ORANGE COUNTY IN BANKRUPTCY : Search for a Permanent CEO Appears to Have Barely Begun : Crisis: No list of candidates, not even a job description seem to have been decided. Some observers say it will be tough to fill the job.

Though Orange County supervisors decided more than a month ago they wanted to have a new chief executive officer in place by midsummer, the search appears to have barely begun.

Interviews with local head-hunters, county insiders and government administrators elsewhere in the state indicate that the New York-based firm conducting the search is just starting its work, and that neither a clear job description nor a list of potential candidates has been circulated--though the firm’s contract with the county calls for both to have been completed by now.

With CEO William J. Popejoy’s announcement this week that he will leave July 31, the pressure on the supervisors to find a replacement is mounting, yet the search has yet to lead anywhere.

“We don’t have a clue,” Supervisor William G. Steiner said this week. “We don’t have a list [of candidates] yet . . . I don’t think we’re going to get anything until the first week in August.”

Steve Zaley, executive director of the California State Assn. of Counties, said the recruiters from Heidrick & Struggles contacted him just this week--a month after the effective date of its $49,000 contract--and asked him to think of possible candidates.

“They’re just getting started,” Zaley said. “They were still working with the board on a profile. What they were saying was, it’s very early in the process.”

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The supervisors, who appointed John Wayne Airport Manager Jan Mittermeier as interim CEO Friday, said they are keeping their search within California, and hope to find someone with both private- and public-sector management experience who will take the job for $135,000 to $145,000 a year.

Many in government and business, however, worry that there is no worthwhile candidates interested in applying.

“I can’t imagine they’re going to get anyone in their right mind to take this job,” said one local city manager who spoke on the condition of anonymity, “You can’t pay anybody enough money to take the crap they’re going to have to take. Not any quality person, anyway.”

A spokeswoman at Heidrick & Struggles’ Los Angeles office referred calls to Jan Walden, the county’s personnel director, who said she does not know the status of the search.

Supervisors Gaddi H. Vasquez and Roger R. Stanton, who are spearheading the search effort, did not return telephone calls Friday.

Heidrick & Struggles accepted the job with a June 7 letter to Walden, and its seven-page contract became effective June 13. According to that contract, the county should have provided the firm with a job description during its first week of work; Heidrick & Struggles, in turn, was supposed to have developed “a target list of potential candidates to be contacted” and have screened at least 20% of the candidates by telephone by June 30.

The contract suggests that the entire search would be complete by Aug. 30, but says the firm will work for up to six months without additional payment.

Because the head-hunting firm is staying mum, it is impossible to know for sure what it has done so far. But the only name being mentioned as a possible permanent CEO is Mittermeier’s, which sources say is on Vasquez’s short list.

Los Angeles County Chief Administrator Sally Reed said she was contacted about the job weeks ago but expressed no interest, and that since then she has not heard of anyone specific being considered. David Janssen, chief administrative officer in San Diego County, also said he has heard nothing about the search.

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At a Sacramento meeting of the state’s top county administrators the day after Popejoy’s announcement, there was little talk of the high-profile job opening, Zaley and others said.

“I did talk with a couple of people that said they would see Orange County as a challenge, but most people think the circumstances are kind of scary. I think they’re scared off by the way they’re doing business down there,” said Norman Roberts, a Century City recruiter who found Reed for Los Angeles County and has conducted CEO searches for several California counties.

“If they’re going to stay in California, it’s a very small pool in the public sector,” Roberts said. “If they look in the private sector, there’s more, but Orange County is going to be a very tough sell for some of those people.”

Both Popejoy and Paul S. Nussbaum, his top adviser at the county until the end of June, said no potential candidates have called them to discuss the post.

“Do we know anybody that’s been interviewed? No. We don’t hear any names circulating,” said Christine Diemer, executive director of the Orange County Building Industry Assn. “Normally, we would pick up something. How can we get someone in three to four weeks? Especially when that person has to relocate, and negotiate. It seems impossible.”

Part of the problem seems to be the confusion over exactly what the job entails. When Popejoy took office Feb. 10, the board changed the role from chief administrator to chief executive and expanded its power and independence. But when Popejoy exercised that power, the supervisors tried to take it back, ultimately triggering his early departure.

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Supervisor Jim Silva has since suggested changing the job to chief operating officer, a proposal that has yet to be publicly considered by the board. The only job description on file at the personnel office is Popejoy’s, dated Feb. 10 and titled “chief executive officer.”

“Whatever they call it . . . they can call it God, but it’ll be a watered-down job,” Popejoy said this week. “It’ll be a glorified executive coordinator.”

Walden dismissed the importance of a clear, written job description delineating whether the new CEO’s role will be crafted to match Popejoy’s, former County Administrator Officer Ernie Schneider’s, or something in between.

“It’s a chief executive officer. The question of how, specifically, the relationship is going to evolve may depend on the individual,” Walden said. “I don’t think that in the industry, among people that are seeking this job, its as ambiguous or confusing as it might seem. The type of person that would want to come in and be CEO of a large county would come in with a plan.”

Popejoy’s highly publicized clashes with his bosses, several people said, could sour top-notch candidates on the opportunity.

“I think any corporate person would have a hard time coming in considering the experience Popejoy had and how his hands were tied,” Diemer said.

Another detraction is continued talk that Gov. Pete Wilson may yet appoint a trustee to control Orange County--though the mechanism to do so remains unclear--and the ongoing discussing of major restructuring of county government, which could radically change the top administrator’s role, or even eliminate it, next year.

“It’s not going to be an easy job to fill,” Popejoy said Friday.

Times staff writers Matt Lait and Michael G. Wagner contributed to this report.