Two Orange County supervisors accused board Vice Chair Katrina Foley of directing county staff on policy issues Tuesday, with Foley firing back that they were playing politics.
The dispute got so heated that Orange County Board of Supervisors Chairman Doug Chaffee gaveled the meeting for a 10-minute break, and when he returned he gave his end-of-the-meeting update on his district alone and adjourned the meeting.
During board comments, which are done at the end of the regular meetings, Supervisor Janet Nguyen used her time to criticize Foley and compared her to disgraced former Supervisor Andrew Do, who is serving federal prison time for corruption.
“I can’t stay silent anymore,” Nguyen said. “This issue is not about policy. It’s about one supervisor overstepping her authority … in order to play politics, in order to get media coverage bullying staff, playing politics, blaming other supervisors, blaming myself and Supervisor (Don) Wagner … basically being the classic flip-flopper.”
Foley interjected, “This is not an appropriate use of our time here … It’s not policy when she’s attacking me personally.”
Chaffee bemoaned the tenor of the discussion.
“I’ll be glad when this election is over,” Chaffee said.
Wagner and Nguyen were particularly upset about comments Foley made in a news release about the public works department putting a pause on herbicide spraying with Roundup in flood control channel as officials study the issue.
The two also felt Foley accused them of not caring about the issue of landfills in the county as officials grapple with having enough room for waste.
“Even this last weekend when she goes out and announces a county-wide pause where we all just got the email from public works,” Nguyen complained.
“I think you’re not reading that correctly,” Chaffee replied. “We all have the ability to write press releases … Let’s leave the attacks out. You can write your own press release if you wish. I didn’t see any policy (announcements) in that press release.”
Nguyen replied, “It was very clear she was making a statement that none of us ever saw, and it was never voted on by the board … I just want to know what is the protocol. It’s gotten to the point where it’s over and over and over again … Then we get calls and we have no clue what’s going on … We need to make sure there is a general understanding among ourselves and respect for each other.”
Chaffee replied, “Well, that is not happening right now. Let’s move on please, all right?”
Nguyen shot back, “The bottom line is it’s misleading and extremely unfair to the rest of us.”
Chaffee replied, “I don’t agree with that at all.”
Wagner said, “It’s not time to move on. This is an opportunity to give direction to staff, to not take direction from just one of us. Staff is not empowered and should not say, `fine, we’ll do a pause.”’
Wagner said the discussion of herbicide use in the flood-control channels poses many challenges.
“God forbid there’s a flood and there are weeks that we haven’t addressed the weeds and it causes a flood and kills somebody,” Wagner said. “Frankly, it’s gaslighting,” he continued. “Staff is responding to one member of this board.”
Wagner noted that the vote to approve a landfill in question in the San Juan Capistrano area was taken several years ago.
“And one of us put in what a great policy it was in a newsletter,” Wagner said. “It gets to the cost of doing business if we have one supervisor directing things.”
Chaffee told Wagner, “`I don’t think any of this is true.”
Foley said in her five years as a supervisor, “I’ve tried my best to be respectful of my colleagues regardless of whether they were up for re-election or not, and not to personally attack them from the dais, not to politicize our work here and I’ve tried to do a really good job of delivering for the residents of Orange County, specifically District 5.”
Foley said any discussions she has had with staff were to ensure she was using correct wording for any releases from her office. She said the news of the pause on the herbicide was “shared with us and we shared it with the community exactly how it was shared with us.”
Foley said she has “tried my best to stay out of both of your elections. It’s very disappointing.”
When Nguyen said, “If she wants to be respectful she shouldn’t have yelled at me,” Chaffee gaveled the meeting, but Nguyen continued complaining about Foley.
“I try to keep personal attacks out of meetings,” Chaffee told City News Service after the meeting. “We’re supposed to set an example for civility because everyone’s watching us. When we have these kinds of outbursts it’s hardly civil.”
Wagner told CNS that “Supervisor Foley did in public call out Chaffee and me and it was unfortunate for her to say we’re playing politics when she’s the one who called us out. It’s not fair.”
Foley told CNS that it is common for supervisors to have a county staffer at local town halls. She said in her town hall she was updating the community about the usage of weed killers on county property.
“We just tried to set the foundation of what is happening on this particular issue, and you can’t do that without having county staff,” Foley said. “I certainly can’t explain how they operate flood control channels.”
Foley noted Wagner had a town hall recently on large animal evacuations in case of disasters. She also said she has “regular meetings with county staff on issues they’re working on. They can have regular meetings if they want to.”
Foley said it was “over the top” for Nguyen to compare her to Do.
“We all know me talking to our public works staff about an issue the community is expressing a lot of concern about relating to our policy on herbicides is hardly the same as directing staff to give money to fake nonprofits and paying my daughter and buying houses. I don’t think you can compare these things. One is criminal, and one is good governing. They’re just getting mad at me because I work hard. I try to respond to the constituents. I try to find solutions to the issues that come before us.”