ORANGE COUNTY IN BANKRUPTCY : Voices

Many Orange County residents reacted with frustration and anger at the county’s financial crisis. Here is a sampling of comments received from readers invited to telephone the newspaper’s TimesLine number with their comments.

“The county went bankrupt. I can’t believe this. I’ve spent so much time and energy to come over to this county, which I thought was one of the richest.”

Ken Lau, Newport Beach

“County investors of public money should not be allowed to invest in these exotic investments, no matter what the possible return. They should be forced to invest in conservative, relatively stable ways and (at) reasonable rates of return.”

Chris Richgels, Westminster

“I am outraged by Robert Citron’s aggressive behavior dealing with all of his capital. I cannot believe that he and Merrill Lynch, who I understand was the prime provider of derivatives, could possibly have weighted a portfolio in such a manner that they would get into such severe margin calls and run the risk of losing billions of dollars of taxpayer money. I believe that Merrill Lynch, the brokers, the management and Citron should be admonished and I also believe the county supervisors should have had as a solution an oversight committee, so that no one person who has been entrenched in power so long can run a fiefdom. I am outraged by this entire situation and I think some very serious criminal charges should be placed against Merrill Lynch, their broker, Mr. Citron and the county supervisors.”

Thomas Burns, financial planner

“Orange County and Robert Citron had no business investing in derivatives. That’s a very high-risk venture and anybody who does invest in it knows that and you don’t sacrifice a small gain for a high-risk venture. It is like playing the options market or the commodities market; when you play that you are playing in the big leagues and you have a high risk and they had no business investing in that.”

Mary Jo Osborne, Santa Ana

“I believe the Board of Supervisors has as much responsibility as Citron for this fiasco. They should know what the current market value of these investments is. I know it is an elective office, but it is taxpayer money and the Board of Supervisors has every right to demand to know what’s going on on a daily basis if they wish to do so. They are equally or more at fault than Citron for not catching this early.”

Nick Novick, Irvine