UPDATE, FEB. 7, 1:44 P.M.: Just received this short, unsweetened announcement from John Moorlach, chairman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors:
“Mr. John Williams has agreed to honor the original terms of his previous agreement to resign from the position of Public Administrator. Mr. Williams' resignation was effective on January 23, 2012.”
Our long countywide nightmare is over.
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ORIGINAL POST, FEB. 7, 1:38 P.M.: Bitter, bumbling, locked-out ex-Public Administrator John Williams
has, um, settled his legal dispute with the County of Orange, which
last year accepted his resignation effective Jan. 23 and, after Williams
showed up for work anyway, had the locks on his office door changed.
Under the terms, Williams filed a new letter dated Monday that reads,
“This letter shall serve as my resignation as the Public Administrator
of Orange County effective at 5 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 23, 2012.”
Fine and dandy, but I'd still demand his office keys.
A motion to dismiss the suit Williams brought against the county after his lock-out “with prejudice”–which would prevent him from re-filing the legal complaint–is being filed in Superior Court today, according to county officials.
So, uh, “settlement” indicates Williams got something out of all this. True enough, according to the Orange County Register, the deal holds the possibility that the fired public guardian could be hired as a public administrator consultant during the “transition” to a new county manager, who has for months already run the office that handles the affairs of those who die without heirs.
Even if Williams does not get that call from the county, at least he can apply his amazing public administrator skills to overseeing the death of his political career.
Previous coverage:
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.