Down on the County Farm: The 4th District Embarrassment
A Friend alerted me to a Voice of OC article that has a close tie-in to Fullerton, since it deals directly with our 4th District County Supervisor, Shawn Nelson, and his Number One man.
Apparently, The Voice of OC is running end-of-the year pieces about this and that. The one that was forwarded to FFFF is about how Voice has been holding politicians accountable for their misdeeds, and included the shocking story from last May of Nelson’s Chief-of-Staff, Denis Bilodeau, and how, between his various government salaries, stipends and benefits he rakes in more than $250,000 per year. Yes, you read that right. He makes more, a lot more, than Nelson himself.
This valuable piece of manpower pulls in a generous stipend and benefits as a boardmember of the County Water District, and gets $40,000 per year (via a personal contract) as Nelson’s “technical advisor” at the AQMD. Before that he was also getting paid by being a member of the Orange City Council, Redevelopment Agency and all the other regional commissions he could get himself appointed to. Of course all these agencies had meetings that would have directly conflicted with his $120,000 full-time job at the County.
Bilodeau has also been frequently featured on the pages of the Voice for submitting bogus expense reports and for collecting stipends for meetings in which he barely popped his head in the meeting room door, or didn’t attend at all. Naturally, he blamed his staff for poor record keeping. He was busted for falsifying his time card to engage in political activity and claimed he got his weeks mixed up.
A study of hours logged by County administration personnel in 2012 show Bilodeau in the office 23 hours a week. Thats’ 58% of a work-week.What he did when he was there is anybody’s guess.
So what is Bilodeau’s real value to anybody? Here’s County political watchdog Shirley Grindle, offering an opinion, as quoted in Voice of OC:
She also said she’s gotten indications that the mind behind Nelson’s fundraising machinations has been his chief of staff, Denis Bilodeau, who was an Orange councilman and serves on the Orange County Water District board.
“I’m about ready to tell Shawn Nelson, about the best thing he could do for his career is get rid of Denis Bilodeau,” Grindle said.
What did Nelson have to say on the subject?
“Neither Bilodeau nor Nelson would comment…”
Nelson said all kinds of stuff to get elected. And NONE of it was true – starting with his own giant pension.
Bilodeau’s one and only function is to keep track of the money interests who might contribute to Nelson. The art of the shakedown is alive and well at the County and nowhere more prevalent than in Nelson’s office.
The fact that Nelson not only tolerates Bilodeaus quadruple dipping, but enables it speaks volume about Nelson and the disdain he holds his constituents in.
I don’t get it. How can you have a supposedly full-time job and do all that other stuff? it’s ridiculous. Does anybody seriously believe that guy earns all that money from the County?
This blog worked real hard to get Nelson elected.
Also, Bilodeau was first hired by Nelson’s pal Norby – another favorite of FFFF.
So what do you have to say for yourselves?
I’m sorry?
Where is Nelson’s career going from here? His prospects have diminished.
He wants to be a judge. Good luck with that. Former defense lawyer for sex offenders? Not so good.
If people need proof they live in a third and fourth world country when they reside in Orange County, look to Denis Bilodeau. He personifies ruthless greed of government officials stealing tax dollars by masking his crime in a plethora of alphabet soup agencies. The concept of public servant in banana republics is the public servants serve only themselves at the expense of those who are forced to give the fruits of their labor to the government. My question is how did the populace of Orange County become so subservient to our public servants?
The guy tried to cook up his own term limit extension this year.
Wow, that takes some gall. If only he could find a way to use his powerful shamelessness for good…
The 4th District includes some of the poorest areas in the County. And this bozo makes a quarter mil scmoozing and fundraising for this Nelson character? That’s pretty shameful and I’m a Republican.
That’s our County government. It’s fundamentally corrupt as the Supervisors are completely insulated from everything except lobbying. Nelson is the worst – lobbyist revolving door.
Please run for judge sex offender defender. We’re waiting for you.