Amateur hour with Sheriff Hutchens

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Amateur hour with Sheriff Hutchens - Orange Punch - OCRegister.com


Amateur hour with Sheriff Hutchens
July 15th, 2008, 3:50 pm · 24 Comments · posted by Steven Greenhut

The county’s new sheriff Sandra Hutchens has taken a bit of criticism from me and others for being wet behind the ears. She’s a newbie in OC politics and has more of a bureaucrat’s approach than the approach of a sophisticated player who knows how to negotiate the complex political world here.

Critics were proved right today. She made a newbie’s blunder at the Board of Supervisors. She blindsided DA Tony Rackauckas by wanting to continue an item to let the DA hire an architect to design his new DNA lab. It’s OK to oppose the DA’s plan to wrest the lab from the Sheriff’s Department, but she a) never gave Rackauckas a call letting him know that she opposed this item and was going to speak out against it, which is normal courtesy; and b) was too naive to understand that the DNA lab transfer already has been approved by the board — this was merely a formality to let the design process move forward. Hutchens not only screwed up the politics of this process, but she dissed the DA and seems ignorant of the huge problems within her own department’s dysfunctional lab.

But she did get a sole-source contract to pay up to $250,000 for an audit of the jail — something she could figure out on her own for a lot less taxpayer money if she had the slightest clue what she was doing. The contract is for an astoundingly long six months, so don’t expect any changes anytime soon, if ever.

Note: The vote for the sole-source contract was 3-1. Pat Bates, Bill Campbell and John Moorlach voted for it, Chris Norby voted against it and Janet Nguyen is on vacation.

[AMS MIKE]

not a good start. . .

Thanks for posting Glad.