Accord on CAO Is a Start

We neither expect nor want the five members of the Ventura County Board of Supervisors to agree on everything but we’re glad they kept searching until they could find a new chief administrative officer they could unanimously endorse.

“I think it’s time to have a CAO that all five of us can support,” said board Chairwoman Susan Lacey, and we couldn’t agree more.

We offer best wishes to CAO David L. Baker as he takes over the county’s billion-dollar bureaucracy and sets about repairing the damage done by a crisis in the county’s health care system.

The federal government in July began cutting off millions of dollars in funding for a network of medical clinics after determining the county was out of compliance with regulations. Meanwhile, the state is withholding another $5.3 million a year pending a review of mental health clinics. The county is appealing both decisions.

Those fiscal threats come on top of a $15.3-million settlement the county has agreed to pay to the federal government for years of improper billings in its Behavioral Health Department.

Baker’s challenge will be to keep the clinics in business and to patch up lingering rifts and feuds from last year’s ill-fated decision to merge the county’s mental health and social service agencies.

Conflicting marching orders from the board to Baker’s predecessor had a lot to do with getting the county into this mess. Here’s hoping Baker can find enough areas of agreement among his five bosses to get us out of it.