Once again, Orange County’s law enforcement oversight agency is in flux with the departure this month of Director Robert Faigin.

County supervisors this month let expire Faigin’s three-year contract at the helm of the six-member Office of Independent Review, which is tasked with monitoring the sheriff’s department, district attorney’s office, public defender’s office, probation department and social services agency. Supervisors have launched a national search for Faigin’s replacement and installed attorney Stella Lim as interim director.

In an interview, Faigin said he asked for a modest “bump” in his annual compensation package of $422,739, but couldn’t come to terms with the county.

Formed in 2008, the OIR has been mired in controversy and deemed by some to be political window-dressing, was mostly ineffective and either too chummy or too antagonistic with law enforcement, depending on who held the office. At one point, supervisors let the agency sit dormant for two years while trying to decide whether to shut it down altogether.

Faigin was brought aboard in 2022 to replace outgoing director Sergio Perez, a civil rights attorney who produced a bombshell report that aggressively rebuked the sheriff’s department for its use of force. Perez had been on the job for two years when he left for a watchdog position with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. He now heads the Santa Ana-based Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law.

Faigin, also an attorney, came from a different background. For 21 years he was the chief legal adviser to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department. Before that he was a local prosecutor, a law enforcement insider. County officials at that time were looking for an OIR director who would be less publicly vocal than Perez. Supervisors wanted someone to quietly warn them of potential liabilities within the county’s law enforcement system and to help correct them.

Faigin said Thursday, Nov. 20, he thought he fit the bill. Under his management, the staff roster went from three to six and his annual budget rose to $1.6 million. He produced six public reports, including one on the use of pepper spray at juvenile hall. It found that staff generally followed protocol in using the spray on minors, but videos of the incidents sometimes didn’t match the written reports.

Another OIR probe, into the death of an inmate who choked on food, found that a deputy conducting a safety check had looked into the man’s cell for only one second and at a distance too far to determine if he was OK. He was not.

Faigin said he thought he had accomplished more than any of his predecessors.

“I think we were doing good work. I thought we were hitting our stride,” he said. “I visualized my role as similar to an umpire in a baseball game. I called balls and strikes.”

But Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento described the agency’s performance under Faigin’s leadership as “underwhelming.”

Sarmiento said he has tried to meet with Faigin on a monthly basis to gauge the needs and priorities of his office. The board has supported increasing staff and allowed Faigin to give presentations twice a year on the agency’s progress.

“I think we tried to do as much as we could to help the OIR succeed,” he said. “Unfortunately, we’re disappointed that more hasn’t been done.”

Sarmiento said the silver lining is that Faigin’s leadership could provide a learning opportunity.

“I’m optimistic now that we have experience with an ineffective performance, we can have a clear directive of what the OIR should be tasked with,” he said.

Supervisor Doug Chaffee said he “appreciates” the work Faigin has done for the county and is confident that his temporary replacement will continue the work without disruption.