Off Beat: King Combs calls it quits

They're breaking up that old gang of mine.

A columnist goes on vacation for a week, and all heck breaks loose in Yuba-Sutter.

It was a seismic shift of epic proportions.

Larry Combs. Out the door.

Jim Kennedy. Out the door.

We're talking about two guys who started in Yuba-Sutter when Woodrow Wilson was president. No, just kidding. Really.

But they have been around here a very long time, and they have a lot of knowledge about the ins and outs of county government. They will be missed on many levels.

For the raspy-voiced Kennedy, it's retirement. For the bespectacled Combs, it's Merced and a nice pay raise.

Yes, Merced. It's apparently a lot like Sutter County, except quite a bit bigger. That may be good; that may be bad.

Down at the Merced Sun-Star, they're anxiously awaiting Combs' arrival.

On Oct. 24, the Sun-Star ran quite an enlightening editorial about the coming of Combs and the departure of Dee Tatum, he of the "iron curtain of secrecy."

Yes, down in Merced things are wackier than they are up here:

Now that the county has announced Larry Combs as its new executive officer, we'd like to make a modest proposal.

Open up.

As The Fifth Dimension used to sing, "Let the sunshine in ..."

Under the Dee Tatum regime, Mercedians were faced with a "need-to-know" approach more prevalent in a military mindset than in a freely elected government.

Apparently, the Merced way of doing things is to have an official spokeswoman, Katie Albertson. She speaks for everybody in county government — all the time.

The search for that new executive officer? An office whose current tenant makes nearly a quarter-million dollars a year? As the process unfolded, she wouldn't disclose answers to such basic questions as how many candidates are in the running or whether any of them already work for the county.

... When one of our reporters was diligently trying to get a full and accurate picture of the process of picking a new CEO a few weeks back, Albertson was tied up in meetings most of the day. Sorry. We have deadlines. When she's the only person at the county who can disseminate information, she needs to be available.

If she does let another taxpayer-funded county official be interviewed, she sits in on the conversation or listens on speaker phone. Every county employee except Albertson and Tatum needs "permission" to talk to the press. That changes the dynamic. They're being watched and overheard.

... We request a new policy under the incoming new CEO Combs. At the very least, let county department heads speak to our reporters without permission or baby-sitting.

Good luck to you, Merced Sun-Star. And good luck to you, Larry Combs. You may wish you were retired, like Jim Kennedy.