The report about department chief Donald Blevins comes a day after Gov. Jerry Brown met with supervisors behind closed doors to discuss the realignment plan that will shift more responsbilities to local officials.

"Yet it is precisely because of the fact that the already-troubled LA County Probation Department is madly—and very messily—gearing up for this new influx of parolees, that the timing of Blevins’ now-confirmed exit is, in some ways, surprising," writes WitnessLA.

In an editorial Tuesday, the Los Angeles Times commented on some of the problems at the department:

But at the Los Angeles County Department of Probation, reentry means something else altogether. Here, in the nation's third-largest youth incarceration (and, supposedly, rehabilitation) agency (only two states have larger systems), hundreds of deputy probation officers and other employees fail to report for work. Many are out on workers' compensation claims. Others are waiting for department clearance. And others, for all anyone knows, just don't bother to show up.