Orange County Supervisors appointed a new head for their law enforcement watchdog last week \u2013 a couple months after the supervisors\u2019 chairman called the role a \u201ctoothless tiger\u201d and other supervisors said it doesn\u2019t do anything.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Office of Independent Review has faced questions on its effectiveness since its inception in 2008, with just five staff to oversee the 10,000 workers in departments like the Sheriff\u2019s Department, District Attorney\u2019s office and the Social Services Agency.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Those complaints came to a head in June, when county supervisors were looking over their budget that fell $75 million short of being structurally balanced and Supervisor Doug Chaffee suggested defunding the office to save money.<\/p>\n
[Read: Orange County Leaders Warn of Dangerous Budget Future<\/a>]<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s never really been productive in anything I thought was meaningful,\u201d Chaffee said at the board\u2019s June 9 meeting. \u201cIt\u2019s to me a toothless tiger on a leash\u2026it really doesn\u2019t have any power.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n While the rest of the board agreed the office had little to no power, they were split on how best to fix that.\u00a0<\/p>\n Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento, who regularly called for the watchdog to do more, said it\u2019s largely \u201cwindow dressing\u201d and that he was open to eliminating it altogether and reintroducing it with more powers.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt has no powers, it has no leverage,\u201d Sarmiento said during the June meeting. \u201cI don\u2019t see it providing a real benefit.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Supervisors Katrina Foley and Janet Nguyen brought up concerns with eliminating the office altogether, highlighting it could be difficult to resurrect.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf it\u2019s defunded, it\u2019s not coming back,\u201d Foley said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Discussions on fixing the office haven\u2019t resurfaced so far, with supervisors instead voting unanimously with no discussion to appoint Catherine Santiago as the new director last Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n Previously, Santiago was the Senior Deputy County Counsel for LA County, where Orange County staff said she \u201cserves as strategic advisor to the Sheriff\u2019s Department on policy development, legislative implementation, litigation exposure, and training standards\u201d in their report.\u00a0<\/p>\n She also worked for the US Air Force for nearly seven years, according to her LinkedIn page<\/a> and is currently a member of the Air Force Reserve.\u00a0<\/p>\n She\u2019ll receive a base salary of $275,000, an $82,000 raise from her previous job with LA County, but with insurance and other benefits her annual pay is over $420,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n Her predecessor, Robert Faigin, quietly left last November when his contract expired after three years.\u00a0<\/p>\n