I don't know Jack Anderson. But, I think the decision to retain him was a pretty smart move. I thought he did a pretty damm good job in the interim and had some great ideas.

Our Interview with Sheriff Hutchens an Utter Failure – Although Not a Waste.

The traps were perfectly laid out, the only thing required was for Sheriff Hutchens to trip and she would then have to agree to one or all of the following:

· There is no 100 Days SMART Plan
· There is no need to change the OSCD’s culture
· The OCSD is running efficiently, hence additional safety costs more money
· Political environment in contracted cities is the same as in private (CID) communities – aka as the Public Safety Orphan
· There is strategy technology plan (including forensics)
· The process used by the Orange County Board of Supervisors to come up with Magic Nine (number of candidates to interview), then with a “BMA score” of six, out of nine, jump to the Elite Two to finally select the new Sheriff, was severely flawed.
· An the piece du resistance was to use the OJ Glove Analogy: Does the glove fit? That is, is the current OCSD organization and the Sheriff capabilities and ideal match, or a forced-fit.

Like a good cop, Sheriff Hutchens was able to disarm us with her excellent communication skills and apparent command of the issues. It is clear Sheriff Hutchens expects accountability throughout, starting from the top. She describes herself as consensus-driven transformational leader, and expect the rank and file to embrace change – those who do not will be opted out.

Although the Sheriff does not have a 100-Day plan, we are expecting to see a 120-Day plan shortly.

Given the time constraint and the “chat format”, we were unable to be as confrontational, err…. Make effective use of our watchdog journalism skills. The Sheriff knows her performance is now closely coupled to the political future of supervisors Moorlach, Bates and Nguyen. She appeared not to want to rock the boat with the OCDA’s office.

We did get to ask the Sheriff a rhetorical hypothetical question: If the initial list of candidates had included Hilary Clinton, Condalizza Rice, Carly Fiorina, General Collin Powel, who would have fared better against Sheriff Walters – Of course, the BMA matrix would have eliminated all the aforementioned with the exception of Sheriff Walters. On the other hand, we did not get to use our favorite line so far: We congratulate Sheriff Hutchens, we just hope she has not made any deals with the devil – although we hear the devil is jumping for joy!

All in all a journalistic failure – but not a waste of time – quite the contrary, a breadth of fresh air!

One more time after repeated attempts to get this message across to you folks, Sierra Partners has no interest in doing business with the OC Sheriff’s Department. Though, hypothetically, the department would be lucky if it did, because the company brings the $200 million project financing when it develops a project. But again, it does not build county jails nor does it have any counties as clients.

It is Official – it is Now Sheriff Hutchens to You Buster!

Sheriff Sandra Hutchens was sworn in as the 12th Sheriff of the County of Orange on Tuesday, this morning, in a ceremony taking place on the steps in front of the Old County Court House, located at 211 W. Santa Ana Blvd, in Santa Ana.

As predictable, members of the Board of Supervisors, dignitaries, along with city and county officials, are in attendance to witness this historic event, along with unprecedented members of the press.

During an interview with Sheriff Hutchens yesterday we asked her how she could manage to keep herself so calm, cool and collected. She mentioned that she had started to work the minute she was named the new Sheriff. We suggested that perhaps she had been working much, much earlier than that. She agreed. This does not bode well for the dead wood lumbering across the department, used to doing “simply what the law requires”, rather than commons sense.

Digressing, we previously posted that organizational culture can be viewed as the basic pattern of shared assumptions, values, and beliefs governing the way employees within an organization think about and act on problems and opportunities. Observable symbols and signs of an organization's culture include organizational stories and legends, rituals and ceremonies, language, physical structures and symbols. We used the examples of secret grand jury testimony where an Orange County sheriff's detective described a frat- house culture (see OC Register article) in the department, or a former jailed official sharing his “conquest book” – now they have to contend with a self described consensus driven leader who wants to walk the talk – and she is talking loud and clear!