First, let me wish you a pleasant Memorial Day weekend.

Second, allow me to introduce you to the latest quarterly edition of Western States Jewish History, which has just hit subscriber mail boxes (see http://www.wsjhistory.com/).  It is a paperback special double-issue (Vol. 44, Issue No. 3/4), titled “Jewish Pioneers of Orange County – The Jewish Community of Orange County, California – From the 1850s – 1970s.”

For those of you who don’t know me personally, I have three compulsive behaviors (or hobbies):  1) visiting and photographing California Historical Landmarks, and I have been to almost all of them (see http://ohp.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=21387); 2) studying western states Jewish history; and 3) book collecting.  I love visiting new and used bookstores (which are slowly disappearing) and going to friends-of-the-library book sales.  You will always find me in the California History and Judaica sections.

In July of 1990, while in Alameda County to photograph landmark plaques, including California Historical Landmark No. 45 – Site of College of California, my family visited the nearby Judah L. Magnes Museum in Berkeley.  There, I was introduced to the Western States Jewish History quarterly publication.  I purchased every back-issue that the museum had in its bookstore, immediately became a subscriber, and have been a financial sponsor for some two decades.  I also have been able to collect all of the back-issues and have a complete set of the forty-four years of issues.  I always carry an issue in my briefcase to read.  This publication has been a great resource for recommending books to purchase, and my personal collection has many of them.  Now, when I travel, I look for books addressing Jews of that locale.  When in Juneau, Alaska, on a cruise, I asked the local bookstore if they had a book on the history of Alaska.  That’s what I do.

Being a Western States Jewish History fan makes me a devotee of founder Norton Stern and Rabbi William Kramer.  They left an extraordinary legacy of published works.  They were followed by Gladys Sturman, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, and David Epstein, Managing Editor.  They recruited Dalia Taft, the Archivist of the Orange County Jewish Historical Society, to create their latest edition.  So, now we have a book on the subject of the Jews of Orange County.

To make this all the more special for me, the editors invited me to write the foreword, which is provided below.

I’m an avid Western States Jewish History subscriber and reader.  In fact, I own every issue ever published and have read almost all of them from cover-to-co ver.  Mention the names of Norton Stern and Rabbi William M. Kramer and my eyes light up.

I also enjoy collecting and reading books on the subject of western states Jewish history, like “Our City:  The Jews of San Francisco” (Irena Narell), “History of the Jews of Los Angeles” (Max Vorspan and Lloyd P. Gartner), “The Jews in the California Gold Rush” (Robert E. Levinson), “Pioneer Jews of the California Mother Lode, 1849-1880” (Sara G. Cogan), “Pioneer Jews:  A New Life in the Far West” (Harriet & Fred Rochlin), “Jews On The Frontier:  An Account of Jewish Pioneers” (I. Harold Sharfman), “Pioneers, Peddlers, and Tsadikim:  Jews in Colorado” (Ida Libert Uchill), “The Jews of Oregon:  1850-1950” (Steven Lowenstein), and “Jewish Pioneers of New Mexico” (Tomas Jaehn).

I’m also a big Orange County fan, booster and promoter.  This is the best place on the planet to live, work and play.

Now these two loves of my life have touched in this Western States Jewish History edition, titled “The History of the Jews in Orange County.”  Mazel tov!!

In 2014, Orange County will be commemorating its quasquicentennial, its 125^th anniversary.  We have so much to celebrate.  In 1889, Morris Goodman played a role in Orange County splitting off of Los Angeles County.  Morris Goodman was also on the first Los Angeles City Council in 1850. 

The Jewish influence in Orange County has fingerprints everywhere.  From Benjamin Dreyfus, who founded Anaheim’s largest wine producer and would serve as the city’s Mayor in 1881 and 1882.  To Harriett Wieder, who would serve as one of my predecessors, as Orange County Supervisor for the Second District, from 1979 to 1994; being the first woman to serve on the Board of Supervisors.

Orange County has also been blessed with wonderful Rabbis and congregations.  I’ve had the pleasure of watching Rabbi Bradley Artson’s career, from Mission Viejo to the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the American Jewish University in Bel-Air.  Rabbi Bernard King was a dear friend.  The soon to be retiring Rabbi Stephen J. Einstein has been serving the Congregation B’nai Tzedek in Fountain Valley (located in my District) since its founding in 1976.  I’ve participated in a ground breaking ceremony with Rabbi Yossi Berkowitz of Chabad of South Huntington Beach (also in the Second District).  

I could go on, but that is the purpose of this glorious edition.  Why do I have an interest?  I’m an immigrant from the Netherlands.  I am motivated by the stories of Jewish immigrants who lived noble lives of service to their spouses, their children, their businesses, and their communities.  They emphasize maximum education and charity.  Some may read management books to be better leaders.  I read Western States Jewish History to be motivated on how to lead and live.

Enjoy this Western States Jewish History edition on Orange County.  Enjoy the people and places that you will learn about.  If you have not visited Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm or our 42 miles of coastline, please do so.   You will come to appreciate our heritage as much as I do. 

With gratitude,

John M. W. Moorlach, C.P.A.

Chairman

Orange County Board of Supervisors

Second District

FIVE-YEAR LOOK BACKS

May 25

2007

Jackie Cohen of The Bond Buyer wrote the lead story with “Looking to Cut Back on Liabilities—Sacramento Co. to Vote on Reducing OPEB Costs.”  The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors would be voting on June 5 on a $620 million budget package for fiscal year 2008 that included eliminating health care subsidies for all public employees retiring after this May 31.  By comparison, the Orange County Board of Supervisors would be voting on a $5.9 billion budget package the next month, and it had not eliminated retiree medical benefits.  The article included discussions on Sacramento, San Diego and Orange Counties.  The reporter did not get all of the Orange County facts correct.  The County is now paying triple the amount which employees were contributing and the contribution by non-AOCDS employees has been eliminated from funding retiree medical (it is now funding for the UAAL that the retirement plan has incurred as a result of enhanced and retroactive pension benefits approved in 2004).  Overall, the restructuring of the County’s retiree medical plan was a major success story.  However, the story has not concluded as there is still the open litigation, of which all municipalities in California are monitoring.  Here are the relevant paragraphs:

                Sacramento County counts as one of the first communities in northern California to curtail such other post employment benefits for future retirees.

                In southern California, the Orange County Board of Supervisors has negotiated deals with all its public employee unions except for the Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs.

                Once the Orange County sheriffs come to an agreement, officials there say the county’s unfunded OPEB liabilities will have been reduced to $598 million from $1.4 billion.

“We have to pay about $54 million a year to fund our benefits now, but that will go down to $32 million a year if we could get the sheriffs to cooperate.  Our negotiations with them were supposed to have culminated in October, but it’s still going on,” said John M. W. Moorlach, an Orange County supervisor.

Moorlach said that a number of retirees have retained an attorney and are attempting to raise money to sue the county to overturn the OPEB curtailment.  This sharply contrasts with the current employees’ agreement to triple their contributions to the health plan.

The region’s school districts and special districts are working on assessing their unfunded OPEB liabilities, in conjunction with the Orange County Treasurer’s Office, which is creating a trust fund that will hold and invest OPEB money contributed by these districts, said a treasurer spokesman, Brett Barbre.

Not all of Orange County’s school districts have OPEB liabilities in the first place, since many either never had the benefits or got rid of them a decade ago.

Disclaimer:  You have been added to my MOORLACH UPDATE communication e-mail tree.  In lieu of a weekly newsletter, you will receive occasional media updates, some with commentary to explain the situation, whenever I appear in the media (unless it is a duplication of a previous story). 

I have two thoughts for you to consider:  (1) my office does not usually issue press releases to get into the newspapers (only in rare cases); and (2) I do not write the articles, opinions or letters to the editor. 

This message should appear at the bottom of every e-mail you receive.  If these e-mails should stop arriving in your mail box, it will be because your address has changed and you did not provide a new one.  If you do not wish to receive these e-mails, then please e-mail back and request to unsubscribe.

I called for a Study Session to discuss the implementation of Assembly Bill 109 (AB 109), also known as Public Safety Realignment.  AB 109 has been the most urgent topic for every County Supervisor in the state of California.  When the state releases prisoners from their prisons and releases them into their home counties, it’s a big deal.  In fact, I would call it a major inflection point in the state’s realignment efforts over the past two decades.  Consequently, I invited our Chief of Probation, Steve Sentman, our Sheriff-Coroner, Sandra Hutchens, our District Attorney, Tony Rackauckas, our Public Defender, Frank Ospino, our Interim Health Care Agency Director Mark Refowitz, and a representative from the County’s Police Chiefs, Garden Grove Police Chief Kevin Raney to provide an update on the County’s efforts to manage AB 109 since its implementation last October.  What followed was very revealing;  we definitely live in very interesting times.  The Voice of OC covers this critical public safety and fiscal topic in the first piece below.

The Daily Pilot announced that it will recognize members of the community for their service and leadership.  They may even receive a proclamation to signify the importance of their contributions.  It is the second piece below.

The LA Times had a reporter and photographer in attendance for the entire Board of Supervisors meeting.  In spite of the weightiness of AB 109, they were concerned about someone demanding a proclamation.  It is the third piece below.

Proclamations are a funny topic.  I assumed the role of a County Supervisor with the intention of dealing with serious budget and policy issues, not necessarily to attend ribbon cuttings and issue proclamations.  It’s even more awkward when someone calls up a Board office and demands a proclamation.  And, even after issuing a proclamation, I am hard pressed to remember getting more than one or two “thank you” cards for doing so.  It seems odd to me that something that doesn’t seem that important to most receiving them would be the cause for inviting the press to attend a Board meeting.  The bright side is that the LA Times came to a Board meeting.  It seems like years since that’s occurred.

Orange County Grapples With Wave of State Parolees

NORBERTO SANTANA JR.

An array of probation and police officials Tuesday updated the Orange County Board of Supervisors on the implementation of Gov. Jerry Brown’s unprecedented transfer of nearly 1,500 low-level prisoners and parolees from state supervision to local jails and streets.

In Orange County, the shift – commonly referred to as “AB 109,” for the state Assembly bill that authorized it – has probation officials scrambling to devise ways of monitoring additional felons in an environment of limited funds.

On Tuesday, Orange County Chief Probation Officer Steven Sentman told supervisors that the county has seen nearly 60 percent more state prisoners than originally estimated with 1,492 non-violent felons (compared to the original figure of 939) transferred since last October when the program began.

More than $25 million has been spend implementing AB 109, with money going to the sheriff, probation department, health care agency and local police department. And that funding is expected to double in the 2012-13 fiscal year.

Yet on Tuesday, most agencies said the resources aren’t enough.

“Until the final impacts are realized and full implementation has occurred, funding allocations will need to be flexible,” Sentman said. “That money goes quickly.”

District Attorney Tony Rackauckas and Public Defender Frank Ospino both say they are facing a huge legal challenge with so many new cases and limited public resources to address them.

“Realignment is the greatest paradigm shift since 1976, when sentencing laws were abolished,” Ospino told supervisors, adding that it’s an evolving public policy with hundreds of bills in the legislature amending it regularly.

“Just keeping up on current legislation is a daunting task,” Ospino said.

Sheriff Sandra Hutchens, who told supervisors she starts each morning by checking her inmate counts, said the numbers coming from the state have been much higher than expected. While that doesn’t shock her, Hutchens said local jails aren’t built to house long-term inmates, which means local agencies need to shift their focus to prevention in this new environment.

Assistant Sheriff Mike James told supervisors that local jails are getting 293 prisoners every month from the state, which is more than 200 percent above the 143 that state projections figured.

While the agency was shutting down jail beds last year, the prisoner shift now makes up about 20 percent of total inmates and is using up space quickly.

The longer they are there, it means more prisoner litigation, James said.

The jails have issues with disability access and already face current litigation. They also face myriad issues with inmate medical care as well as separation issues due to gang and other problems.

Another big issue, James said, is the reimbursement rates. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (known as ICE) pays twice the amount for local beds for immigration detainees than the $71 rate paid by the state.

Local police chiefs are nervous because under state supervision, they had a statewide database that they could check criminals against when they were encountered on city streets.

Today, there’s nothing similar for the felons under county probation supervision, Garden Grove Police Chief Kevin Rany told supervisors.

“As broken as the parole system was, it allowed for a statewide database,” Rany said.

Rany and other police chiefs also noted that property crime has increased in cities across Orange County since the program began while violent crimes have not. “There’s no question that crime is increasing, we need to do a better job of figuring out why,” he said.

While Rany said that complete stats on the offenses of AB 109 parolees have not yet been compiled, there are numbers for some cities. Anaheim for example, has had 28 parolees (out of 156) recommit crimes.

Rany said that many of the low-level offenders are actually hardened criminals. "As we were looking at some of the packets (of inmates sent to local jails), you look at the prior convictions and they are startling, alarming and concerning.”

Health care officials are also scrambling to respond to the added costs of addressing the health care needs of these prisoners, whose lifestyles often carry expensive medical treatment costs.

County Health Care Agency Director Mark Refowitz told supervisors that costs will rise with long term prisoners. To date, 600 individuals have been referred for an assessment with 67 percent having substance abuse issues and 23 percent having mental issues.

Since October, the county jail also has received 36 people with HIV, 74 inmates with diabetes and 17 pregnant women.

“As this population increases, this will put pressure on our budget,” he said noting that the shift means county officials have to change how they practice medicine in the jails.

Refowitz told supervisors they need to look into “shock claims” insurance to guard against large bills for illnesses like cancer, which are expensive to treat and even consider "compassionate release" for terminal patients “to die elsewhere than in the medical unit that’s being funded by the county.”

Meanwhile, drug treatment nonprofits have been decimated by the budget cuts of recent years and the few left are telling supervisors they can’t handle the wave coming at them.

And Ospino issued the starkest reminder to all his colleagues: It’s not as if the current system has been working. Nearly 60 to 70 percent of inmates released each year come right back to prison.

“It has been a revolving door of recidivism,” Ospino said.

In turn, Sentman told supervisors that the new partnerships established to deal with AB 109 is spurring unique cooperation between agencies. “We’ve shown some successes,” said Sentman, who was credited Tuesday with leading the effort effectively. “A willingness to sit down and work together.”

To date, the county probation department has produced a DVD to educate officers on the new characteristics of parolees. There’s also been an overtime agreement with several police agencies and probation officers are being sited at local police agencies, he said.

There’s also an emphasis to use “evidence-based” practices to reduce recidivism rates and health care workers are also doing evaluations on parolees to identify substance abuse and mental health issues as well as treatment options.

Yet county supervisors are nervous about the new parolee population.

Supervisor Chairman John Moorlach was visibly frustrated by the new policy and called on law enforcement groups to speak up in Sacramento.

“When does the police association cry out,” he asked, “or do we take the Public Defender approach that this is wonderful…It’s counter intuitive to me."

Please contact Norberto Santana Jr. directly at nsantana@voiceofoc.org and follow him on Twitter: twitter.com/norbertosanana.

Community & Clubs: Annual Fish Fry coming to Fairview Park this year

By Jim de Boom

Hall of Fame luncheon coming

The public is invited to attend the Daily Pilot Community and Clubs Hall of Fame luncheon at noon on June 8 at the American Legion Post 291, 215 E. 15th St., Newport Beach.

Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach will serve as the master of ceremonies while the induction of honorees will be done by myself, Daily Pilot Editor John Canalis and City Editor Jamie Rowe. Proceeds will benefit Exploring, a program of the Orange County Council of Boy Scouts of America.

Reservations at $50 per person can be made by calling Lane Calvert at (714) 546-8558 ext. 181 or by sending an email to lanec@oclfl.org. To nominate a candidate from a service club, community group or congregation, contact Calvert or myself at jdeboom@aol.com.

Orange County again declines to officially recognize Harvey Milk Day

Supervisors ignore speakers' calls to issue a proclamation honoring the slain gay rights advocate. Activists began a letter, postcard and phone campaign about two months ago.

Dave Hoen delivers an emotional plea to the Orange County Board of Supervisors to issue a proclamation honoring slain gay rights activist Harvey Milk on his birthday. (Robert Gauthier, Los Angeles Times / May 22, 2012)

By Nicole Santa Cruz

As cities and schools across California celebrated the 82nd birthday of slain gay rights activist Harvey Milk, Orange County elected leaders remained steadfastly silent.

Activists, for the second year, asked Orange County supervisors Tuesday to recognize Milk's birthday with a proclamation, but the board declined the opportunity, as it did last year.

One of the supervisors, Janet Nguyen, walked from the board room shortly after the activists began their presentation. Last year, Nguyen also left the meeting as the activists spoke.

Dave Hoen, a 28-year Santa Ana resident, and other activists waited more than six hours before they could step to the podium, and by then the room was almost empty. Hoen read a poem, saying he suspected that fear was the reason the five supervisors have yet to endorse a proclamation honoring Milk.

"You're happy to keep your job instead," he said.

The speakers, members of local gay rights groups, began a letter, postcard and phone campaign to the supervisors about two months ago to push for the proclamation.

"We've been ignored," said Archer Altstaetter, the founder of the Orange County Equality Coalition.

California first officially marked May 22 as Harvey Milk Day in 2009 and, on Tuesday, San Diego named a street in his honor, while Long Beach broke ground on Harvey Milk Promenade Park.

For activists like Hoen, getting the county to embrace the activism of the former San Francisco supervisor would be a meaningful step toward erasing what they see as an ugly chapter in Orange County's past.

One of Milk's final battles was to take on then-state Sen. John V. Briggs, a Fullerton resident who championed a state initiative that would have essentially given school boards the right to fire openly gay teachers.

The discord between Milk and the Orange County legislator was depicted in scenes in "Milk," the movie in which Sean Penn played the activist.

At one point in the film, one of Milk's colleagues asks how many signatures would be needed to put the Briggs initiative on the ballot. "Whatever it is," someone says, "they'll get it in two Sundays at church in Orange ... County."

The initiative was soundly defeated statewide in 1978. Voters in Orange County also rejected it, though by a narrower margin.

Shawn Nelson was the lone supervisor to respond to the activists Tuesday, pointing out that the county receives a "laundry list" of days to dedicate. But he said that if other days are set aside in someone's honor, then Milk's birthday should be too.

After the meeting, Chairman John Moorlach said that he's more of a "policy wonk" and wants to put his staff to good use by dissecting and analyzing budgets, for instance.

"I guess it's a style difference," he said, adding that he has other priorities. "If that makes me a bad guy, I'm sorry."

Stuart Milk, the former supervisor's nephew, said in an interview Tuesday that he remembered his uncle talking about Briggs as someone who used hate and exclusion to get ahead.

He said it would be symbolically significant for Orange County to recognize the day.

"The important element is because you have a history of non-acceptance doesn't mean you need to continue on that path," he said. "Harvey Milk Day is the way to do that."

nicole.santacruz@latimes.com

FIVE-YEAR LOOK BACKS

May 22

1997

Another potential candidate surfaced in “San Mateo Supervisor Thinking Big – Barrales looking into run for state treasurer,” written by Mark Simon of the San Francisco Chronicle.  Here’s a condensed version of the piece:

                San Mateo County Supervisor Ruben Barrales – one of the top elected Republican Latinos in the state – is looking closely at running for state treasurer next year, The Chronicle has learned.

                All the Republicans looking at running for the state’s constitutional offices next year are white males – there are no women or minorities among the would-be candidates for offices from governor down.

                Two other Republicans are expressing active interest in running for treasurer – Assemblyman Jan Goldsmith of Poway, and John Moorlach, the treasurer of Orange County.

2007

Christian Berthelsen of the LA Times set up the discussion for that morning’s Board of Supervisors’ meeting with “O.C. supervisors to vote on sheriff's review board – The panel would investigate allegations of abuse by deputies and propose policy changes. A sheriff's official says it's not needed.” 

Orange County supervisors are scheduled to vote today on a proposal to create a civilian review panel that would investigate allegations of abuse by sheriff's deputies and recommend policy changes in the department.

The proposal has been touted by Supervisor John Moorlach, who says it would be an effective way to reduce the county's liability from lawsuits by having a panel that could recommend policy changes when practices appear to increase the risk of being sued.

He has noted that the county has paid $1.5 million in settlements since 2000 and faces 31 pending lawsuits stemming from the county jail system.

Moorlach said the panel would reassure the public that allegations of abuse would be treated fairly by an independent group. "I've just got a concern about allowing individuals to have a forum to address certain issues that may occur at the jail and with deputy sheriffs, and I think this again provides a positive opportunity to benefit everybody," he said.

The panel would have seven members. Each supervisor would nominate one member and the county chief executive would nominate two. The candidates would be approved by the board. The panel would probably need a staff of investigators and a director. Though it would have full investigative powers, it would have only advisory authority and would not be able to manage the Sheriff's Department, order policy or personnel changes or impose discipline.

The Sheriff's Department and the union representing sheriff's deputies oppose the proposal, which would create oversight commissions similar to those in San Diego County and the city of Los Angeles.

Orange County Undersheriff Jo Ann Galisky said there was already adequate oversight of the department, including its own internal-affairs unit, the district attorney, the county grand jury and the state and federal justice departments. She said the proposed panel would be a "political body" that would do little to enhance smooth operation of the department.

"In terms of civilian oversight, we believe we have a pretty good model here," Galisky said. "It's never comfortable, but it's exactly the way it should work."

The proposal comes at a time that the sheriff's deputies union and the county board have been in protracted, and at times prickly, negotiations over a labor contract. Moorlach has been an outspoken critic of the union, and the group has sought to bar him from funerals for slain officers. Moorlach said there was no political subtext to the proposal.

Wayne Quint, the head of the union representing Orange County sheriff's deputies, said the proposal would create a costly bureaucracy with no real power. He said it increased the county's potential liability because the plaintiff's lawyers could use critical findings against the department in court. He noted that San Diego's board costs roughly $500,000 per year to operate, while the county's legal payouts from jail claims have totaled $1.5 million in the last seven years.

"I could see if he [Moorlach] was spending taxpayer money on something that has authority," Quint said. "This doesn't."

May 23

1992

I had a column in the Daily Pilot which the headline writer titled “Wasting away in Liberalville – The sad tale of what happens when lefties start running a town.”  It was a tongue-in-cheek effort to include many of the topics that I had enjoyed debating on “The Lobdell Group” (see MOORLACH UPDATE -- OC Register -- March 25, 2012).

1997

The Bond Buyer provided its update on the state treasurer’s race in “California Republicans Line Up for Shot at Treasurer’s Office,” by Leslie Berkman.  Now things were starting to heat up on this front and this is now one of my all-time favorite articles.  To have Bob Mulholland go after me over all of the other potential Republican candidates was a major personal honor.  Here’s a Reader’s Digest version:

                New Republican hopefuls are jumping into the 1998 California treasurer's race, prompted by the withdrawal last week of state Sen. James Brulte, formerly considered a shoo-in for the GOP nomination.

State Assemblyman Jan Goldsmith, R-San Diego, a former member of the California Debt and Investment Advisory Commission, threw his hat in the ring on Monday. Goldsmith was followed two days later by Ruben Barrales, a Republican supervisor from San Mateo County, who said he is setting up an exploratory campaign committee.

In an interview on Tuesday, Orange County Treasurer John Moorlach also said he was seriously considering making a bid for the job. Moorlach gained national fame after his predictions of fiscal disaster for the county became true in 1994.

The burst of interest in the post stems in part from Republican state Treasurer Matt Fong’s determination not to seek reelection so he can attempt to unseat U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, a Democrat, in the November 1998 election.

Goldsmith and Moorlach said Brulte called both of them early last week to let them know that he would be withdrawing his candidacy and the field would be open.

“I had pretty much come to the conclusion it wouldn’t be worth it to challenge Brulte,” said Moorlach.  “It was kind of a shock to me that he had changed his mind.”

Moorlach said he is testing the political waters.  “I think I provide the right expertise and experience for the position,” he said.  “I manage a $2.5 billion portfolio and serve on a retirement board with $3.4 billion in assets, and I have worked with bond issues of over $1.5 billion. Those are pretty much the components of the state treasurer’s job.”

However, Bob Mulholland, a campaign adviser to the California Democratic Party, said he thinks Moorlach’s association with Orange County would taint his candidacy because voters might not distinguish him from his predecessor as county treasurer, Robert L. Citron.

Shelby Grad of the LA Times also weighed in on the topic in “Moorlach Ponders for State Treasurer’s Post.”

Treasurer-Tax Collector John M.W. Moorlach, who rose to prominence by questioning Orange County's investment practices months before its 1994 bankruptcy, is considering a run for state treasurer.

Moorlach said he will meet with advisors and political supporters over the weekend and could make a final decision by next week.

The current state treasurer, Matt Fong, has announced he will run for the U.S. Senate in 1998 and not seek another term. Moorlach said he began seriously considering a run last week when state Sen. Jim Brulte (R-Rancho Cucamonga) told him he would not seek the treasurer's job.

"It's something that definitely interests me," Moorlach said Thursday. "But there are several issues I still have to consider."

A top concern, Moorlach said, is whether he can raise the more than $1 million he believes he'll need to run a statewide primary campaign. Moorlach said he also wants to size up other potential candidates.

"Will Matt Fong change his mind? Will a millionaire jump into the race and be able to throw a lot of money around?" he said. "These are things we need to consider."

Moorlach raised concerns about the risky investment practices of former county treasurer Robert L. Citron during an unsuccessful challenge for the office in June 1994.

Though Moorlach lost the race, he was hailed as a soothsayer after Citron's risky investments plunged the county into bankruptcy that December. He was appointed county treasurer in early 1995 and was overwhelmingly elected to the post last year.

2002

Jennifer Hieger of the OC Register provided a front-page story, titled “Sidewalk speculator reassesses land deal,” that resulted from an inexperienced bidder attending one of our tax defaulted real estate auctions.  We eventually cleared everything up, but the story still makes me chuckle.  In 2002 the real estate market was hot and bidders were throwing money at properties without doing any research on what they were bidding on.  The topic even made it to the “County Line Poll,” with 58% of the callers voting against refunding Jen Miller’s $18,500.  Here’s a Reader’s Digest version:

                Jen Miller thought she had a sweet deal.

                She would buy a piece of property from the county tax collector for $18,500, then turn around and sell it for as much as $114,000, the assessed value.

                That’s because what Miller purchased this year in Anaheim was no ordinary piece of land.

                Miller knew what she was buying – a piece of sidewalk and a part of Ball Road – but still figured she could make a quick profit.

Miller bought her sidewalk at the tax collector’s annual real estate auction.  Every year the office sells a few dozen properties that it has been unable to collect property taxes on, but in a housing market as hot as Orange County, few parcels make it to auction.  Most owners prefer to pay the taxes and protect their investments.

The market’s strength also means that many properties that go up for auction are not particularly desirable, said John Moorlach, couny tax collector.

For that reason, he said, buyers need to study the properties carefully.

“Every year a couple of people do these dumb things, then we’re at ‘fault.’” Moorlach said.  “I don’t get it.”

Moorlach said it is not his office’s responsibility to determine what a given property is or what problems it may have.  He just collects the taxes.

“I’m at the end of the food chain,” he said.

2007

The Board of Supervisors voted to approve the oversight board concept.  Christian Berthelson of the LA Times and Peggy Lowe of the OC Register covered the vote.  So did the OC Register’s lead editorial.  To save space, I’ll just provide the editorial, titled “Board sees need to oversee policing – Unanimous vote begins process of creating a civilian oversight panel for sheriff.”

The Orange County Board of Supervisors, in a 5-0 vote after a lively public debate Tuesday, took an important step toward creating a much-needed civilian oversight panel for the Sheriff's Department. The measure, proposed by Supervisor John Moorlach, instructs the board to meet and confer with law enforcement and other agencies that would be affected by the proposal, and to craft a specific and detailed civilian review proposal within 60 days. The board agreed to hold workshops and to invite members of a similar panel in San Diego County, as well as to ask Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca if he would talk to board members about the reasons he proposed a similar panel in his jurisdiction.

There's still a long way to go before a specific panel is devised, approved and gets up and running. But the debate shifted significantly at the board meeting. The question has changed from “do we need this?” to “what kind of panel will we have?” All five supervisors agreed that civilian oversight is necessary to assure the public that its concerns about occasional misconduct by deputies are adequately, fairly and openly addressed.

Supervisor Bill Campbell initially had opposed the concept because he thought the proposed panel would operate similar to the Los Angeles City Police Commission, with its power to impose discipline and mandate policy changes. But he came to support the Orange County proposal after examining the specific idea of an advisory panel whose members would be appointed by the supervisors, who could then assure that no member is using the panel for grandstanding. Mr. Campbell said he was impressed with arguments by members of the Lincoln

If Orange County’s budget is “out of control,” as a recent campaign piece claims, then every city and county budget in this state is “out of control.”  Are we really “out of control?”  No.  I meet every two weeks with the County’s Budget Director.  The Board of Supervisors receives quarterly updates during one of its regular meetings.  Consequently, a recent OC Register headline stated “County on track to meet budget” (see MOORLACH UPDATE -- OC Register -- May 3, 2012).  Another recent article announced a reaffirmation of the County’s Double A-plus ratings from Fitch (see MOORLACH UPDATE -- Fitch Ratings -- April 19, 2012).  My State of the County clearly addressed all of the identified torpedoes aimed at the County that we are watching in order to keep our budget on track.  So when someone claims the County’s budget is “out of control,” it sounds like they are either not attuned to all of the efforts we are pursuing or they are reckless with silly-season rhetoric.

With that said, it’s time for me to finish my lecture.  Tony Saavedra and Jon Cassidy of the OC Register provided two great graphics last fall from my MOORLACH UPDATE -- Financial Restatements -- August 29, 2011 (see Footnote 1 below).  I created a chart that shows the unfunded liabilities per capita for the cities, in numerical order, in MOORLACH UPDATE -- Newport Beach Independent -- September 16, 2011 (see below).

I also provided you with the unrestricted net assets/deficit per capita for the governmental activities of our 34 cities as of June 30, 2010, in MOORLACH UPDATE -- Voice of OC -- October 10, 2011 (see below).

1              Laguna Beach                                    $1,890

2              La Palma                                              $1,720

3              Tustin                                                    $1,514

4              Cypress                                                $1,486

5              Laguna Niguel                                    $1,349

6              Villa Park                                              $1,262

7              Seal Beach                                          $1,241

8              Lake Forest                                         $1,234

9              Dana Point                                          $1,015

10           Newport Beach                                $1,008

11           Fountain Valley                                 $1,005

12           Garden Grove                                   $    756

13           Stanton                                                $    739

14           Westminster                                      $    641

15           Los Alamitos                                       $    623

16           Aliso Viejo                                           $    594

17           San Clemente                                    $    520

18           Laguna Woods                                  $    448

19           Yorba Linda                                         $    426

20           Costa Mesa                                        $    363

21           Irvine                                                    $    337

22           Mission Viejo                                     $    312

23           Rancho Santa Margarita                $    273

24           Buena Park                                         $    250

25           Laguna Hills                                         $    247

26           La Habra                                               $    193

27           Huntington Beach                            $    173

28           San Juan Capistrano                        $      69

29           Fullerton                                              $      50

30           Orange                                                 $      48

31           Santa Ana                                            $      47

                                                County of Orange                            $      (3)

32           Placentia                                              $  (193)

33           Anaheim                                              $  (356)

34           Brea                                                       $  (858)

Combining the two charts, this is what the true net assets per capita for each city would look like.  The Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB) is considering having municipalities include their unfunded liabilities on their balance sheets, albeit twenty-five years too late.  The math is done for you below.  You’ll see that the per capita for Orange County is a very serious negative number (thanks to being a public safety provider for contract cities).  However, the County is in better shape than that of the city of Orange.

•          1              Laguna Niguel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,243

•          2              Lake Forest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,130

•          3              Villa Park . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,096

•          4              Dana Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 803

•          5              La Palma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 731

•          6              Cypress. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 639

•          7              Aliso Viejo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .560

•          8              Tustin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  559

•          9              Stanton. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .483

•          10           Seal Beach. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415

•          11           Laguna Woods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387

•          12           San Clemente . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .258

•          13           Rancho Santa Margarita . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

•          14           Laguna Hills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .128

•          15           Mission Viejo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  86

•          16           Yorba Linda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .(50)

•          17           Irvine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .(410)

•          18           San Juan Capistrano . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .(430)

•          19           Laguna Beach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .(578)

•          20           Garden Grove . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (580)

The 2011-12 Orange County Grand Jury is concluding their year of service on June 30.  Consequently, they have started issuing their reports.  Their first is titled “’Let There Be Light’ – Dragging Special Districts From the Shadows” (see http://www.ocgrandjury.org/pdfs/lettherebelight/LetThereBeLight.pdf).

The second recommendation in their report (R2) states, “Community service districts should be absorbed either in the cities surrounding them or into surrounding private homeowners associations.  Each community service district should meet with LAFCO and with the appropriate city or homeowner’s association to develop plans and schedules for the future of these special districts.  This meeting should be take (sic) place before September 30, 2012.  (See F3, F4, & F12.)”

Allow me to provide these findings:

F3 – “Most non-enterprise special districts in Orange County have outlived their purpose and usefulness.  Services that they once (sic) only available through the special district are now being provided by the surrounding cities and the expanding county.”

F4 – “Some of these special districts could be . . . absorbed by . . . surrounding cities or homeowners associations wherein they abide.”

F12 – “The community services that the original non-enterprise special districts provided can be provided by the surrounding cities and the county that have engulfed these districts.  Continuing to collect taxes for these special duplicative services is a disservice to both the community they serve and the    

surrounding communities that provide the same or similar services.”

The Seal Beach Sun has an editorial submission by Erwin Anisman.  Erwin Anisman is a former president of the Rossmoor Homeowners Association (1998-2000) and was the Second Vice President of the Rossmoor Community Services District when we both dedicated the Life Trail in Rush Park.  The Life Trail is an exercise opportunity that my office contributed to the residents of Rossmoor and it was dedicated on January 12, 2008.  He provides what I would refer to as an observation from a “cooler head.”  He knows the landscape and he’s not impressed with what the Rossmoor Community Services District (RCSD) is doing.  Neither am I.  And I’ve made similar observations in many of my prior UPDATES.

The Grand Jury is obviously saying that a community services district is a dinosaur and should merge into a neighboring city.  The RCSD is swimming in the opposite direction.  It’s one thing to be slightly wrong, it’s another to display severe oppositional defiance.  And in the case of the RCSD, that defiance comes at a high cost from the retention of outside firms.

The County’s CEO continues to work to determine the actual costs incurred from all of the unincorporated areas.  He is tasked to do so in his job description.  As soon as Tom Mauk and his staff complete a thorough county-wide report, I will gladly forward it to the RCSD.

Opinion: Latent powers: to what end, RCSD? By Erwin Anisman   

·        

Erwin Anisman

For the past year the Rossmoor Community Services District has been on a costly quest to obtain financial data from the county which it believes will show that Rossmoor is a “donor” unincorporated community, that the taxes Rossmoor pays to the county exceeds the costs of services received. 

The county has said that such breakout data was not available as Rossmoor’s services were bundled with those of the other unincorporated communities they provide services to.  That did not satisfy the Board.  It insisted on the data and to that end retained a forensic CPA and a special outside attorney.  The District has not revealed what the costs spent for these expensive consultants have been or how much they are projected to be. 

The Board undertook this quest because it believes that being a donor would enhance its chances for obtaining so called “latent powers” from the county.  This would involve the county transferring certain services and their funding now provided by the county to the RCSD. 

The services RCSD has identified are animal control, law enforcement (sheriff) and trash collection.  By obtaining these services, it reasons, Rossmoor would be a less desirable target for annexation by Los Alamitos.  This fear of being annexed is a result of the OC Local Agency Formation Commission placing Rossmoor in the “sphere of influence” of Los Alamitos after the failed attempt at incorporation in 2008. 

However, the reality is that annexation will never happen as long as the people of Rossmoor don’t want it because any such attempt would require approval by a majority vote of its residents, an unlikely happening. 

Another reason touted to obtain latent powers is that the RCSD believes it could deliver those services better than the county.  While that may be the case for animal control, it is not the case for sheriff services or trash collection.  Even with animal control, it is not clear the District would be able to contract with the local Long Beach animal control agency.  With respect to transferring sheriff services, that was tried unsuccessfully several years ago. 

The county counsel’s position on this is that, by law, the county must provide the core law enforcement services to Rossmoor as they are doing now.  Any additional services would have to be paid for by Rossmoor residents.  A recent survey, requested by the RCSD, showed residents were overwhelmingly satisfied with the current level of sheriff services. 

So why is the RCSD continuing to pursue this?  The Board has not accepted the county counsel’s position and has now elevated this dispute by appealing to the state attorney general for an opinion in this matter.  And the meter continues to tick.

Supervisor John Moorlach has expressed his opposition to granting latent powers, whether Rossmoor is a donor or not, because it is the county’s policy to divest their unincorporated areas.  As he is chairman of the Board of Supervisors as well as a LAFCO Board member, it is very unlikely that a transfer of any county services will take place regardless of the attorney general’s opinion.  This disagreement with Mr. Moorlach has unfortunately escalated and has become personal.  Unkind words have been thrown out at some of the RCSD meetings.  This is not conducive for maintaining good relations with the county. 

It is time for the District to halt this futile pursuit and stop wasting the taxpayer’s money.

Erwin Anisman is a resident of Rossmoor.

FIVE-YEAR LOOK BACKS

May 18

2007

Tony Saavedra and Rachanee Srisavasdi of the OC Register provided the beginning of a process that just recently concluded with the sentencing of the last inmate involved in the John Derek Chamberlain murder in the Theo Lacy Jail.  The piece was titled “Grand jury to investigate jail death – Orange County is also considering a civilian review panel to scrutinize deputies.”  Here is a Reader’s Digest version:

The announcement Thursday of a special grand jury that will look into the jailhouse death of John Derek Chamberlain comes days before county lawmakers are scheduled to consider creating a panel of their own: a civilian review board to scrutinize the Sheriff's Department.

District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said in a statement that his office and the grand jury will conduct "a very thorough investigation of all the circumstances surrounding (Chamberlain's) death."

Boosting the firestorm is a $25 million liability claim filed against the county by Chamberlain's father. Attorney Jerry Steering, who represents George Chamberlain, looked at the grand jury with a jaundiced eye.  "It's a way the district attorney can weasel out of filing (more) criminal charges," Steering said.

The special grand jury was formed because the existing panel expires June 30.

Supervisor John Moorlach, who is proposing the civilian panel Tuesday, said he hoped for positive change in the sheriff’s operation.  “The only concern I have is that the public feels comfortable with what’s happening with our jails and our deputy sheriffs,” he said.

Disclaimer:  You have been added to my MOORLACH UPDATE communication e-mail tree.  In lieu of a weekly newsletter, you will receive occasional media updates, some with commentary to explain the situation, whenever I appear in the media (unless it is a duplication of a previous story). 

I have two thoughts for you to consider:  (1) my office does not usually issue press releases to get into the newspapers (only in rare cases); and (2) I do not write the articles, opinions or letters to the editor. 

This message should appear at the bottom of every e-mail you receive.  If these e-mails should stop arriving in your mail box, it will be because your address has changed and you did not provide a new one.  If you do not wish to receive these e-mails, then please e-mail back and request to unsubscribe.

Monday’s OCTA Board meeting had another interesting item on its agenda:  the 19^th Street Bridge.  The Daily Pilot provides the details.  To be concise on this matter, we held a public hearing in the area chosen by all four cities involved (Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa, and Newport Beach).  We heard the public input loud and clear.  We’ll pursue a process to address certain concerns raised by the city of Newport Beach and then we’ll move on.  The six month continuation is part of the process, to develop traffic solutions in lieu of the Bridge, not to attempt to keep it on the Master Plan of Arterial Highways.

19th Street Bridge back on the radar

The issue is expected to be back within six months after a traffic study that involves the county, state and three affected cities.

By Joseph Serna

The proposed bridge once thought to be off the table that would link Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach is back.

Orange County Transportation Authority board members voted 17 to 0 Monday to pull back deleting the 19th Street Bridge from the county's master plan.

Huntington Beach Mayor Don Hansen made the motion, to which County Supervisor John Moorlach seconded. Supervisor Janet Nguyen abstained.

The change, however, may only be temporary, OCTA officials said.

The board is expected to take up the issue again within six months, after OCTA staff work on a traffic study with the county, the California Department of Transportation, and the cities of Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach and Newport Beach. The idea is to build consensus among all three affected cities where the bridge can be deleted from the plan while also having traffic concerns addressed.

Before Monday's vote, it was perhaps the closest 19th Street Bridge opponents have gotten to fulfilling their goal after decades of fighting city councils and OCTA bureaucracy.

Before the vote, residents say, every 10 years or so someone has tried to revive talks of creating the 19th Street Bridge, which would link Costa Mesa at 19th Street and Huntington Beach at Banning Avenue over the Santa Ana River. Cities for decades have failed to agree on whether to build the bridge or delete it from the county's master plan, which dates back to the 1950s.

Last year, however, was different. Newport Beach Councilman Steve Rosansky, who is termed out this year, tried to rally Moorlach and the Costa Mesa City Council to his side of having the bridge, which Newport officials believe is a solution to growing traffic concerns on Coast Highway.

The effort blew up in Rosansky's face in January, when more than 700 angry Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach residents packed an elementary school auditorium and let him, Hansen, Moorlach, Costa Mesa leaders and OCTA know how vehemently they were against the bridge.

Politicians like Moorlach, who said he was on the fence about the issue, ended up siding with the public majority.

The momentum carried over politically, and earlier this year Hansen led a charge for Huntington Beach to reiterate its opposition to the bridge — a move mirrored by the Costa Mesa City Council.

Costa Mesa took it a step further and requested that OCTA remove the bridge from the master plan, despite not having the consensus required by OCTA policy. Newport Beach remained the lone holdout.

Despite Newport's opposition, OCTA obliged Costa Mesa and deleted the bridge from the plan. Two public groups opposed that decision and appealed, arguing that the move violated OCTA policy.

The OCTA board rejected the appeal Monday, but still reversed its previous decision.

The board will discuss the traffic study and bridge during or before its Nov. 26 meeting, OCTA officials said.

In the interim, residents are again putting out a call for action.

An email sent out Tuesday to 19th Street Bridge opponents called for residents to demand that OCTA involve affected neighborhoods in its traffic study. A second email keeps alive any concerns that Bluff Road in Newport will be expanded through Banning Ranch into Costa Mesa in lieu of the bridge.

joseph.serna@latimes.com

Disclaimer:  You have been added to my MOORLACH UPDATE communication e-mail tree.  In lieu of a weekly newsletter, you will receive occasional media updates, some with commentary to explain the situation, whenever I appear in the media (unless it is a duplication of a previous story). 

I have two thoughts for you to consider:  (1) my office does not usually issue press releases to get into the newspapers (only in rare cases); and (2) I do not write the articles, opinions or letters to the editor. 

This message should appear at the bottom of every e-mail you receive.  If these e-mails should stop arriving in your mail box, it will be because your address has changed and you did not provide a new one.  If you do not wish to receive these e-mails, then please e-mail back and request to unsubscribe.

The Orange County Transportation Authority Board had a difficult time with the “Update on the California High-Speed Rail Program Revised 2012 Business Plan” (agenda item 27), at yesterday’s meeting.  The Voice of OC provides the details.

OCTA Unfriendly to High-Speed Rail

Gov. Jerry Brown and state high-speed rail officials were urged Monday by a unanimous Orange County Transportation Authority board to forget the $68-billion bullet train project and create instead a basic state rail system.

One after another, board members told Valerie Martinez, the local representative of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, they couldn’t rely on the rail authority’s cost estimates and financing plans.

“Take a little more common-sense approach to this,” urged Orange Mayor Carolyn V. Cavecche. She said public support for the project “has plummeted” as the number of official reports criticizing the financing and management of the Anaheim-to-San Francisco project have mounted.

Several OCTA board members specifically noted there is no passenger train service of any kind through the Central Valley from Los Angeles to northern California because of a “gap” between Palmdale and Bakersfield, where there is a track for freight but not for passengers.

And state officials have said financing for high-speed rail now is supposed to come largely from “cap and trade” money or pollution credits.

Brown is even getting the caution flag from OCTA board member and Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido, who considers himself a friend and supporter of the governor.

Pulido told the OCTA board it would “behoove us not to put too much faith” in cap and trade as a source of high-speed rail funding. He said there will be a great deal of competition from a number of projects for that money.

“Let’s slow down,” said Pulido, a Democrat. “Let’s let things become much more clear.”

Three Republican OCTA board members, supervisors Shawn Nelson, John Moorlach and Pat Bates, a former assemblywoman, each voiced strong skepticism.

“My question is, where is this money going to come from?” asked Nelson.

“It comes from hope,” said Bates.

“I find it all very surreal,” said Moorlach, noting there is no history of passenger rail traffic through the Central Valley to demonstrate there is a need for high-speed rail.

Lake Forest Mayor Peter Herzog said the only thing that currently available money would pay for is new rail track running parallel to existing track with still no way to connect passenger service between Bakersfield to Palmdale.

The quickest way to get a train system that would run from Los Angeles to San Francisco through the Central Valley is to “fill the gap,” said Herzog, who proposed drafting a letter to high-speed rail officials.

He said such a system would “unify the entire state” and enable Republicans and Democrats in the state’s congressional delegation to lobby other members of Congress for money. Currently Republicans in the House of Representatives are saying they won’t vote for more high-speed rail money.

The board unanimously decided to draft a letter to state officials and bring it back to the board for approval before sending it.

Their action came as federal rail officials have insisted the project begin laying track in the Central Valley and, according to the Los Angeles Times, have pressured the Legislature to approve state bond money in the next few weeks, rather than waiting until August, as some legislators preferred.

The Times also reported Monday that California would have to move at unprecedented speed to meet all deadlines and qualify for existing federal funds.

According to the Times:

The bullet train track through the Central Valley would cost $6 billion and have to be completed by September 2017, or else potentially lose some of its federal funding. It would mean spending as much as $3.5 million every calendar day, holidays and weekends included — the fastest rate of transportation construction known in U.S. history, according to industry and academic experts.

State Senate committees charged with oversight of high-speed rail budgeting and construction legislation are scheduled to meet Tuesday to hear analysis from the independent legislative analyst’s office and the state auditor. Both have strongly criticized the rail authority’s financial plans and management.

— TRACY WOOD

FIVE-YEAR LOOK BACKS

May 12

1997

Howard Fine of the Orange County Business Journal provided an update on alternative municipal investment opportunities in “Small Fry Form New Investment Pool – Lake Forest, West Hollywood Seek More Investors.”  There was also a side bar story titled “Getting Past the Past,” where I stated the obvious:  “A lot of . . . cities would find it difficult politically to invest in the county pool, because the bankruptcy is still so fresh in people’s minds.”  Here a few paragraphs:

                For decades, the Orange County Investment Pool was the only locally-run municipal investment pool in town.  It was a wildly popular pool, too, until Bob Citron’s house of cards collapsed.

These days, current OC treasurer John Moorlach is running the OCIP in a safer but less exciting style.  And, as of March 24, there is a new kid on the block:  The city of Lake Forest has teamed up with the city of West Hollywood to form a new municipal investment pool that is being managed and backed by MBIA Inc., the nation’s largest municipal bond insurer.

If the new pool does gather momentum, one potential loser could be county treasurer-tax collector John Moorlach, who is trying to drum up support for cities to return to the county pool.  But Moorlach says he welcomes the competition; to him, it’s a zero-sum game.

“When I campaigned for treasurer in 1994, I was constantly complaining about the lack of competition to (former Treasurer-Tax Collector Robert) Citron’s pool,” Moorlach said.

Disclaimer:  You have been added to my MOORLACH UPDATE communication e-mail tree.  In lieu of a weekly newsletter, you will receive occasional media updates, some with commentary to explain the situation, whenever I appear in the media (unless it is a duplication of a previous story). 

I have two thoughts for you to consider:  (1) my office does not usually issue press releases to get into the newspapers (only in rare cases); and (2) I do not write the articles, opinions or letters to the editor. 

This message should appear at the bottom of every e-mail you receive.  If these e-mails should stop arriving in your mail box, it will be because your address has changed and you did not provide a new one.  If you do not wish to receive these e-mails, then please e-mail back and request to unsubscribe.

The Ten-Year Plan to End Homelessness, and the resulting Ending Homelessness Commission, has been a work in progress.  At our most recent Executive Committee meeting, I noted that although our mandate is massive, we are seeing forward movement and direction.  We will always have the homeless, but working with governments, nonprofits, and the business community, has been a rewarding collaboration.  We all know that we have a long way to go, but we are moving and that is great progress.  Last evening, I was recognized by one of the nonprofits that has been at the forefront of shaping a coordinated effort to assist individuals in need.  Consequently, for them to recognize my small contribution was both humbling and embarrassing.  Personally I just want to do good work that is motivated by proper intent, and being recognized is awkward for me; but it is also gratifying.  Thank you, 2-1-1, for the “atta boy.”  The Voice of OC (he said tongue in cheek) provides an unbiased piece on last night’s event below.

2-1-1 OC Honors Five “Neighbors Who Have Made a Difference”

The service organization 2-1-1 Orange County will honor five local residents Thursday for their outstanding contributions to improving the quality of life across Orange County.

The honors will be presented at the organization’s annual “Toast & Tribute" fundraising event at the Newport Beach Vineyards and Winery.

The five honorees, dubbed “Neighbors Who’ve Made a Difference,” are:

Vivian Clecak, CEO of the non-profit Human Options that addresses domestic violence issues;

Max Gardner, CEO of Orange County’s United Way;

County Supervisor John Moorlach for his work on homelessness;

Oladele Ogunseita, who is the founding chairman of the Department of Population Health and Disease Prevention at UC Irvine; and

Norberto Santana Jr., Voice of OC editor-in-chief for his newsroom’s work on covering issues involving the health and human sector.

2-1-1 Orange County is a nonprofit devoted to “helping people find the help they need.”

The organization operates a call center that assists local residents with critical information and referrals to local agencies and philanthropies addressing a broad range of challenges.

Each year, 2-1-1 Orange County answers more than 100,000 calls from community members seeking assistance and provides more than 225,000 referrals to such “basic needs” services as food and rental assistance, job placement, health care and various other social services.

2-1-1 Orange County is supported by local foundations, United Way, county and city contracts and individual donations.

FIVE-YEAR LOOK BACKS

May 11

2007

The Orange County Grand Jury is seated for twelve months.  They start on July 1^st and conclude on June 30^th.  Consequently, in May and June the Grand Jury releases their reports to the public.  Christian Berthelsen of the LA Times provided coverage on one of the reports in “Boat moorings in Newport being sold, report says – Private brokers and yacht clubs are transferring permits even though the public owns them, grand jury reports.”  This was one of the better reports that the Grand Jury publishes.  Here are the two opening and closing paragraphs:

Boaters in Newport Harbor are exploiting loopholes in a law to "sell" publicly owned moorings, resulting in some owners waiting years — sometimes decades — to get a spot to tie up their yachts, according to a grand jury report released Thursday.

Private brokers have created a cottage industry selling rights to mooring slips along with the boats that are registered to them, allowing buyers to circumvent the long wait others endure to get one of the 1,235 moorings in the harbor, the report said.

"There certainly are some issues here that need to be addressed," said Supervisor John Moorlach, whose district includes Newport Harbor.

Disclaimer:  You have been added to my MOORLACH UPDATE communication e-mail tree.  In lieu of a weekly newsletter, you will receive occasional media updates, some with commentary to explain the situation, whenever I appear in the media (unless it is a duplication of a previous story). 

I have two thoughts for you to consider:  (1) my office does not usually issue press releases to get into the newspapers (only in rare cases); and (2) I do not write the articles, opinions or letters to the editor. 

This message should appear at the bottom of every e-mail you receive.  If these e-mails should stop arriving in your mail box, it will be because your address has changed and you did not provide a new one.  If you do not wish to receive these e-mails, then please e-mail back and request to unsubscribe.

CalOptima is an organization with an annual budget that is larger than that of the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA).  CalOptima is the second largest health insurer in Orange County, covering almost one-third of the County’s children.  As a Medi-Cal provider for low-income families, children, seniors, and persons with disabilities, it serves the neediest in the County, or about one out of every seven residents.

I had the privilege of serving on the CalOptima Board during my first term.  The initial priority was to achieve solvency and to build adequate reserves.  I’m proud of the fact that CalOptima was able to accomplish this critical goal within a couple of years.  We were able to do this because CalOptima had a top-notch management team.  Subsequently, in spite of recent opposing votes by Supervisor Nelson and myself, certain changes have been made by the Board of Supervisors to the by-laws of CalOptima and other CalOptima related policies.  In less than eighteen months, the majority of the management team has left CalOptima.  Fortunately for them, they were recruited away by fine organizations and are probably earning better compensation packages. 

With the recent changes, we now find that most of the CalOptima Board members have been in place for only four months or less.  It appears to me that Board members with any length of service are being systematically squeezed out, through bullying and/or bureaucratic sleight of hand.   Watching this implosion, after investing four years of my life into this award-winning organization, has been extremely grievous.  At Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, I announced that Jim McAleer resigned from the CalOptima Board.  Jim is the President and CEO of the Alzheimer’s Association Orange County and is a talented professional.  This is huge loss for CalOptima’s Board.  I hate to see Jim step down, but I cannot argue with the logic of his decision or the gravity of his concerns.  A few hours after the Board of Supervisors meeting, the CalOptima Board held a special meeting to vote on forcing Ed Kacic, President and CEO of the Irvine Health Foundation, to temporarily step down as the Chairman of the CalOptima Board, while more anonymous allegations against Kacic are “investigated” by the CalOptima Compliance Office.  The ongoing destabilization of CalOptima is covered by the Voice of OC in the first piece below.

The second piece below is from PublicCEO.com.  At Tuesday’s (May 8) Board of Supervisors meeting, the Board voted to file a claim for funds due to the County from the State.  This past income tax season, you may have seen a series of television commercials from H&R BLOCK, the tax preparation company.  Their pitch was “come in for a second look review (we find money others miss).”  During my tax practice days, we would always review the prior returns of new clients.  If we could find that they had failed to claim a deduction in a prior year, that would be a value-added service, as it would result in a refund.  In order to obtain the refund, you had to file an amended return.  The refund was always available to the client; they just may have failed to obtain it through an oversight or misunderstanding.  Now that the State of California is making an issue of the County’s purported vehicle license fee, the County is filing an amended tax return, so to speak, for the tax year 2010-11.  It was always the County’s money, we just failed to obtain it.  In their recently filed lawsuit, the State claims that the County is stealing money from them.  The truth is quite the opposite.  The State has been benefiting from the County’s tax dollars and the County should get them back.

CalOptima Board Shakeup Called a Coup

NORBERTO SANTANA JR.  

Amidst controversial ousters and resignations, Orange County Supervisor Janet Nguyen Tuesday solidified her grip over CalOptima, the county’s $1.4-billion managed health care program for the poor and elderly.

But there are mounting questions about the stability of the agency that Nguyen is seeking to remake.

During a special Tuesday afternoon meeting at the agency’s headquarters in Orange, board members voted for the ouster of Ed Kacic as board chairman. Kacic openly confronted CalOptima General Counsel Gary Crockett over the legality of the meeting.

Crockett publicly maintained that recent meetings have been in full compliance with the state’s open meeting laws.

In the meantime, county Health Care Agency Director Mark Refowitz was unanimously elected to take over as CalOptima chair. Lee Penrose, president and CEO of St. Jude Medical Center, was elected vice chair.

New board appointees were visibly nervous about the situation they have inherited. Refowitz publicly declared he hoped his reign would be the shortest in history.

Tuesday’s vote came after the resignation of CalOptima Vice Chair Jim McAleer, who wrote to county supervisors this week saying he was resigning in protest because of the instability created at CalOptima by Nguyen’s jockeying for control.

McAleer also alerted county supervisors to a pattern of violations of the state’s open meetings laws, noting that Crockett was calling meetings without consensus from board members.

Other CalOptima board members, including Kacic and Mary Anne Foo, also questioned how Tuesday’s meeting had been convened.

“I’m confused about today’s meeting,” said Foo, who runs the board nominations committee for offices such as chair. “I never got a call.”

In an interview late Tuesday, McAleer took direct aim at Crockett, saying he had pressured McAleer to not forward his concerns to the county grand jury.

“I expressed reservations about Brown Act violations to CalOptima internal counsel Gary Crockett, and he called me and said my option was to go to the grand jury. But he recommended against it, because, he said, they could look too deeply into what has happened, and once you open the door you can’t close it. I pushed back, and he said I should really be careful about taking that action,” McAleer said.

McAleer, who serves 70,000 families as executive director of the Orange County Alzheimer’s Association, was universally praised Tuesday both by county supervisors Chairman John Moorlach and a majority of CalOptima board members, including Nguyen, for his service and professionalism.

Yet McAleer said supervisors have essentially allowed the agency to be dismantled.

Late Tuesday, he wondered whether his resignation would make a difference, because no high-ranking official who praised his service mentioned his stated reasons.

Moorlach noted McAleer's exit at Tuesday’s supervisors meeting without mentioning McAleer's concerns. “One would think that would cause some kind of activity, but I wonder what it's caused,” McAleer said.

At Tuesday’s CalOptima meeting, Refowitz called McAleer “an example of an incredible volunteer,” adding that he wanted “to recognize his incredible contribution to this organization.”

“Everybody says what a great guy, sorry he’s gone, and nobody stops to say why he’s leaving,” McAleer said. “And if you look at my letter, it has nothing to do with my personal life,” he said.

McAleer said he has watched silently since Nguyen was appointed and has seen the agency dissolve into chaos because of her micromanagement and jockeying for control of the agency.

More than half the agency’s top executives have left in recent months, jeopardizing CalOptima’s transition in the next few years to operations under the new national health care law.

“How can you run a $1.4-billion organization with more than half the attrition of your senior managers? Why are they able to leave so quickly? Because they were quality executives … ,” McAleer said

“We’re dismantling all the things that made us a statewide and nationwide model. Who could sit and watch that?”

McAleer acknowledged that Nguyen has arrived as an agent of change but he questions what kind of change she is bringing.

“Supervisor Nguyen came on the board and believed there were significant issues with CalOptima. I have yet to see those significant issues come to light, and I reached the point where I can’t support the changes anymore,” he said.

“I hope officials will look at what CalOptima was a year ago and what it is now,” he said.

Nguyen, who has portrayed the senior executive ranks of CalOptima as out of touch with their responsibilities as a semipublic agency, has repeatedly said she is attempting to make the agency more transparent by asking tough questions.

McAleer said he has learned that many of the top executives who left the agency were called to Nguyen’s office and grilled on their performance. That created a chill over the executive ranks, he said.

There are two ongoing investigations of board members, and on Tuesday, Kacic was asked to step down while an inquiry about his own dealings at the agency concluded.

Kacic on Tuesday characterized the review of a private-public partnership he lead at the agency as puzzling, saying the partnership was handled properly.

“Tens of millions will be coming into Orange County,” Kacic said, adding that there has been “no tangible benefit that has accrued to anyone.”

Nguyen shot back at Kacic, saying, “I’ve never disputed MSC [Managed System of Care] as a good entity or that the mission was incorrect,” she said. “The one thing that I’ve asked — and I haven’t seen it to this day — is a business plan.”

Nguyen also criticized plans to purchase a new building for a CalOptima program for elderly care called PACE (Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly).

Because much of the battle and debate over these issues has taken place in closed sessions, Nguyen said she can not discuss them publicly. In fact, on Tuesday, board members danced around a series of issues saying they involved closed session deliberations.

On Tuesday, Nugyen told Kacic he had instigated his own public ouster by refusing to step aside quietly while the reviews finished.

“We thought it would be simple, it wouldn’t embarrass anyone,” she said.

McAleer said the jockeying for control has destroyed the agency.

“We’ve become the group trying to get Ed Kacic as opposed to the group that’s here to serve the most vulnerable," McAleer said. "I can’t do it anymore.”

Please contact Norberto Santana Jr. directly at nsantana@voiceofoc.org and follow him on Twitter: twitter.com/norbertosantana.

County of Orange Files Claim Against State of California

Dan Oney

The County of Orange has filed a claim against the State of California seeking over $23 million in Vehicle License Fee Adjustment Amount (VLFAA) owed to the County for Fiscal Year 2010-11.

“Going back to 2005, the State of California has received the benefit of millions of dollars in property taxes that should have been available to provide services to the people of Orange County,” said John M.W. Moorlach, Chairman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors. “This claim seeks to restore some of the property tax funding that Orange County should have received.”

The County believes it has been significantly shortchanged by the State in relation to other counties in the distribution of property taxes since 2005-06. The State received this financial windfall in violation of the constitutional requirement for counties to receive uniform treatment.

At issue is how the State calculated amounts owed to Orange County following the 2004 Vehicle License Fee swap, under which most counties received property taxes called “VLFAA” to replace Vehicle License Fees (VLF). The County of Orange continued to receive some VLF revenues that were pledged as security for bankruptcy debt and a reduced amount of VLFAA. However, this pledge was removed in 2005. In the years that followed, VLF revenues decreased, while property tax revenues which fund VLFAA increased dramatically. The continued unnecessary VLF set aside resulted in significant decreased property taxes to the County.

FIVE-YEAR LOOK BACKS

May 10

2007

Alicia Robinson of the Daily Pilot stayed on the subject with “Annexation plan revealed – County supervisor gives details of idea to divvy up areas that border Newport Beach and Costa Mesa.”  The negotiations were fun and are still ongoing.  There are some modifications to the plan provided below.  The Santa Ana Country Club and the neighborhood south of Mesa Drive are now anticipated to be annexed into Newport Beach.

Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach's plan for Newport Beach and Costa Mesa annexations would resolve ongoing disputes between the cities, but it may not win universal approval.

Costa Mesa and Newport Beach have fought for years over four main unincorporated areas — West Santa Ana Heights, the Santa Ana Country Club, a neighborhood south of Mesa Drive, and Banning Ranch, the part of Moorlach's deal that could cause it to unravel.

"I think we've been very clear that Banning Ranch is not something we were looking to put in the mix," Newport Beach Mayor Steve Rosansky said.

Moorlach worked for months with leaders from both cities, representatives of the unincorporated areas and other interested parties. Here are the key points of the proposal he announced Wednesday.

·  Each city would get some of Banning Ranch, but how it would be divided is still being hammered out. Newport probably would get the bulk of the 412 acres but would have to give up sections of a 1-foot-wide strip of city property that surrounds Banning Ranch.

·  Orange County would hand over Talbert Regional Park to Costa Mesa. Newport Beach would take over the county-owned portion of the Upper Newport Bay.

·  Most of West Santa Ana Heights, which is north of Mesa Drive and east of Santa Ana Avenue, would be annexed to Newport Beach.

·  The westernmost strip of West Santa Ana Heights would become part of Costa Mesa, as would the Santa Ana Country Club and the area south of Mesa Drive.

·  Moorlach suggested federally owned wetlands on the west edge of Banning Ranch, along the Santa Ana River, could go to Costa Mesa. When joined with Talbert and Fairview parks, the wetlands would help create a continuous river park.

Costa Mesa also wants a triangular piece of land on the northeast corner of Banning Ranch to develop bluff-top homes.

In addition, Moorlach proposed that Newport get a small parcel known as the Emerson tract, and that if supervisors agree to let the city take over Harbor Patrol services from the sheriff, some county money would come with it, such as income from Newport Dunes.

The Orange County Local Agency Formation Commission on Wednesday voted to postpone any decisions on the annexations until July. Moorlach wanted that time to do a little more negotiating.

Commission members, Costa Mesa officials, and Barbara Venezia, who represents Santa Ana Heights residents, said the plan is a good start, but others were underwhelmed.

People who live in the area south of Mesa Drive and members of the Santa Ana Country Club have applied to be annexed to Newport Beach, and they aren't likely to agree to anything else.

Under state law, residents of an unincorporated area can hold a protest vote to prevent being annexed, and that's what may happen if officials force the issue here.

Cal McLaughlin, who lives in the tract south of Mesa Drive, wrote in an e-mail after Wednesday's meeting that he considers Moorlach's plan "a nonstarter" as far as his neighborhood is concerned.

"It is exactly what we rejected in 2002," he wrote. "If they try to implement that plan we will protest out of the annexation to Costa Mesa."

Alicia Robinson also had this small mention in her Thursday weekly column, under the headline “Reaching out for support.”

If you want to rally folks to your cause, you have to reach them, and today's method of choice is usually the Internet.

New websites have been launched by Newport Beach Golf Course supporters, who hope to block any changes to the use of the county-owned land where the back nine holes are, and Newport Beach residents with concerns about drug and alcohol recovery homes in their neighborhoods.

At the golf course site, www.savenewportbeachgolfcourse.com, you can read about the issue or send an e-mail to the Orange County Board of Supervisors, the Newport Beach City Council or the Daily Pilot about it (you may have to type in www.savenewportbeachgolfcourse.com/email to send an e-mail). Some might be happier not to receive too many letters, however — Newport Beach Mayor Steve Rosansky and Supervisor John Moorlach joked Tuesday about how many they've already received.

Newport's council voted to back the golf course if the county suggests another use for the land, and Moorlach also expressed his support.

The other recently launched site, www.publicvoice.us, was set up by Linda Orozco, a Newport Beach resident who has been interested since 2003 in curbing the number of drug recovery homes in town.

The site explains the problems residents believe the homes have caused and their view of how the city of Newport Beach has failed in addressing the issues.

Jeff Overley of the OC Register also weighed in with “Annexation progress seen – Newport and Costa Mesa officials weigh "global solution" involving parks, but differences remain.”

After months of behind-the-scenes talks, a proposed "global solution" to annexation issues between Newport Beach and Costa Mesa was detailed Wednesday.

The plan devised by Supervisor John Moorlach calls for Newport to annex the 64-acre West Santa Ana Heights neighborhood. Costa Mesa would annex the Santa Ana Country Club and an adjacent area south of Mesa Drive.

The cities would divvy up 357 acres of Banning Ranch, a rugged swath of brush and oil wells. The plan also calls for:

•Newport to manage the county-run Upper Newport Bay Regional Park, and Costa Mesa to manage the county-run Talbert Regional Park.

•A study of transferring Harbor Patrol duties from the Sheriff's Department to the Newport Beach Police Department. To offset costs, Newport would get funding from county-owned land at Newport Dunes.

A sticking point is how Banning Ranch will be divided. Draft plans call for Costa Mesa to control a wide band of wetland and lowland, creating a contiguous park from West Coast Highway to Adams Avenue along the Santa Ana River. But Costa Mesa officials also want a bluff-top property for development, something Newport is resisting. "The real issue is going to be developable land given to Costa Mesa," Councilman Eric Bever said.

It's also unclear if the country club and residents in the area that would be annexed to Costa Mesa will play ball. They fought bitterly when Costa Mesa sought to annex them in 2002, and still retain a lawyer.

Newport City Manager Homer Bludau is skeptical. "I think the variety and number of issues are probably too complex to be contained in a single, comprehensive agreement," he said.

County officials are hoping for a deal in 60 days.

Disclaimer:  You have been added to my MOORLACH UPDATE communication e-mail tree.  In lieu of a weekly newsletter, you will receive occasional media updates, some with commentary to explain the situation, whenever I appear in the media (unless it is a duplication of a previous story). 

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The most interesting item on yesterday’s Board of Supervisors agenda was the discussion about rebuilding our self-funded reserves and how quickly it should be done.  The Voice of OC, as seen on PennLive.com, provides the story before the vote in the first piece below.

The Kelly Thomas murder hearings are garnering national press.  It also provides an opportunity for some to lobby for the implementation of Laura’s Law, an option that has found me immersed in research and fiscal analysis.  After a long interview with the LA Times, will you see the finished product in the second piece below (which is being published in multiple newspapers).

The third piece is in the Daily Pilot and it announces a great annual tradition to recognize members of the Newport-Mesa service clubs.  Becoming a Rotarian (a service club) at a young age was an integral influence for getting me more involved in my community.  If you know someone who would be a great candidate to nominate from a service club, community group or congregation, then check out the final piece below.

Alarms Sounded Over Workers Comp Reserves

Declining reserve balances for workers' compensation have county finance officials sounding alarm bells.

The county’s current workers compensation self-insurance fund is funded at 60 percent of expected losses over a five-year period. Meanwhile, the county’s property and casualty risk self-insurance fund has dropped to a 55 percent funding level.

In a mandated report (http://cams.ocgov.com/Web_Publisher/Agenda05_08_2012_files/images/A12-000597.HTM) to county supervisors, county finance staffers are proposing that the workers comp fund be held steady at an 80 percent ratio and the property and casualty fund should be at 75 percent.

The report is the result of a county performance audit in January that found the county does not have a policy for reserve levels for the internal self-insurance fund. That report suggested that supervisors consider adopting a policy.

The issue highlights how county supervisors have been cushioning rising personnel costs, especially in public safety, by raiding internal funds like workers compensation.

From the county staff report:

The current funding policies, while resulting in lower funding levels than optimally desired, reflect the balancing of priorities during the recession. A stricter policy would have resulted in higher charges to the County departments including the Sheriff’s department (about 40% of all Liability/Worker’s Compensation charges). This in turn would have resulted in increased costs to contract partners and the County General Fund (Net County Cost). As the Board is aware, the Sheriff requested a delay in the rate increases for these programs in last year’s budget process. With a stricter Funding Policy, the rate increases would have been higher than those implemented.

Should county supervisors adopt the staff recommendation, it would reverse that practice, but also trigger increases in county personnel costs for each department.

County finance staff are proposing to phase-in the increases at 10 percent each year (about $2 to $3 million per dept) for the next five years.

County Supervisors’ Chairman John Moorlach highlighted the practice in his State of the County address earlier this year and said he’s looking forward to a lively discussion at today’s regular weekly public meeting.

Moorlach said he’s curious about what is the right level of funding for such reserves and how fast they should be restored. He’s also wondering what county leaders can do to offer workers incentives that lower such costs.

“It’s another liability,” Moorlach said. “So we have to ask what kind of legacy does this board leave to others.”

--NORBERTO SANTANA, JR.

Advocates for mentally ill hope videotaped beating of homeless man could be turning point

"I sleep in trash cans."

It is a minute and 45 seconds into the security camera video. Kelly Thomas, 37, jaws with police officers at a Fullerton, Calif., bus depot, his arms crossed over his bare chest, his backpack double-strapped. It is the night of July 5, 2011, about 8:30. It's still 80 degrees outside. A few pedestrians wander by. A car passes. There is no indication that the lives of every person on the tape are about to change.

"You planning on going to sleep pretty soon?" one officer asks.

"I'd like to," Thomas replies.

But another officer, Manuel Ramos, isn't done. "It seems like every day we have to talk to you about something," Ramos says, twirling his baton. "Do you enjoy it?"

It is a critical moment - 2:12 on the video. From that point forward, the exchange spirals out of control. At 15:47, Thomas receives the first blow from a baton. At 17:29, officers pile on top of Thomas, who screams: "I can't breathe!" At 21:25, blood gurgles in Thomas' throat. At 21:49, he shrieks: "Daddy! Daddy!" At 22:36 come his last words: "Help me! Help me!"

This week, after the tape was played for the first time in court, it exploded in the public consciousness - one YouTube version had been viewed 91 times each minute - and became an instant touchstone for those who advocate for a more robust and effective mental health system.

Advocates for the mentally ill said they viewed the recording, the centerpiece of the prosecution's case against two officers accused in Thomas' death, as something akin to their Rodney King video.

In the case of the King video, civic activists felt they had a record, at long last, of something they'd been trying to articulate for years: that the relationship between African-Americans and Los Angeles police was fundamentally broken. Similarly, advocates for the mentally ill say they now have a record of a scattershot, chronically underfunded mental health system. This is what it looks like, they said, when schizophrenics fend for themselves on the streets, when their only interface with the government is with haplessly unprepared police officers.

"I think I'm a fairly strong woman. I've seen a lot of tragedy over the years. But I am reeling," said Carla Jacobs, a veteran Southern California mental health activist, shortly after watching the recording.

The tape, she noted, will be picked apart during the legal proceedings. Some will argue, she said, that Thomas should have been more respectful, and worked harder to follow instructions. Others will argue that the officers should have received better training. None of that, she contended, will matter in the end.

"As far as I'm concerned, the blame - the guilt - is on the mental health system that left Kelly out on the street and didn't provide him with the treatment that could have prevented this horror," she said. "I hope we can develop a collective memory and recognize the tragedy that we have caused."

In interviews, advocates said the beating death and its recording could fuel meaningful reform - in mental health funding; in the use of coordinated, "wrap-around" social services; in persuading wary or defiant patients to consent to treatment; and, in particular, in the training of police officers to defuse encounters with the mentally ill.

"It is my personal crusade to change the way police officers deal with the mentally ill," said Thomas' father, Ron Thomas.

Kelly Thomas suffered brain injuries, shattered facial bones, broken ribs and a crushed thorax. He was taken off life support by his family and died five days after his beating.

Ramos, 38, is charged with second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter; a second officer, Cpl. Jay Cicinelli, 40, has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and using excessive force. Ramos faces a life prison term; Cicinelli could be sentenced to four years in prison. Both have pleaded not guilty.

The black-and-white recording, lifted from a city surveillance camera, was played in public for the first time Monday at a preliminary hearing to determine whether the case should go to trial.

The recording was not equipped with sound, but authorities paired it with audio recordings lifted from devices attached to some of the officers' uniforms. On the recording, Ramos is seen pulling on latex gloves - and can be heard telling Thomas that he is "getting ready to ... you up." Cicinelli can be seen striking Thomas - and heard telling a colleague: "I just smashed his face to hell."

"The audio is what is key," Ron Thomas said. "Without the audio the brutality isn't as devastating."

Onlookers in the courtroom were unable to stifle cries of outrage; Judge Walter Schwarm was forced to pause the proceedings in order to remind the courtroom to maintain a sense of decorum.

In the past, other incidents in which homeless people were killed by police have prompted calls for reform. In 1999, for instance, a Los Angeles police officer shot and killed a 5-foot-1, 102-pound homeless woman after she allegedly lunged at him with a screwdriver. Today, LAPD officers are required to alert a mental evaluation unit when they encounter someone suspected of suffering from a mental illness; officers are trained to recognize people with schizophrenia and other conditions and are often paired with mental health experts.

But armed with a disturbing, crystalline recording of Thomas' beating, mental health advocates are pushing for systemic reform - even in an age of shrinking budgets.

"It should be evident to anybody that this man need not have died," said Randall Hagar, director of government affairs at the California Psychiatric Association.

For instance, mental health workers have demonstrated the resounding success of a style of therapy known as "whatever it takes" - founded on the notion that mental illness is typically accompanied by physical illness, poverty and other problems. Those programs have languished because of funding deficiencies. Some advocates said the Thomas case could resurrect the effort to force institutions shouldering the burden of that frayed safety net, such as hospitals, to pay for the fix.

For the public, said Rusty Selix, executive director of the California Council of Community Mental Health Agencies, "Not giving them the care they need costs more than giving them all of the care they need."

The Thomas case, too, could prompt some counties to reconsider implementation of Laura's Law, a 2002 state measure allowing for court-ordered treatment and compulsory medication in some cases. So far, only Nevada County has fully implemented the measure. Now, Orange County is taking a hard look at implementing the law, though that effort is on hold while questions about its funding mechanisms are resolved.

"If Kelly Thomas wouldn't have happened, I don't know if we would have looked at it," said Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach.

Most of all, advocates said they expect a fervent effort to train more officers to better navigate encounters with people who suffer from mental illness. Hagar said the Thomas case could compel advocates to add that training to upcoming legislative priorities in reforming California's mental health system. And Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said the state could launch an effort to persuade counties to seek through the Mental Health Services Act additional law enforcement training.

Fullerton has put all of its officers through training on use of force and interacting with the homeless and mentally ill. The city also created a task force on homelessness and mental illness, made up of religious leaders, mental health advocates and others.

Like the King beating in Los Angeles, the death of Thomas forced leaders and residents to focus on a serious, long-standing problem, said Fullerton resident Rusty Kennedy, chairman of the task force and executive director of the Orange County Human Relations Commission.

"I think both in the Rodney King and the Kelly Thomas cases, there were significant steps taken,” Kennedy said.  “But in both cases, the problems we’re facing aren’t easily put to rest.”

Community & Clubs: Orange Coast College's Circle K Club to host banquet

By Jim de Boom

Daily Pilot Hall of Fame luncheon

At least six people active in local community service with service clubs, community groups and congregations will be inducted into the Daily Pilot Community & Clubs Hall of Fame at a special luncheon, which will take place at noon on June 8, at the Newport Beach American Legion Post 291. That is the number of nominations received as of May 7, 2012.

Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach will serve as master of ceremonies while the induction of honorees will be done by me, Daily Pilot Editor John Canalis and Features Editor Imran Vittachi. Proceeds from the event will benefit Exploring, a program of the Orange County Council of Boy Scouts of America.

The 2012 nominees will be announced in this column on May 30.

The public is invited to attend the luncheon. Reservations at $50 per person can be made by calling Lane Calvert at (714) 546-8558 ext. 181, or by sending an email to lanec@oclfl.org.

To nominate a candidate from a service club, community group or congregation, contact Calvert or myself at jdeboom@aol.com.

FIVE-YEAR LOOK BACKS

May 4

1992

The Daily Pilot’s Editor, Bill Lobdell, had started a cable show, titled “The Lobdell Group,” that found me serving as a substitute guest from time to time (see MOORLACH UPDATE -- OC Register -- March 25, 2012).  I once asked how much the show was costing the Daily Pilot.  The answer?  Nothing.  It was a free service of the cable station, as they had to provide public access as a part of their contract with the host city, Costa Mesa.  The light went on and I asked for my own show, and “The Conservative Report” was born.  Friends and my kids would serve as camera operators.  Over the following few years, we had built a long list of great guests.  It was a wonderful experience and gave my kids a real appreciation for “Wayne’s World,” which also hit theaters in 1992.  The Daily Pilot took notice and provided this fun little piece, titled “Beginner’s Luck, Maybe:”

John Moorlach, president of the Costa Mesa Republican Assembly, scored something of a coup by snagging heavyweight guest Bruce Herschensohn, GOP candidate for Alan Cranston’s US Senate seat, for his fledgling local weekly cable show “The Conservative Report.”  You can check it out Mondays and Fridays at 8 p.m. on the Copley-Colony system, Channel 61.

2007

One of my early initiatives has been a resolution to the annexation issues facing Costa Mesa and Newport Beach, which is why I requested an appointment to the Orange County Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO).  I continue to serve on LAFCO and continue to obtain closure on this topic (hoping that eight years will be enough time),  My efforts began by bringing many things to the table with the impacted parties, Santa Ana Heights, Costa Mesa, Newport Beach and the County of Orange.  The goal has been to achieve a mutually satisfactory resolution, thus accomplishing an aggressive but achievable “global pla.”  I knew when I started that it would not be easy.  The upcoming LAFCO meeting would certainly indicate if moving forward would be doable or not.  Alicia Robinson of the Daily Pilot covered the topic in “Leader to announce annexation plan – County supervisor may hold the wildcard in ongoing standoff between Newport, Costa Mesa over which city gets what.”  The piece included a helpful graphic.

Years of arguing and months of negotiations over unincorporated areas between Costa Mesa and Newport Beach may come to a head Wednesday, when the commission that decides annexations in Orange County meets.

On Thursday, staff members of the Orange County Local Agency Formation Commission released a recommendation that included options for West Santa Ana Heights, one of four large unincorporated areas the two cities have battled over.

But what may be more interesting than the staff suggestion is a "global solution," which Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach plans to announce at the meeting. The plan would result in annexation of the four areas — West Santa Ana Heights, the Santa Ana Country Club, a neighborhood south of Mesa Drive, and the largely undeveloped Banning Ranch. But it's unclear which city would annex each area.

It also could include other issues officials have been haggling over, such as control of parks that are now county-owned.

On Thursday, Moorlach was keeping quiet about his proposal, but he did say which of the commission staff's suggestions he's supporting for West Santa Ana Heights.

He's backing an option that would divide West Santa Ana Heights into three pieces that would be annexed to Newport Beach in phases: the first when Newport seeks to also bring in a tiny unincorporated island known as the Emerson tract, the second when the city agrees to give up pieces of a one-foot-wide strip of its property that surrounds Banning Ranch, and the third when Costa Mesa and the Santa Ana Country Club come to some sort of agreement on the club's future.

Country club members have petitioned to join Newport Beach, but Costa Mesa dug in its heels because it has the first right to try to annex the club property.

Costa Mesa has applied to have 357 acres of 412-acre Banning Ranch brought into its sphere of influence — a prelude to annexation — but commission staffers said any decision on that should be postponed for six months.

Costa Mesa City Councilman Eric Bever on Thursday declined to comment on annexation issues because discussions are ongoing.

Moorlach's attempt to tie the annexations and more with a neat bow may not go over with Newport, which has resisted efforts to take land away.

Newport Beach Mayor Steve Rosansky said Moorlach is trying to resolve too many issues at once.

"To the extent that any of that involves us giving up any of the one-foot strip or any of our sphere of influence over Banning Ranch, I don't know that we would be in favor of that," he said.

Jeff Overley of the OC Register covered the topic in “Solutions offered in annexation tug of war – Commission seeks compromise between Newport Beach and Costa Mesa, which want the same areas.”

Staff at the Orange County Local Agency Formation Commission released options Thursday for deciding the fate of two areas that have produced an annexation tug-of-war between Newport Beach and Costa Mesa.

The plans to be considered May 9 would let Newport annex the 64-acre West Santa Ana Heights neighborhood either all at once or in phases, or leave the area unincorporated.  Officials recommend a six-month extension of talks about Banning Ranch, which both cities want to control.

Newport City Manager Homer Bludau and Costa Mesa City Manager Allan Roeder both said they might support extending talks on both areas because Supervisor John Moorlach has been helping them seek compromise.

Commission officer Bob Aldrich said an extension would be possible. But Roeder cautioned that when the agency granted more time in November, "some members of the board were pretty clear that they expected that they would vote on this when it came back."

Another component of the “global solution” includes the possibility of transferring the Harbor Patrol from the Orange County Sheriff-Coroner’s Department to the Newport Beach Police Department.  Alicia Robinson of the Daily Pilot provided another update in “Harbor Patrol control in play – Newport Beach plans to ask for management duties. A law enforcement group opposes the idea, saying it would hurt public safety.”

The ongoing debate about who should run the Harbor Patrol in Newport Beach may become more intense, with city and county officials bidding for control.

When Newport officials in 2003 suggested the city take over patrolling its own coastline, they got a chilly reception from the county. Since then, some Orange County supervisors have suggested the city should pay for Harbor Patrol services, which led Newport officials to ask what's in it for them.

Now county supervisors have agreed to let the city submit a proposal to run the Harbor Patrol, but Newport may be getting a proposal in return. Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona, who oversees the Harbor Patrol, told Supervisor John Moorlach that it's only fair to let him put in a bid to provide public safety on the streets of Newport Beach.

The Orange County Sheriff's Harbor Patrol is headquartered in Newport Beach and also serves Huntington Harbour, Sunset Beach and Dana Point, where the harbor is owned by the county.

The Sheriff's Department has contracts with 12 of the county's 34 cities. Carona has not publicly sought to patrol Newport, which has its own police, but Moorlach told supervisors at a meeting Tuesday that the sheriff had expressed interest.

Several calls to Carona on Wednesday and Thursday were not returned.

Newport Beach City Manager Homer Bludau said plenty of research would be required if the city were to seek control of the Harbor Patrol, but if the county presses Newport to pay for the services, the city should have more control.

"I think there's interest in looking at it and seeing if there's some revenue in order for us to provide that service," Bludau said.

"I'm for it," Moorlach said in an interview Wednesday. "I think they have the wherewithal to do it, and I have a Sheriff's Department that's telling me they're 11% understaffed…. I think it's something we need to discuss and debate and thoroughly analyze."

Any moves toward a Newport takeover will surely face opposition from the Assn. of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs, which has been running ads in the Daily Pilot for the last three Sundays touting the life-saving work of the Harbor Patrol. Association President Wayne Quint said the ads are simply to make the public aware of the Harbor Patrol's services, and they weren't motivated by debate over control of the agency.

But the association would oppose relinquishing the Harbor Patrol to Newport Beach, he said. "To us, if that were to happen, it would mean public safety's going to be impacted," he said.

The Harbor Patrol now covers all of the county's 42-mile coastline to three miles out at sea, Quint said, but if Newport took over, city taxpayers likely would only want to pay to patrol the city's harbor.

As to the sheriff bidding to be Newport's public safety provider, Bludau said if a proposal came in he'd show it to the City Council, but saving money wouldn't be the only consideration.

"I don't think it's a type of service that any contracting agency can just automatically fill without a deep understanding of the community," he said.

May 6

2007

The 50^th anniversary parade for Rossmoor found me dutifully carrying “Flat Stanley” for a young student.  Mark Rightmire of the OC Register caught it and published the photo the next day on the OC Register’s website.

Golden parade fills Rossmoor streets SMILE: Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach smiles as he has his picture taken with his "Flat Stanley" while riding in the 50th anniversary parade in the unincorporated community of Rossmoor Saturday morning.

May 8

2002

Jonathan Lansner of the OC Register started a long series of pieces on the Transportation Corridor Agencies (TCA).  This one was titled “73 seems focused on Wall Street.”  Lansner’s piece was profound and prophetic.  I’ve melted the column down to four paragraphs.  I was willing to assist the TCA, so Lansner mentioned it, and then the fun began.

                According to a strategic analysis compiled by the 73, Wall Street got the biggest say in nudging the 73’s board to select merging with its sister toll road, the Foothill/Eastern, as its financial salvation.

                Serious chats were never held with other government agencies that possibly might either invest in – or buy – the 73.  Such hometown scenarios were nixed by the analysis without meaningful dialogue with potential partners.

Funny.  County Treasurer John Moorlach sits on $4 billion of funds, which he manages for various municipalities, that could be invested.  He says he’d talk to the 73 folks about a potential investment.  While Moorlach agreed with the 73’s analysis that such a deal “would be difficult to structure,” so, too, will the costly merger the 73 hopes to complete with Foothill/Eastern.

With literally billions of dollars at stake, it’s sad that the 73 has made minimal effort to find local solutions.  Rather, it’s chosen to concentrate on the treacherous and expensive bond game, where usually only Wall Street types win.

2007

OC Register reporter Martin Wisckol informed me of the sad news, which he covered in “Former Assemblyman Gil Ferguson dies.”  A year or two prior to his passing, Gil had asked me to take over the Principles Over Politics organization.  I would call it a precursor to the Tea Party movement.  Regretfully, the job of county supervisor was more than adequate to fill up every week of the year, so I reluctantly declined.  After a long chat regaling Martin on various topics concerning Gil’s successful life, here is the finished product (the Associated Press would pick up the piece and include my quote:  Ferguson . . . “wasn’t afraid to take on the establishment and that endeared him to a lot of people”):

Former Assemblyman Gil Ferguson, a straight-talking hero to many conservatives and critic of the Republican establishment, died Sunday night at Hoag Hospital of complications related to leukemia. The Newport Beach resident was 84.

Ferguson was born in St. Louis, Missouri on April 22, 1923. In his early 20s, he joined the Marine Corps. He served in World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War before retiring as a lieutenant colonel in 1967, after 26 years in the service.

The USC graduate spent 10 years as vice president of public relations for the Irvine Co.. While there, he launched the Irvine World News, which is now owned by the Register's parent company.

During that time, he became increasingly active in politics. In 1984, he was elected to the state Assembly and served until 1994, when he stepped down to run for state Senate. He lost to fellow Republican Ross Johnson.

Ferguson launched Principles Over Politics as part of his 1984 campaign, with William F. Buckley, Rush Limbaugh and Pat Buchanan among his early speakers and supporters. POP evolved into a newsletter and monthly breakfast, both becoming local institutions.

Because of his declining health, Ferguson handed the reins of the group to businesswoman Marianne Zippi at the end of 2006. The monthly Balboa Bay Club breakfast continues to regularly attract 100 or more people.

"Gil was straight up," said county Supervisor John Moorlach. "He was one of my mentors. We didn't agree on everything – he was frustrated with what he called 'the machine' (of the local GOP).  I'm not sure I agree with that conspiracy theory. … (But he) wasn't afraid to take on the establishment and that endeared him to a lot of people."

As recently as last October, Ferguson complained to the Register of the leadership lapses of county GOP Chairman Scott Baugh, Sheriff Mike Carona, and District Attorney Tony Rackauckas.

Ferguson is survived by his wife, Anita, four children and nine grandchildren.

May 9

1997

Shelby Grad of the LA Times provided an update on the potential of encouraging municipalities to reconsider using the County’s investment pool in “Everybody Back in the O.C. Pool? – Finance: Treasurer Moorlach wants to reopen the now more conservative fund to outside agencies, but other officials exp

Two weeks ago, I had the privilege of meeting with three former California Governors over lunch.  I sat with George Deukmejian, Pete Wilson, and Gray Davis, with Gray Davis leading the discussion.  Davis asked me how AB 109 (the State’s realignment program for sending inmates back to their home counties) is working in Orange County.  This gave me an opportunity to give a history lesson.  I spoke about Proposition 172, a ballot measure that Gov. Wilson advocated in 1993.  It provides a one-half-cent sales tax that helps fund public safety.  But, sales tax is volatile and has declined in recent years.  I mentioned that someone else promulgated the “Three Strikes” ballot measure that helped fill our state prisons.  I mentioned how Gov. Davis signed SB 400, bringing in a 50 percent pension plan increase, retroactive to the date of hire.  I reminded them of Gov. Schwarzenegger’s Proposition 157, which borrowed $20 billion to fill his predecessor’s budget deficit.  I provided some details on the “Triple Flip,” trading sales tax and vehicle license fee revenues for property tax revenues in order for the state to pay off the $20 billion in bonds.

Years later, Prop. 172 is insufficient, public employee pension plans are unsustainable, and real estate tax revenues are flat.  Consequently, our Sheriff pursued and obtained federal contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the U.S. Marshals to contract out empty beds in the County’s jails for housing their detainees.  This creative solution has helped the Sheriff stave off layoffs and service reductions.  Now, with a Federal judge mandating that California empty its prisons as a result of overcrowding, and the relocation of those prisoners to County jails (via AB 109) we are losing the bed revenues from the ICE and Marshals contracts.  All of this to say, the State of California is a mess and counties are suffering for it.  Brad Mitzelfelt, Supervisor for San Bernardino County, told the Governors that crime is up 30 percent in his District, year-over-year, thanks to AB 109.

Today’s OC Register provides a snippet of this evolution.  Also, the May 22, 2012 meeting of the Board of Supervisors will include a Study Session at 1:30 p.m. to specifically review AB 109 and its impacts on the OC.  Expect to hear from our Chief Probation Officer, Sheriff, District Attorney, Public Defender, and a representative from the County’s Superior Court, the County’s Police Chiefs, and from our Health Care Agency.

At Tuesday’s Board meeting, we also discussed the prior Treasurer’s failure to annually reimburse the County’s investment pool participants for excessive expense ratio (administrative) fees.  Consequently, our new Treasurer, Shari Freidenrich, is tasked with cleaning up this irresponsible mess.  It reminds me of a quote given to Chris Reed, that was made in a recent UPDATE (see MOORLACH UPDATE -- CalWatchdog -- March 7):

“Governments and politicians by their nature will try to find a way to spend every dollar possible and push the liability for that spending into the future, either through borrowing or creative accounting.”  Far from acting prudently with taxpayer funds, [the individual quoted] said, government officials instead work overtime to enable their spending schemes by crafting narratives that depend on “false impressions of spendable cash flow.”  In other words, they lie now and let the public pay later.

That just about sums up the situation that Treasurer Freidenrich has inherited.  Her predecessor pursued imprudent spending schemes, provided well-crafted narratives or half-truths (giving a false impression of true spendable cash flow), and let the public pay later, after he had left office.  Ironic.

County on track to make fiscal-year budget targets

By ANDREW GALVIN / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

The county government should finish its fiscal year in June with more than $200 million in reserves, even after the sheriff's department takes $11.4 million from reserves to cover a shortfall caused by a state law placing prisoners in county jails to ease prison overcrowding, officials said Tuesday.

Budget Director Frank Kim told the county's Board of Supervisors on Tuesday that the Sheriff's Department is running at roughly a $20 million budget deficit because the county is having to house more state prisoners, cutting into the revenue it gets from the federal government to house those in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Marshals Service.

The state's reimbursement rate for the prisoners the county houses is about $60 to $70 per day, while ICE pays the county $118 per bed and the marshals pay $123, Kim said.

Kim stressed in a later interview with City News Service that the state's reimbursement rate is "an estimated rate, not a hard and fast number."

Board Chairman John Moorlach said the state had undermined the sheriff's efforts to maximize revenue from the jails.

"It's important for the taxpayers to realize that our sheriff has worked really hard to use our excess capacity, and now that's being taken away, and now we have to backfill it, so it's another initiative in Sacramento that's costing this county and its taxpayers additional funds," Moorlach said during Tuesday's board meeting.

Sheriff Sandra Hutchens needs only an extra $11.4 million because the rest of the shortfall will be covered by higher than expected revenue from Proposition 172, the public safety sales tax, Kim said.

Other than the Sheriff's Department's financial woes, the county's financial situation is stable, Kim said.

"Overall, we expect to bring in the county budget under the total limits approved by the board," he told City News.

In another budget move Tuesday, the board approved $2.7 million to refund an overcharge of administrative fees to participants in the county's investment pool, slightly less than the $2.9 million earlier estimated.

FIVE-YEAR LOOK BACKS

May 3

1992

The OC Register had a major piece by Teri Sforza, Stuart Pfeifer, and Ricky Young, titled “Final Accounting – Paper trail led jurors to convict – Bankruptcy:  Former Treasurer Robert Citron’s testimony was key, jurors say,” which covered the conviction of former OC Assistant Treasurer Matthew Raabe of five felonies.  It centered around the perceptions of one of the jurors and made for great reading.  There was a sidebar, titled “Voices,” where I was quoted:

                “Well, good.  The jury has decided this type of behavior is intolerable . . . It sends a message that you can’t say half truths to your public and it’s OK.  We can’t send that message . . . (Matt Raabe) was the marketing division for Robert L. Citron.  He know what was happening here.”

2007

Daily Pilot columnist Barbara Venezia addressed another fun topic that was initiated by Supervisor Chris Norby.  Transferring the harbor patrol from the County to the City of Newport Beach is an endeavor that I initially supported as early analysis showed that it would better serve the residents of both, which is why we took a hard look at this option.  The column was titled “RECIPE FOR SUCCESS:  Financial shortfall if city of Newport Beach takes over harbor.”

A friend asked me what I thought about Newport Beach taking over the Sheriff's Department Harbor Patrol duties. I hadn't given it much thought until now.

An Internet search uncovered a Sept. 14, 2005, article on Supervisor Chris Norby's site. It stated, "Should $5.6 million in annual O.C. park funds be spent patrolling Newport Harbor? Should $5.6 million in annual O.C. park funds be spent securing yachts in Huntington Harbour? Should $5.6 million in annual O.C. park funds be spent on fire protection for beachfront mansions?"

So obviously this isn't a new idea. The article also said that at the Sept. 13, 2005 board meeting, a motion to remove the $5.6 million in annual park funds spent on the Harbor Patrol was defeated. So why is this idea resurfacing?

I called Mario Mainero, Moorlach's chief of staff. Mainero confirmed that this idea certainly was "consistent with Supervisor Moorlach's views on local control for cities and that it's worth exploring." He also felt that a strong argument to transfer jurisdiction to Newport would maintain consistency in law enforcement. We also talked about how the Sheriff's Department is understaffed by about 11% due to a large number of retirees.

Since the 1950s, the Harbor Patrol division of the Sheriff's Department has protected the Dana Point, Huntington Beach and Newport Beach harbors.

My neighbor and friend, Councilman Ed Selich, agrees that local jurisdictions should take care of their own. Selich is a boat owner, and he believes the Newport Police and Fire departments can handle the boating responsibilities. He also feels a city takeover would be more efficient since law enforcement would extend from the land to the ocean.

Right now, the county Harbors, Beaches and Parks Department spends $5.8 million annually to patrol Newport Harbor. The county would like to pass that bill to the local jurisdictions. The best estimate I could come up with after consulting city and county officials shows that it would cost Newport $3.5 million to $4 million to do the same job. So where does the money come from?

This is probably what you can expect: increases in fees for docks, harbors, residential and commercial pier permits, mooring and charter boats, just to name a few. It is my understanding that the city is looking to raise harbor- and boating-related fees regardless of whether it takes over the harbor.

My guess would be that the city will make another play to take over the county-controlled Newport Dunes. The dunes generates about $2 million a year for the county, which would certainly offset the harbor costs. There is other money and grants available, too.

Here's another item we should look into. All boat owners are taxed 1% of the assessed value of their boat annually, which goes to the state. The county only receives a portion of the collected money. Sources tell me that if the county received most of that money, in all likelihood all Orange County harbors could be self sufficient on those dollars alone. Will Newport ask for some of that state money if it takes over the harbor?

Who really has the best recipe for success for our harbor?

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