Supervisors and Developers: Hearty Praise and Hefty Scorn

I was shocked to see on the front page of your Sunday (Oct. 27) issue an extensive article on developer involvement in financing Orange County supervisorial races.

The reporters implied that the development industry has gained undue influence over county government through contributions helping to finance the Board of Supervisors’ races during the 1980s. Based on the manner in which this story was written, I believe that the article was inappropriately placed in the news section instead of the editorial page, and that the presentation of the facts was highly misleading.

One only has to look at some of the effects of this alleged “influence” to see the deception of the charge. During the 1980s, the fees required to be paid to the county by developers grew substantially. In addition to those fees, demands for the industry to assume responsibility for more and more facilities, roads, schools and the like dramatically increased. Also during the 1980s, the time required to process required governmental approvals needed for new projects at least doubled. In fact, today it often takes more years to get the governmental approvals than it does to build and sell an entire project. All in all, this does not sound like an industry that is “driving the politics in Orange County”!

At the same time, the positive contributions that the development industry has made to our county received scant attention. The writer completely ignored that development-industry contributions to charitable organizations during the 1980s overwhelmingly dwarfed political contributions. During this period of time, the Fieldstone Co. gave $200 to Orange County charities for every $1 to Board of Supervisors campaigns. In the 1980s, the development industry provided massive contributions to the most significant charitable fund-raising efforts in the county, the largest of which was the Orange County Performing Arts Center, followed by the Orangewood Children’s Center.

The development industry continues to be a major factor in supporting other institutions such as the Boy Scouts, CHOC, South Coast Repertory and UCI, to name just a few. In addition, the Building Industry Assn. has mobilized the industry on behalf of the homeless through its Home Aid program. For many of these institutions, the development community has provided the great bulk of the key volunteer leadership on a very selfless basis during these past years.

Yes, developers have provided a lot of funding in supervisorial races on a percentage basis, although it’s questionable whether they’ve received much benefit from that. In addition, they’ve provided lots of funding for a huge variety of charitable endeavors and have taken the lead role in attempting to solve many of the problems of our area. This is what you’d expect from a large, vibrant, involved sector of the business community of Orange County.

PETER M. OCHS. Peter Ochs is chairman and CEO of the Fieldstone Co. in Newport Beach.