Taking the County’s Measure and Finding It Wanting

Can June gloom extend into July? Would you believe August? With apologies to Elvis, we’ll have a blu-u-u-e Christmas . . .

There I go again, being negative. I should have more confidence in the will of the people--which I almost always do--especially the 61% who voted down Measure R this week and, in effect, copped the old Alfred E. Neuman line from Mad magazine: “What, me worry?”

Just because everyone else seems to be dumping on Orange County as the penny-wise, pound-foolish rich kid who won’t pay off his debt doesn’t mean it’s true, does it? Can it be that voters here know something that no one else does--namely, that a county can default on a huge debt without suffering consequences?

I’m viewing the aftermath of Tuesday’s vote from afar. A weather-related cancellation of my flight back to Orange County has left me with an extra day in Chicago. My hosts take both the New York Times and Chicago Tribune, and this morning’s headlines prove that, doggone it, people do care about us in Orange County:

“California County’s Fate Grows Dim After No Vote,” said the New York Times.

“Orange County Debt Woes Deepen,” said the Trib, adding, “Defeat of Tax Hike Proposal Leaves It on Shaky Ground.”

That wasn’t exactly a spoonful of sugar with my breakfast, but Measure R opponents would see headlines like that as just more of the same nay-saying they’ve heard all along. And yet, I doubt either the New York Times or the Chicago Tribune had much of a vested interest in Orange County’s half-cent sales tax.

So, what do the No on R people know that others don’t? One thing seems clearer to me today from 2,000 miles away than it did from the Board of Supervisors’ meeting room--that it’s now time for the Measure R opponents to walk us through the next several months.

To quote Simpson trial prosecutor Christopher Darden, “It’s time to put up or shut up.” Don’t be asking for a strong chief executive officer who’s politically conservative and who isn’t afraid to buck the supervisors and other incumbent bureaucrats. You’ve had that for the last few months in the person of Bill Popejoy, and you just told him and his management team that they don’t know what they’re doing.

The sales tax increase was the centerpiece of Team Popejoy’s strategy, billed as the quickest and least painful way out of bankruptcy. Given Measure R’s resounding defeat and its lukewarm support from the board, Popejoy is reduced to minister without portfolio.

I talked to him briefly last week when it was obvious to him that the tax proposal was going under. I suggested in all seriousness that he resign immediately after the vote, on the grounds that he’d been asked to give the bankruptcy crisis his best shot, that he had done that unsalaried and with modest help from the board, and that it would serve the supervisors right to go back to square one with someone else. Roger Stanton and Jim Silva surely have a candidate in mind.

Popejoy balked at my idea, saying his chief concern all along was that the public be allowed to vote on the tax proposal and that, while he’d be saddened if it were defeated, he wasn’t going to take it personally. He added that he didn’t want to create the impression that he was leaving office in a huff.

What he didn’t want to say, but which I’ll say for him, is that someone has to run the place.

Onward and upward. Orange County now enters the most pivotal moment of governance in memory. It does so without any clear direction that I can discern, with public antipathy toward elected officials at an all-time high and with a volunteer CEO whose judgment has just been dissed by voters.

Orange County has just said “no” to a tax and to county government. Not even the threat of being shamed for reneging on debts was enough to sway voters.

It’s now time to vote “yes” to something. Yes on some vision of the future, yes on whatever it is the county stands for, both locally and in the eyes of others.

Would someone out there kindly define exactly what it is the county does stand for? Right now, no one seems to know. No wonder the markets are worried. No wonder they’re wondering what the heck is going on.

It’s funny what getting away from home does to your perspective. Sitting here in my friend’s upstairs home office in Chicago and casting my thoughts toward Orange County, I’m kind of wondering the same thing.

Dana Parson’s column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by writing to him at The Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626 or calling (714) 966-7821.