And in San Joaquin County, some managers put off retirement plans to help their divisions of the government better handle cuts to services weathered to the recession’s impact on the county budget, he said. 

But recruitment has drawn impressive pools of candidates to choose from to find strong replacements, County Administrator Monica Nino said. The county has recently hired a new agricultural commissioner and veterans services officer as well as directors of general services, purchasing, human resources and child support services.

The county is also shoring up its succession plans, and has added assistant director positions in two departments, so far, she said. 

The departing managers will take with them much historical knowledge of their departments, she said. “I feel very fortunate to have been able to work with them, even though it’s been at the end of their careers.” But it’s also exciting to work with the Board of Supervisors to assemble a new team, she said. And it opens up options to make other changes, too.

Most of the people retiring came to work for the county in the 1980s. It was 1979 when soon-to-retire Environmental Health Director Donna Heran started working for the public agency that would later be absorbed by the county.

Manuel Lopez, who retired as county administrator last year, said this exodus of department heads reaching retirement age was expected. There was a similar demographic shift when he took the post about a decade ago, he said. “It is cyclical. People do leave when it makes economic sense for them.”

And it is not just hired staff members leaving. Some of the elected officials are changing, too. District Attorney Jim Willett didn’t run for another term and is retiring. And supervisors Larry Ruhstaller and Ken Vogel are terming out and won’t be back next year.

 “It’s a changing of the guard,” Vogel said.

Other retirements expected this year are: County Counsel David Wooten, Environmental Health Director Donna Heran, Public Works Director Tom Gau and Human Services Director Joe Chelli.

So is Ken Cohen, director of Health Care Services, an agency that is seeing a lot of change. It includes Public Health Services, which earlier this year added Public Health Officer Alvaro Garza to replace the retiring Karen Furst.

And Public Health Services Director Bill Mitchell plans to retire after 40 years in government and 25 years with the county at the end of November. 

Cohen describes Mitchell as somebody who brought passion and commitment along with his decades of experience in public health. He praised Mitchell’s management during recession cuts that saw public health staff cut by about 40 percent. And Cohen said Mitchell has been able to keep the county on the “cutting edge” of promoting community health, too.

When regional transportation officials adopted a long-term plan to spend billions of transportation dollars earlier this year, it reflected ideas that the health of a community besieged by chronic ailments like asthma, obesity and diabetes could improve if it grows in a way that promotes walking and biking and limits air pollution from cars. It was prompted by state law to reduce greenhouse gases, but the county’s version included the creation of a working group where public health would have a say in how the plan will be implemented. 

Mitchell has seen other milestones in public health at the county, like an increased role for public health agencies in emergency preparedness and response that followed the Sept. 11 attacks and led to the opening last year of a new lab in Stockton meant to provide rapid testing of suspected virulent disease or bioterrorism for the eight-county region.

The 62-year-old said there were a number of factors in his deciding to retire, including economic. He said he plans to “drop out for a while” and was looking forward to do more cycling and watching more baseball.

He said he’ll be leaving behind a strong team at public health. “I really do have confidence that the department will do well and move forward.”

Link to the original article
Contact reporter Zachary K. Johnson at (209) 546-8258 or zjohnson@recordnet.com. Follow him at recordnet.com/johnsonblog and on Twitter @zacharykjohnson.

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Two superior court judges disciplined for ‘libidinous’ courthouse behavior

Author; Amy Yarbrough - Staff Writer - State Bar of California 

Two superior court judges’ libidos have landed them in trouble with the state’s judicial watchdog agency.

On Sept. 2, the Commission on Judicial Performance censured Kern County Superior Court Judge Cory Woodward and Orange County Superior Court Judge Scott Steiner for improper conduct on the job, including sex with women at their respective courthouses. Both judges signed stipulations agreeing to their discipline.

Judge Woodward's Sexual Misconduct
Woodward’s misconduct involved his relationship with a courtroom clerk and his efforts to cover it up. According to the commission, from July 2012 through mid-May 2013, Woodward had an intimate relationship with the married courtroom clerk who was assigned to him. Woodward had sex with her in his chambers and in public places, used court computers to send her messages and passed sexually charged notes to her during court proceedings.

During their relationship, Woodward made repeated efforts to ensure the woman would remain his clerk and resisted court administrators’ attempts to reassign her, saying there was nothing going on between the two.

In its decision, the commission wrote that Woodward ran the risk of exposing court staff to a hostile work environment by engaging in intimate communications and sexual relations with one of their colleagues.

“In fact, the intimacy of the relationship was sufficiently overt that the court received more than one complaint concerning the clerk’s overly familiar and flirtatious behavior towards Judge Woodward, and rumors circulated that ‘something [was] going on between’ the judge and his clerk,” Judge Erica Yew, chair of the commission, wrote in the decision. “Woodward’s conduct placed the court administration and his presiding judges in the uncomfortable position of having to bring these concerns to his attention.”
Woodward had one prior record of discipline, a 2010 private admonishment for the improper handling of a contempt case.

Judge Steiner's Sexual Misconduct
Orange County judge Steiner’s misconduct included having sex on multiple occasions with women he was having relationships with, contacting the district attorney’s office about a job application filed by one of the women he was involved with and assigning cases of an attorney whom he was seeing to other judges. Steiner also did not disqualify himself from a case involving a longtime friend.

According to the commission, both of the women Steiner was involved with were former students in law school classes that he taught. One woman went on to work as an intern for the judge, while the other was an attorney practicing before the Orange County Superior Court. Steiner had sex with one of the women in his chambers during the evening in early 2012 and the other in his chambers on multiple occasions that May, all during the day. Court was not in session at the time.

In its decision censuring Steiner, the commission wrote that “engaging in sexual intercourse in the courthouse is the height of irresponsible and improper behavior by a judge.

“It reflects an utter disrespect for the dignity and decorum of the court, and it is seriously at odds with a judge’s duty to avoid conduct that tarnishes the esteem of the judicial office in the public’s eye.”

The woman who had worked as an intern applied for a position with the Orange County District Attorney’s Office but was not called for an interview. Steiner, who had written her a letter of recommendation, phoned the district attorney’s office to ask questions about the interview and hiring process and seemed irritated that his letter of recommendation didn’t result in the woman’s employment.

Although he took action and removed himself from cases involving the second woman, Steiner erred in assigning those cases to other judges because disqualified judges are supposed to notify their presiding judge and not participate any further in the proceedings.

In determining the judges should be censured rather than removed from the bench, the commission noted that both admitted wrongdoing and expressed remorse and contrition.
                  

The article originally appeared on California Bar Journal (Oct 2014). 

Goofy's Notes

Remember Sexual misconduct by a doctor is subject to immediate license revocation by Judges.  Why we have different Standards.... 

                                   'Protection of Public' or Violation of Rights ?

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