Hard to Believe Wieder Didn’t Know Details of Sunset Marina Deal

Re Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder’s involvement in the Sunset Marina negotiations: For a supervisor who prides herself on having the details of just about every project in the 2nd District at her fingertips, the excuse that she wasn’t aware of her son’s involvement in the Sunset Aquatic Park lease negotiations is indefensible.

With the controversy that has surrounded the park for the past couple of years over recreational vehicles and overnight parking and her personal involvement in that fracas, it is hard to believe she doesn’t have an intimate knowledge of all the operational (and contractual) elements of the facility.

Also, it is typically a given in county politics that other supervisors defer to the wishes of their colleague in matters that concern projects or issues in that individual’s district. So Supervisor Wieder holds all the cards and it’s her move. The question is, will we have open and forthright lease negotiations over the operation of Sunset Marina Park or not?

At this point it appears that, once again, we’re rumbling toward another “good ol’ boys” deal. The exclusion of the Sunset Marina from the consultants’ study of county facilities in the interest of “fairness” is hogwash.

How, pray tell, could we be unfair to a lessee who is proposed to receive a loan of $3.4 million plus a county investment of $5 million? Unfair maybe if the consultants were to suggest that another firm could give us, the taxpayers, a “fairer” deal. If the county has that kind of money to throw around, I wish Supervisor Wieder would throw some at the Bolsa Chica Linear Park. By comparison, it runs a distant second in funding. But then, I don’t see the “bigger” picture. Right.

Lastly, negotiating a new lease years ahead of the expiration of the old one defeats the mechanism of effective public notice because an action of this type circumvents standard advertising and disclosure rules, thereby eliminating qualified competitors who might give the owners (you and me, the citizens) a better deal, regardless of the quality of the present lessee’s performance.

If the taxpayers were going to benefit from “sliding” this one through, how much could we benefit from a truly open process? More important, how many other contracts have been similarly negotiated, years in advance of normal termination, without the benefit of public disclosure? We may yet know.

MARK PORTER, Huntington Beach