County reorganized to save $500,000 a year...

County reorganized to save $500,000 a year

Orange County Interim Chief Executive James D. Ruth on Friday

announced a reorganization of county government that will save

$291,000 this fiscal year and more than $513,000 annually in

subsequent years.

Ruth has been the county’s interim CEO since 2003 and will

continue in that position through this year.

The reorganization plan changes the duties of the county’s four

assistant CEOs, who will each have the title of deputy CEO. Oversight

of 10 county departments that now report to the CEO will shift to the

heads of the Infrastructure and Environmental Services Department and

the Government and Public Services Department.

Ruth suggested the latter change because the CEO now has too broad

a span of control, and the changes will provide better oversight, he

said.

Human resources will return to being a separate department that

will report directly to the CEO, and the Planning and Development

Services and Public Facilities and Resources departments will be

combined. Eight vacant positions in the county executive office will

be eliminated.

Other changes in the plan include creation of a department

management committee, which brings department heads together monthly

to discuss county operations and budget issues; a leadership academy

for county managers, who will take classes at Chapman University; and

succession plans identifying future leaders in each department to

ensure smooth transitions when retirement or turnover occurs.

Ruth will present the plan to the county Board of Supervisors on

Tuesday.

Locals to be honored at council meeting

Costa Mesa residents Charles and Diane Buchanan will be recognized

by Mayor Gary Monahan at the Jan. 20 City Council meeting for their

contribution to the improvement of Jordan Park.

The couple participated in the city’s Adopt-A-Bench program and

donated money to replace two existing benches in Jordan park with new

ones with backrests. Their donation also helped the city to plant

three new trees in the park.

The Buchanans will receive a special certificate of appreciation

from the mayor at the council meeting.

At the same meeting, Surat Singh will receive the Mayor’s Award

for his outstanding service to the Costa Mesa Senior Center.

Singh donated the Thanksgiving dinner at the center attended by

225 seniors. He also made sure that seniors attending the center’s

New Year’s Eve party had transportation.

Maori culture will meet Shakespeare at UCI

UC Irvine’s International Center for Writing and Translation on

Jan. 29 will present “The Maori Shakespeare,” a seminar that will

explore ways in which the Maori language and culture meet the works

of William Shakespeare through writers’, scholars’, filmmakers’ and

performance artists’ projects.

Don C. Selwyn, executive producer and director of “The Maori

Merchant of Venice,” the first Maori-language feature film and the

first Shakespeare film to be produced in New Zealand, will come from

New Zealand. Other panelists will be Merimeri Penfold, activist,

professor and translator of Shakespeare’s sonnets, and Michael Neill,

professor and Shakespearean scholar.

The seminar and discussion will be moderated by Hugh Roberts, UCI

professor of English, and will include a reading of the first

translations of Shakespeare’s sonnets in Maori. The panel will be

followed by a reception and film screening of “The Maori Merchant of

Venice” in conjunction with the UCI Film and Video Center.

The seminar will begin at 4 p.m. The afternoon session is free.

The film screening, which will begin at 7 p.m., will cost $5. For

information, visit https://www.hnet.uci.edu/icwt.