Lots of People Are Guilty of Bad Judgment in Wake of Fund Fiasco

With Orange County’s currently disastrous financial state, the politicians once again prove that their priorities are out of order. Just when the county’s bankruptcy threatens funding for police, firefighters, schools and libraries, the developer-controlled politicians are pushing through their pork barrel projects in spite of the consequences.

While the Saddleback Valley Unified School District laid off 47 employees one week before Christmas, the developers still control the game. The Board of Supervisors gave the Koll Co. approval to build over 3,000 new houses on the Bolsa Chica wetlands, without providing funding for police, firefighters or schools. The Transportation Corridor Agencies, a quasi-governmental agency accountable to nobody, continues to build the San Joaquin Hills toll road without being able to show that it has the money to pay for the negative impacts resulting from this project.

The public health, safety and education of Orange County are at risk because of funding problems, but developers continue to force their narrow, special interests on the rest of us. Who pays, and when will it end?

LAUREEN E. WOOD

Laguna Beach

* Whether it be the overdevelopment that they have allowed over the years, bowing to special interests, or the current financial crisis here in Orange County, the Board of Supervisors is ultimately responsible. The supervisors have taken large campaign contributions from developers, and as we now know, they have seriously neglected their main responsibility of overseeing the financial stability of the county.

Whining has taken the place of acceptance of accountability, finger pointing is the name of the game, and the buck certainly doesn’t stop with them. At least (former Treasurer-Tax Collector Robert L.) Citron had the good sense to step down. Each and every supervisor should follow suit.

In light of what has recently transpired, when we cast votes for our next Board of Supervisors, or any other public office, let’s do something innovative for a change. Instead of blindly casting our vote for the candidates with the (R) word or the (D) word next to their name, we just might think about giving our vote to the candidates who are most qualified.

MERYL SCHWARTZ

Irvine

* It looks like the solution is very simple. Just have the Irvine Ranch Water District bail everybody else out. I suspected they had too much money when I visited their offices, which are the most beautiful and lush buildings in the county.

Someday check out the Laguna Beach Water District buildings, which are also the nicest buildings in town. There must be a lot more money in water than in education.

STEVEN CHEW

Laguna Beach

* It looks like an appropriate time to “unname” the Harriett M. Wieder and General Thomas F. Riley county parks, along with the Riley terminal at (John Wayne) Airport.

WILLIAM H. McCORMICK

Garden Grove

* Irvine City Councilman Barry Hammond has called on Peer Swan to resign his position as vice chairman of the Orange County Sanitation District board of directors (“Sanitation Board Member Wants Swan Out,” Dec. 16). Hammond says Swan breached his “fiduciary responsibility” in connection with the ongoing county bond crisis. This is the same Hammond whose own incompetence has cost Irvine at least $56 million in losses. That translates to more than $1,200 for every Irvine household!

Worse yet, Hammond voted last July to have the city of Irvine borrow $62 million, without taxpayer approval, in order to sharply increase the city’s stake in the high-risk county investment pool. That vote alone has cost Irvine taxpayers $16 million, which will have to be made up with higher local taxes or huge cuts in basic public services.

It is Barry Hammond who has breached his fiduciary duty. He should resign now and save the taxpayers the trouble of a recall. (Incidentally, Mayor Mike Ward and City Councilwoman Paula Werner joined Hammond in last July’s ill-fated 3-2 vote).

RUSTY REED

Irvine

* Taxpayer residents of North Orange County Community College District (NOCCCD) should be cognizant of the fact that only one trustee, Chris Loumakis, voiced prior caution regarding the district’s investment of $56 million of borrowed funds in Citron’s derivatives portfolio folly. To date no administrator in NOCCCD is assuming accountability for the projected monetary loss to the district. The only action the Board of Trustees has lately taken is resolutions to protect any new money funds coming into the district by segregating these funds from the defunct county pool and placing investment monies in the state Treasury.

No prudent measures to ensure financial austerity like a freeze on all hiring, nonessential spending, travel or sabbaticals have been initiated by the Board of Trustees.

With the probability of a projected $23-million deficit to the district, taxpayers should be asking for accountability from their elected trustees. Is it time to take the “trust” out of trustee?

MARY E. TRAEGER

Yorba Linda

* What a relief. We don’t have to worry about those pesky illegal immigrants bankrupting our pristine country! Our great white leaders did it all by themselves.

MORGAN KENNEDY

Huntington Beach

* May I offer a word of sympathy for Robert Citron, the fallen hero of Orange County’s financial legerdemain? True, at the very least, he showed bad judgment in putting public money in high-risk investments, However, he was everyone’s hero until those risks went sour. But he wasn’t the only one guilty of bad judgment. County Administrative Officer Ernie Schneider and his staff showed bad judgment in treating Citron’s repeated gambits to raise cash as routine matters by placing them on the consent calendar of board agendas; and the supervisors showed equally bad judgment in never questioning what was going on in the treasurer’s office. They all violated their fiduciary responsibility.

How about a little charity toward Citron and a little courage on the part of his detractors to admit their culpability?

DIANTHA SMITH

Yorba Linda

* In the interests of cutting waste of taxpayers’ money, I suggest eliminating those county audits. It’s obvious that no one looks at them anyway!

SANDY HENRY

Huntington Beach

* Peter King’s wonderful description of citizen Stephen D. Johnson chiding the Orange County Board of Supervisors for squandering taxpayer money and then being removed from the meeting by a sheriff’s deputy had a biblical ring to it. Like an Israelite prophet, citizen Johnson confronted the secular authority, demanded accountability and--like an Amos, Isaiah or Jeremiah--was told that his words were unbearable. “Sheriff, sheriff, get this man out of here!” fumed the imperious (Board Chairman Thomas F.) Riley.

Now it’s time for Riley and his supervisorial accomplices to play the part of another biblical figure, King David, and ask the taxpayers forgiveness for their reckless handling of other people’s money. Of course, they didn’t intend for the great fiscal meltdown to happen, and, yes, I am sure they are devastated by this turn of events. But the need for a gesture of repentance by them remains nonetheless.

BENJAMIN J. HUBBARD

Costa Mesa