County Budget Problems

* It’s obvious that this year’s Los Angeles County budget fiasco is very much like those of the past in that those involved can’t seem to face and accept what is required. I would say to the Board of Supervisors--you make the big bucks, it’s time to make the big decisions. Make them, even if they’re politically damaging.

County department heads--your egocentric behavior may minimize cuts to your own departments, but that means deeper cuts in other, equally important services. Recognize you have a greater responsibility to the well-being of the county as a whole.

Leaders of the labor unions representing county employees--your antagonism to county management is not in the best interests of your membership or those they serve. Work with them to protect jobs and ensure as high a level of service as possible.

Finally, residents of L.A. County--expect less from county government, do more for yourselves and others. This is simply the reality we will all have to face.

FLORA BEAVER

Whittier

* The Orange County residents who will likely complain the most if local services are substantially reduced will be those among the 71% of voters who could not be bothered to vote in the June 27 special sales tax election. I only hope that they don’t look to Sacramento to bail them out!

GARY WARTIK

Thousand Oaks

* So Orange County Supervisors Gaddi Vasquez, Roger Stanton, and Jim Silva think they should reduce the powers given William J. Popejoy and reassert themselves as policy-makers (June 30). Vasquez and Stanton voted to borrow to invest in Citron’s Crater, precipitating the bankruptcy. This same Stanton is interpreting the vote against Measure R as a mandate to return to government as usual, with him and other supervisors in charge. This is to ignore the meaning of the vote, as interpreted by poll analysts. The no vote was more a show of anger and distrust of the supervisors than it was a vote against the tax.

How can these same men who borrowed $1.2 billion on the consent calendar, with no discussion, be so arrogant as to believe they should be trusted to make any important decisions for the people of Orange County?

JEAN RAUN

Laguna Beach

* As a former mayor and council member, I have observed the cause of the government financial crisis of today. Government bureaucracy fights change, rewards its own and has a different attitude related to spending other people’s money. In the private sector, management and the employees are responsible for making a profit and thus look for ways to be more efficient, because the business could fail or the person could lose his/her employment. In the public sector, there is no such incentive. While government employees may work hard, the money is not thought of as their own and therefore it is OK to spend it with the thought more will always be available.

The current financial crisis results from the adding of layer upon layer of staff without a check-and-balance system of reducing the level of staffing until a monetary crisis arrives.

When the government bureaucracy stops worrying about self-preservation and starts looking for efficiency, then the tax revolt will end. If government worked as lean and mean as the private sector, cash shortages would be drastically reduced and the public would be better served.

MIKE BLAZENSKI

Mammoth Lakes