The CotoBuzz Journal, Community Journalism

We have been critical of the process used by the Orange County Board of Supervisors (BOS) to select a sheriff to replace embattled Sheriff Michael Carona, mostly because we think that the BOS had an Obama Moment - a once in a life time opportunity to change the landscape of public safety in the county- on their hands, and they did not take advantage of it. Instead, the BOS followed the road most traveled to select Sheriff Sandra Hutchens. It is not the candidate - it is the process used!

To support our position, we point to the “paper cut criteria” – the criteria used by the BOS, prepared by Bob Murray and Associates (BMA) to winnow down the number of candidates to a magic number of nine.

Why not five?, why not ten candidates? - elementary my dear Watson! The BMA paper cut would have eliminated Hilary Clinton, General Collin Powel, Bill Gates, Senator Obama and businessman Paul Morabito, should they have decided to throw their hat into the ring - what does that say about the BMA criteria?	s
	*Captain of industry, Mr. Paul Morabito*	*OC Sheriff Sandra Hutchens*

Our argument was that, given the nature of the beast, a captain of industry or a proven leader would have been a more desirable candidate than a person who had grown in a similar environment (remember the movie Deliverance?) as the target one.

To Sheriff Hutchens' credit, and contrary what her critics might otherwise claim, she has done all the right things so far. She has been much more accessible to the media than her predecessor ever was and she presented a 120-Day Plan to the BOS - nothing more than a plan-for-the-plan completely lacking any metrics or specifics – what we call a not very SMART

plan.

Using such "plan", the Sheriff can claim success, regardless of what actually transpires between now and elections day in 2010 - An ideal marketing plan, perhaps something that a Jiffy Lube marketing guru could conceive – Brilliant! The BOS, like most consumers buy a $17.99 lube job, bought the Sheriff’s pseudo-plan.

In retrospect, perhaps what we were promoting actually happened - A captain of industry in charge of transforming the OCSD into a lean, mean, efficient public safety machine – in this case, a captain of industry directing the plan of attack, and Sheriff Hutchens in charge of executing the plan to the letter.

In other words, perhaps what Orange County got with the BOS’ appointment of Sheriff Hutchens is Sheriff Paul Morabito, and Undersheriff Sandra Hutchens. In this case however, the captain of industry is using public sector rules to play the game – Brilliant

Why not start now and launch a Paul Morabito for Sheriff campaign?

As a candidate cut by the BMA criteria during the “paper cut” might say “When you look at high school and college graduations, the fact is that half of every graduating class, graduates at the bottom and ... “ meaning that law enforcement education is not designed for the brightest candle in the cake.

This entire adventure brought to you by ex-Sheriff Mike Carona in our OC has been an embarrassment to us all. The OCBOS, having an opportunity of a lifetime failed the voters. The Sheriff's union has exceeded its expectation in the mediocracy of caring about the taxpayer and nothing was achieved except a 700 million dollar a year funding by the taxpayers was wasted ad will continued to be.

On the other hand, what's 700 million among friends. K. Keyes

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The CotoBuzz Journal March 2007
Public Safety - A Job For the Gendarmerie Royale Du Coto de Caza! A Tribute to Mr. Morteza Manian On the First Anniversary of His Tragic Death

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