Postmus' problems reveal startling lack of accountability

George Watson, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 07/26/2008 09:35:48 PM PDT

So now we at least know where Bill Postmus wasn't.

A year ago, Postmus tried to lay to rest concerns about his whereabouts during the 2006 wildfires that burned in Yucca Valley, which happens to be in what at the time was his supervisorial district. Postmus, who had since vacated his seat as San Bernardino County supervisor to be the assessor, said he was in Wisconsin burying the ashes of his late grandmother.

As he and I sat in his office last year, Postmus explained that he didn't understand what the fuss was all about. Other county officials knew where he was, he said. Although he was chairman of the Board of Supervisors and fire was laying waste to one of his communities, I still remember him asking, what's the big deal?

Well, the big deal turns out to be, as we reported earlier this week, he wasn't in Wisconsin. He was not doing anything with the ashes of his grandmother. He was out of the area, most likely in the state of Washington, going through drug rehab. Some county leaders claimed that they had no idea where he was or how to contact him.

The fact that he needed help for what several impeccable sources say remains an ongoing battle with an addiction to drugs is not the big deal. People get hooked on narcotics all the time and recover quite well, actually.

Anyone remember Rush Limbaugh and his problem with prescription drugs? He seems to be doing just fine now.

Perhaps Postmus will use his 10-week medical leave announced last week to get himself some help, and if he does, he should be commended.

And although drug addiction is very personal, it becomes a matter of public concern when the person is the leader of the biggest county in the contiguous 48 states, especially when that person is out of touch during a natural disaster. People criticized President Bush for his handling of the disaster in New Orleans, but he was at least paying attention to it.

The truly bigger deal that evolves out of this latest Postmus revelation is a question that I have raised now in several columns: accountability, and I don't just mean holding the beleaguered assessor up in front of bright lights.

We know now, as several sources have told me, that the assessor still has a drug addiction. We know he has been to rehab on at least two occasions. We know his behavior has grown increasingly erratic over the past few years.

When I say "we," I really mean, you, the public. It's something some of us in the media have known about for a while but struggled to find a way to write about it. When Postmus announced that he was stepping down for medical reasons, the opportunity finally presented itself.

For county government leaders, the Postmus revelations should come as no surprise. If they say they didn't know, they are either lying or so out of touch that the public should be worried about how irrelevant they are.

So let's get back to the accountability issue. Because they have known about it, they are essentially Postmus' enablers. This is a man who clearly needed - as he still does - their help, their strength, their ability to step in and make something happen. Perhaps it was because they didn't want the county to be embarrassed. Perhaps they perversely enjoyed watching the former golden boy of the Republican Party imploding before their very eyes.

Who knows?

Instead, they chose to do little to nothing, knowing that the man was battling his own personal demons, all the while being the head of a multibillion-dollar budget that is filled by taxpayers' hard work. They let him make decisions, negotiate eight-figure deals on the county's behalf, and hire ambitious "kids" like Adam Aleman, the 25-year-old former assistant assessor charged with destroying evidence and making changes to documents sought through a 2007-08 grand jury investigation of Postmus' office.

At the same time, they stymied attempts by the media to look at Postmus' county-generated e-mails and his work calendar as we tried to answer the question: Where was Bill during the wildfire?

So I question whether folks like County Administrative Officer Mark Uffer, board Chairman Paul Biane, supervisors Gary Ovitt, Josie Gonzales and Brad Mitzelfelt, along with County Counsel Ruth Stringer, feel that the transparency - or lack thereof - found in their governmental policies is working. I particularly wonder about Mitzelfelt, who was Postmus' chief of staff when his former boss' great plunge began, and who has said nothing publicly about the situation.

Given the dark cloud once again hanging over the county, I can only wonder what they think. But, given the fact that all but Uffer and Stringer owe their jobs to voters, I have a feeling that they might get a picture of how the public feels someday in the future.