ORANGE COUNTY IN BANKRUPTCY : Offering 2 Cents’ Worth on $2 Billion : Recovery: 150 forum participants share ideas ranging from joke about casinos at Disneyland to serious suggestion of seceding from the state.

Nightlong fund-raisers at Disneyland. Seceding from the state. Organized gambling. More prayer. Even raising taxes on Orange County’s rich.

The ideas ranged from the wacky to the more traditional Wednesday at an unusual public brainstorming session aimed at helping the county find a solution to its bankruptcy. But many of the viable solutions turned out to be a rehash of proposals, some of which are still being considered and other rejected.

There were the de rigueur demands for selling assets, privatizing services and raiding transportation funds. There were also the vocal complaints about county government and the Board of Supervisors.

The forum at Chapman University was organized by Board Chairman Gaddi H. Vasquez and Supervisor Roger R. Stanton after the county lost nearly $1.7 billion on a risky investment strategy, triggering the bankruptcy. The two supervisors envisioned a gathering that also would serve to heal division over Measure R, the failed half-cent sales tax increase that was proposed as the key to the bankruptcy recovery effort.

But at the end of the four-hour round-table discussions, the more than 150 participants were not sure the gathering could help Orange County figure its way back from the largest bankruptcy in U.S. municipal history.

Orange County’s interim chief executive officer, Jan Mittermeier, was nothing but optimistic during a break in the session.

“We’re not saying we have all the answers, but we’re certainly willing to listen if someone can come up with a solution that maybe we haven’t thought of before,” Mittermeier said.

Some suggestions were surprising, going against conventional wisdom in Orange County. There were calls for a new tax. At least one participant complained that the bankruptcy has caused Orange County Treasurer-Tax Collector John M.W. Moorlach to be too cautious with county investments.

Among the ideas that received greatest support were: going after Measure M transportation sales tax revenue; renegotiating the settlement agreement with the participants’ investment pool and pay them considerably less then 100 cents on the dollar.

A near-universal refrain was complaints that Orange County is a donor county, getting only a fraction of the money it sends to Sacramento each year. Telling Orange County’s legislators to “get off their duffs” was one noted solution to that problem, while Moorlach suggested Orange County could form its own state.

There was support for ending subsidies to special districts and requiring special district users to bear the brunt of it.

City Councilman Mark Leyes of Garden Grove--one of the two cities that did not have money in the county’s investment pool--suggested cities, schools and districts with extra funds could pool their money and form a self-styled bank or credit union to lend money at low interest.

Several said the county shouldn’t look only for big-money solutions to the county’s problems, arguing that “little” solutions, each worth several hundred thousand here and there, could be the key to the bankruptcy.

Group leader Jeff Palmer joked about slot machines at Disneyland after his group repeatedly revisited gambling--be it bingo, casinos or a county lottery.

County critics griped that the forum participants were weighted in favor of the pro-Measure R forces. Bill Ward of the Committees of Correspondence said it amounted to a thinly veiled conspiracy.

“All this is,” Ward said during the forum, “is the laying of a foundation for a new tax. They bring us here, they’re telling us about how bad the situation is and all the obstacles facing the county. Next, they’ll be trying again for a new tax.”

That kind of bitterness directed at county government was specifically the sentiment board members were hoping to extinguish with the forum that was part mini-focus group, part New-Age approach.

As a result, some had dubbed it the county’s version of “We Are the World.”

After a doom-and-gloom presentation by the county’s financial experts that outlined the county’s fiscal woes, participants broke up into groups of about 20 each. Group leaders went around the room, soliciting bankruptcy recovery suggestions that were then penned onto giant tablets. Where time allowed, suggestions were debated before being ranked for priority.

The Orange County Board of Supervisors will receive a report on all suggestions.

Many of the participants were county officials, lobbyist, grand jurors, labor representatives, heads of special districts and residents who regularly attend board meetings. County Sheriff Brad Gates also attended.

“I’m here to monitor it and see how this all works out,” said Mike Farrier, manager of the Capistrano Bay Community Services District. Cynthia Pickett represented Orange County employee unions, on the lookout for threats to labor.

“I wish there were more people like me here,” said Frank Stickel, a Fullerton engineer who read about the forum and decided to attend. Stickel said he does not belong to any group.

Attorney William Mitchell of Orange County Common Cause, a government watchdog group, said board members should be applauded for their efforts.

“Are they going to come up with a solution today? No,” Mitchell said. “But this is a way to develop healthy dialogue and start to craft a plan that will help with the problem. They should have done this months ago.”

Despite concerns that it was unrealistic to expect working solutions to the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history from community representatives who, while well-meaning, have little financial experience, Vasquez and Stanton declared the forum a success.

“There’s a lot of commonality,” he said. “Some real themes are coming out.”

“I was encouraged,” Vasquez said after the forum. “There was a lot of consensus on how to proceed and I think that is important. Now the board has to have an opportunity to evaluate and review this information.”

Times staff writer Matt Lait contributed to this report.