Orange County Financial Crisis

To blame Republicans, Democrats or Proposition 13 is naive at best and non-dimensional at worst. Orange County residents are now getting the opportunity to wake up to the political realities of a world where money speaks louder than idealism. Lobbying, campaign contributions and controlling laws to benefit not the constituency but the people who make money off of money are just the tip of the iceberg.

The most foolish notion expressed so far is not to be terribly concerned since this is just a “paper loss.” But we are dependent upon that paper to function, are we not? If anything, some people are just blessed with a head-in-the-sand faith in their own elitism. Paper or no paper, those sands are shifting with the dry-winds weather of the times.

LORRAINE CARPINELLI

Fountain Valley

* “Get the government off the people’s back.” “What we need is deregulation to spur the economy.” That’s right, Republican-controlled Orange County. Just like the deregulation of the savings and loan industry. Blub, blub, blub.

It has long since been obvious what citizens are entitled to: less influence by powerful corporate interests over vital governmental decisions.

ZANVILLE S. GREEN

Studio City

* The $2-billion loss has implications far beyond Orange County. This debacle raises yet another question about the ability and efficiency of any government bureaucracy. Former Treasurer Robert Citron unwittingly provided another reason why many voters want government to do less whenever possible.

It is now painfully obvious county government was gambling with our hard-earned tax money. To now claim the risks were unknown only confirms bureaucratic incompetence and/or cover-up.

WILLIAM L. STRONG

San Clemente

* Peter King often shows a remarkable gift for getting to the fundamental issues; but never more so than in his column on how and why everyone ignored GOP treasurer candidate John Moorlach’s dire predictions about the financial crisis that has exploded on Orange County (Dec. 11). His observation: “If Moorlach had revealed that Citron employed illegal immigrants, or chased skirts in the ‘60s, he might have won” is right on the mark.

We don’t elect people based on any rational standards, but rather on how they look on TV and come across in sound bites, and on whether they’ve ever violated the vague and arbitrary rules we set for everyone but ourselves. Then we whine about the quality of government we get. Our solution is term limits, an idea that can only have grown out of the notion that anyone whom the voters elect to public office has, by that fact itself, proven himself or herself unfit to hold that office for long.

TOM HART

Costa Mesa

* Why would federal investment laws allow anyone to borrow as extensively as the Orange County government to speculate on derivatives?

Obviously, Wall Street is under lax supervision, and regulatory responsibility in this debacle transcends government levels, with no one authority really concerned with what some single politician may do with the public money. Makes one think of the health and insurance industries where federal money should not go without some real regulation.

RICHARD TOLBERT

Anaheim

* I was interested to see an article about Tom Hayes, who has been retained to advise Orange County in its financial crises (Dec. 9). Hayes served as state treasurer and was defeated in an election for that position by Kathleen Brown. In your article you report that Brown criticized him during their campaign for earning less on the state’s investment fund than Orange County was earning on its money.

In the Commentary section of that same issue appeared an article by Brown, in which she claimed to have “sensed” the problems of Orange County two years ago. She goes on to laud herself for her conservative fiscal policies, which I strongly suspect were already in place when she assumed the office from Hayes.

While I did not vote for Brown, I did have considerable respect for her. That respect is now gone. Her use of this serious financial crisis for self-promotion, in contravention of the very arguments she used to defeat Hayes, is the height of hypocrisy.

CHARLES R. GREEN

Hidden Hills

* A very simple solution to preventing the problem experienced by Orange County and others in the future is to make the municipality publish its investments in a general circulation newspaper on a regular basis for the taxpayers to see. Then make a lengthy jail sentence and heavy fine for any irregularities in disclosure. This would almost eliminate this problem without government intervention.

RICHARD CAUBLE

Westminster