I was planning to write something today about Sup. Moorlach's proposal to re-create Shirley Grindle as a county agency complete with the power to issue subpoenas and levy fines, but the redoubtable Jim Lacy has a post on the very topic over at FlashReport.

I had the opportunity to discuss it with Sup. Moorlach and his chief of staff Mario Mainero last Thursday, and I have to say I'm still flabbergasted this proposal is coming out of John's office. I'm still working up a post on the subject, but in the meantime readers can feast on what Jim has to say:

Labeled the "County Fair Campaign Practices Commission" act, the Supervisors, led by John Moorlach (and I just do not understand this) are throwing back and forth a new ordinance which will dramatically change how elections happen in the OC.

Under the Act, a new county bureaucracy is formed in this bankruptcy prone county that will oversee the elections of a handful of county officers. Members will serve 5 year terms. They will be vetted by the Grand Jury. They will likely get pay and benefits from the county (assuming it is solvent).

This Commission will have an Executive Director. It is likely he or she will be paid more than the Governor. His job, will be to manage a staff and essentially persistently torture a handful of candidates running for county office. The "ED" as he will be known, will manage an "investigations" unit that will aggressively root out violations by the average of 17 or 18 people running for county office every two years. He will have the power to enforce "remedial" measures and "probable cause" findings and to induce "administrative hearings." (John Moorlach supports this?) "Civil actions" will occur if there is a need to "collect a debt" to the county. The County Counsel must provide free legal services to this Commission. (Hey, Ben DeMayo, just like our times in student government at USC!).

You can read the entire post here.