Wednesday, June 17, 2015
Page 3
Mary Wickham Named Interim County Counsel
By a MetNews Staff Writer
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors yesterday named Mary Wickham interim county counsel.
The selection was made in closed session, and then announced in open session by Supervisor Michael Antonovich, the board chair.
Wickham replaces Mark Saladino, who resigned abruptly Friday after eight months in the post.
Wickham currently serves as executive director of the County Equity Oversight Panel, a post to which she was appointed on an interim basis at the beginning of 2013 and on a permanent basis in May of last year. Her salary as interim county counsel will be $21,667 monthly, up from nearly $190,000 per year in her current post.
Saladino’s salary was nearly $300,000 a year.
At the time of her appointment to the oversight post, the county Chief Executive Office noted that Wickham had more than 25 years of experience in public sector employment law, including nearly 18 litigating employment cases for the county.
Wickham is a public administration graduate of USC and earned her law degree from Whittier College in 1989.
She will be the ninth person to occupy the post of county counsel on either an interim or permanent basis since DeWitt Clinton retired in 1998 after 15 years.
Clinton was succeeded by Lloyd W. “Bill” Pellman, who retired in 2004 and was succeeded by his chief deputy, Raymond G. Fortner Jr.
Fortner stepped down in 2009, and Robert Kalunian, a top deputy in the Public Defender’s Office, was brought in on an interim basis. He held the post until Andrea Ordin was hired in January 2010.
Ordin resigned in February 2012, and was succeeded by John Krattli, who retired last July. Krattli’s chief deputy, Richard Weiss, then filled the post for 10 weeks until Saladino took over last October.
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