Supervisors order job review of Sonoma County Administrator Veronica Ferguson

Sonoma County supervisors have ordered a rare, expansive review of County Administrator Veronica Ferguson's job performance roughly a month before her current contract expires.

The step, the second such review during Ferguson's now six-year tenure with the county, is meant to inform the Board of Supervisors as it decides whether to extend her service in the county's top executive post.

The board decided Tuesday in a closed session meeting at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts to hire an outside consultant to conduct the forensic-level review.

The process will gather input from department heads who work with Ferguson, as well as midlevel managers and rank-and-file county employees who work for her directly. Feedback also will be collected from people who have worked with Ferguson outside county government.

The review is expected to take roughly a month and cost about $10,000, said Christina Cramer, Sonoma County's human resources director.

County officials, including Ferguson, said the evaluation is standard practice when contracts for high-level managers are set to expire. But supervisors in recent months have stepped up their evaluations of Ferguson's job, scheduling eight closed-door sessions on the matter in the past eight months.

By contrast, supervisors called for just one performance review in 2014.

Ferguson said only about half of the recent sessions were actually held. She said the process gives her and the board “a chance to see how things are working.”

“I think this is an exciting time for Sonoma County,” she said in an interview last week. “We've got so much more we want to do in the next couple of years, so I'm really excited.”

Ferguson, 59, a former Solano County assistant administrator, took over the top job in Sonoma County in early 2010 at the height of the recession for local government. Her primary responsibility is management and oversight of the county's $1.45 billion budget.

She has faced greater scrutiny by supervisors in the past year over budget matters, staffing for an independent office tasked with law enforcement oversight and other high-profile issues that have dogged county government of late. That list includes the failure of Measure A, the disputed sales tax increase to support road repair, and a prolonged public standoff with the county's largest union that appeared to come to an end only Saturday, when a tentative agreement on a new contract was struck with the group.

In interviews, some supervisors have raised general questions about Ferguson's leadership.

“This review is warranted because it's the anniversary of Veronica's contract, but obviously we've also had some ongoing concerns,” said Supervisor Shirlee Zane. “It has been challenging at times.”

Other supervisors said Ferguson has a tough job and she performs it well.

“Yes, we need to be talking about how we can be working together better,” said Supervisor Susan Gorin. “But she has the hard responsibility of balancing the budget while all these department heads are asking for resources. She tries to figure out where all the funding is coming from … I can only imagine how frustrating that is. She tries to do a good job.”

The only other time Ferguson was subject to such a rigorous performance review was in 2012, when her original three-year contract was set to expire. Supervisors in 2013 extended that contract for an additional three years.

Ferguson is the county's highest paid executive. Last year, she earned $253,380, according to payroll records.

In the interview last week, Ferguson touted accomplishments during her tenure, while acknowledging pressing challenges for the county.

“We have come out of the recession stronger,” Ferguson said.

She cited her work to bring consensus to the county's budget hearings and drive other significant initiatives that are board priorities, including road upkeep, affordable housing construction and efforts to combat homelessness.

Among the challenges she has faced, she cited negotiations with county labor groups, finding additional dollars for road repairs, and the county's steps to address community policing concerns in the aftermath of the 2013 fatal shooting of Andy Lopez, 13, by a Sonoma County sheriff's deputy.

“The Andy Lopez shooting was challenging for a number of reasons … We had a community that was rightfully very distraught, and there was no simple solution,” Ferguson said. “And labor negotiations have been very, very difficult. I think the board wants to be supportive of our employees, but at the same time we have to be fiscally responsible and accountable to taxpayers.”

Ferguson said she expects supervisors to extend her contract.

“I would say the board is able to lead because of their trusting relationship with me,” Ferguson said. She added that “departments are successful as a result of the strong leadership I offer them.”

Her review, however, comes amid a tense period of county negotiations with employee groups.

Early Saturday morning, the county reached a tentative agreement with the Service Employees' International Union Local 1021, which represents more than half of the county's 4,100 employees. The union's contract expired in October, and contract talks dragged out for months. In November, about 1,500 county employees walked out of work and staged a three-day strike - the first in the county in more than three decades.

The defeat last summer of Measure A, the sales tax increase billed by supervisors as the county's best shot at fixing its crumbling roads, also revealed deep-seated mistrust among voters in the county's fiscal management.

The county suffered another black eye in the fall, amid revelations that a prominent Sonoma County official, Jim Leddy, was rehired while he was the subject of an active state investigation into sexual harassment allegations at his previous job in Mono County.

Ferguson said she did not know about the sexual harassment allegations until she read newspaper accounts of the alleged misconduct. She said she had no role in hiring Leddy for his current post at the Community Development Commission. She said he was properly vetted by the agency's executive director.

“Kathleen Kane, who hired him, went out of her way to review his qualifications and she determined that he was the appropriate candidate for the job,” Ferguson said. Kane last week confirmed that she oversees hiring for the commission and that she signed off on Leddy's hiring.

Leddy started his new job with the county in late May, and the sexual harassment complaint against him was withdrawn in July after the woman reached a settlement with Mono County.

On Tuesday, in a special meeting, the Board of Supervisors met again behind closed doors to discuss Ferguson's job. It was Carrillo, as the board chairman, who gave direction to Cramer to undertake the more extensive current review of Ferguson's job record.

Carrillo is among the supervisors who have publicly voiced some concerns about Ferguson's performance.

“There is a sense of concern with the leadership style when I look at some areas, like the roads tax and how the recommendations from the Community and Local Law Enforcement Task Force were first handled,” Carrillo said in an interview. “We are the policymakers … but we depend on the county executive to give us all the information.”

In budget hearings last year, Carrillo was one of several supervisors to press Ferguson on specifics of her proposed budget.

In one instance, Zane asked multiple times about money available for road repairs in financial reserve accounts.

“So we could put more (money in) is what you're saying?” Zane asked, lobbying for additional funds for roads after the defeat of Measure A. “How much can we put in there? Can you give me an answer to that? … It seems like there's a lot more than that small amount put forward in the budget.”

Zane's inquiry led to a staff recommendation and board consensus in November to spend an additional $13.5 million on roads.

In another instance during June budget hearings, supervisors asked why Ferguson had not brought a specific budget proposal for a new independent auditor office overseeing law enforcement when they asked for one in May. Ferguson said this week that the county has narrowed its search for a person to lead that office and that a candidate is currently undergoing a background check.

Despite the apparent tension with the board, a majority of supervisors appear steadfast in their support for Ferguson. None of the board members would say last week whether they plan to keep her on.

“We work together quite well,” said Supervisor David Rabbitt.

“Veronica is very focused and knows how to get things done,” said Supervisor James Gore.

Ferguson is the first woman to hold the county's top executive post, and the first county administrator hired from outside county ranks since 1985. She took over in 2010 after the surprise resignation of Bob Deis, the former county administrator who hit a rough patch with the board in 2009 after confronting employee unions and retirees over limiting health care benefits.

Ferguson started her job during a major shakeup in the chain of command of county leadership. In 2010, most of the county's 25 departments were reorganized. All but seven departments now report directly to the Board of Supervisors. Ferguson oversees three county departments, including Fire Services, Information Systems and General Services. The remaining four departments are elected offices.

You can reach Staff Writer Angela Hart at 526-8503 or angela.hart@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @ahartreports.