Orange County grand jurors Friday released a report calling on the county to amend its charter to allow for the removal of elected officials, but two Orange County supervisors said state law would prohibit that.
The grand jury report was a response to investigations of workplace issues with Orange County Assessor Claude Parrish and Treasurer-Tax Collector Shari Freidenrich.
Both were reelected June 2, with Parrish receiving 73.30% of the vote and Freidenrich 70.78%, according to figures released Friday by the Orange County Registrar of Voters.
Because state law prevents Orange County supervisors from removing the two from office, the grand jury recommended the county consider “county charter reforms proven in other jurisdictions” that would allow for the removal of an official for misconduct.
The grand jurors also recommended “shifting some elected offices to appointed positions” and “consolidating county departments to enhance oversight and improve performance.”
The grand jury also called on the county board to “implement more rigorous performance reviews for elected leaders.”
The grand jury warned that the county “remains vulnerable to recurring misconduct, administrative failures and crisis management.”
The grand jury also “urges both the media and the voting public to more thoroughly examine the conduct, professionalism and ethical fitness of candidates seeking public office. Stronger public scrutiny and informed participation are essential to improving the quality of leadership in Orange County and reducing the significant financial and operational costs associated with misconduct, legal settlements and organizational instability.”
Orange County Supervisor Don Wagner told City News Service “a charter can’t override state law and these positions are set in state law.”
Huntington Beach officials for several years have argued that the city’s charter allows them to implement ordinances in conflict with state law and have been repeatedly rebuffed by the courts.
“The public would rather have the ability to vote for its preferred treasurer and assessor and district attorney rather than have the five us select them,” Wagner said. “Sheri just got reelected. She wasn’t my choice, but it was the voters’ choice and voters get what they voted for.”
Board of Supervisors Vice Chair Katrina Foley said Freidenrich and Parrish “just won their elections pretty overwhelmingly. It would be fairly objectionable to the electorate if we were to try to take them out of office in that manner.”
Foley said supervisors would “keep trying to work with these offices to ensure the staff working for them are doing their job and holding them to the expectation that their offices deserve. That’s all we can do. We have our audit oversight committee and we do a lot of oversight these days in that committee.”
Foley noted how the investment authority was recently removed from Fredenrich’s office and transferred to the Orange County CEO’s office.
Foley also noted how the Orange County Republican Party was “celebrating that they got reelected. They obviously weren’t concerned.”
The grand jury said in 2023 an external investigation conducted by the county’s human resources department “substantiated misconduct by the assessor. A year earlier, a separate HR investigation found the treasurer had engaged in workplace misconduct, including creating a hostile environment.”
The grand jury acknowledged that the county board “has no substantive authority to take corrective action, discipline an elected official, or remove them from office.”
The grand jury noted how the external investigation of the assessor’s office found there were 13 complaints filed with six sustained entirely or in part. The harassment and retaliation complaints were based on disability, sex or gender and race, according to the report.
The grand jury reported that multiple people “reported instances in which the assessor displayed anger and frustration toward subordinates when they did not carry out directives exactly as instructed. The investigation also found that the assessor’s attention was frequently focused on non-essential office matters.”
The grand jury also said there were complaints about “inconsistent decision-making and difficulty in retaining key information” with Parrish. He was also criticized for rarely turning up at the office with some saying he arrives to work about 3:30 p.m., the grand jury reported.
The grand jury also reported the assessor has not modernized its technology as others have. A grand jury report in 2023-24 also criticized the assessor for the same foot-dragging in modernization.
The grand jury said the treasurer’s office has been criticized for a “persistent pattern of delays, organizational dysfunction and disregard for basic standards of fiscal responsibility and operational efficiency.”
The grand jury said Freidenrich has been blamed for interfering in contract negotiations that lost the county money. There have also been complaints of delays in depositing taxpayer checks and declining investment earnings, according to the grand jury.
“In one case, a $550,000 refund owed to school districts was withheld for three years,” the grand jury reported. “Additionally, the treasurer delayed approval to close $3 million in school bond funds for nearly a decade causing the funds to be unavailable to the schools.”
The grand jury also added it “learned through interviews that the treasurer obstructed oversight functions by insisting on personally approving every audit item from a performance audit, slowing audit completion and increasing external costs. Interference in routine human-resources processes contributed to high staff turnover, and increased recruitment expenses. Internally, inefficient practices, such as requiring staff to print emails for the treasurer’s review, wasted time and resources, while numerous workplace complaints signaled a deteriorating organizational environment, and a toxic work environment.”
The grand jury noted that other charter counties in the state have approved the removal of an elected official with a super-majority vote of the county board.
“This authority has existed for years without being invalidated by courts,” the grand jury argued.
Attempts to reach the treasurer’s and assessor’s offices for response were not immediately successful.
It seems like Mr. Frederick was more interested in creating organizesd chaos and the emails going out (paranoid of being called out or found out) than being a supervisor. Sounds like a skim going on and too bad it wasn’t dicoverd, where there’s smoke there’s fire! The electorate doesn’t choose to be an educated one. Mean sycophant’s that resemble soccer hooligans on a real sick one! I think it’s Drive time on the 405 and not enough family time to share with the little goons they are trying to raise! Let alone getting to and from #ShakedownStreet I’m voting for “Top Chef” HB City Council! It’s it’s intuitively obvious we could use a better cheeseburger!
You need a proof reader and a faster car Mr. Foodie Fat Face!