Former Sutter official Combs has heart attack

Former Sutter County Chief Administrative Officer Larry Combs has suffered a heart attack and temporarily left his duties in the chief administrative role for Merced County, a Sutter County official said.

Sutter County District Attorney Carl Adams said he had been told Thursday that Combs had suffered the heart attack and was in the intensive-care unit at a hospital in Modesto.

"My understanding is that there's reason to believe he'll recover," Adams said, adding he had heard doctors had not yet evaluated how much damage Combs' heart suffered.

Jim Brown, assistant county executive officer for Merced County, said he could only confirm Combs would be out of the office because of unforeseen circumstances.

"He won't be in the office for awhile, but we're hoping it'll only be a couple of weeks," Brown said.

Adams said Sutter County Chief Administrative Officer Stephanie Larsen, who succeeded Combs, sent an email to county employees Thursday informing them of Combs' condition.

Combs, 62, was Sutter County's top administrator for 26 years before he stepped down to take the helm in Merced County in November 2009.

While in Sutter County, he won praise from supervisors for steering the county through tough financial times, and was the longest tenured county administrative officer at the time he left.

But Combs was also criticized by the Sutter County Taxpayers Association for backing employee benefits the association saw as overly generous, as well as not running an open government.

Since going to Merced County, Combs had come under fire from a supervisor and employee unions who said he had an autocratic, uncommunicative style, according to a story from March 2010 in the Merced Sun-Star.

CONTACT reporter Ben van der Meer at 749-4786.