Do Tollway Execs Deserve Bonuses?

* Regarding your editorial, “Timing on Bonuses Bound to Take Its Toll,” (Aug 20): I agree with the board of directors that outstanding performance bonuses should go to three top executives at the county’s toll road agencies during these flush times. After all, why shouldn’t billions of dollars be spent building roads through vacant lands so that they can be adorned with vast seas of red tile roofs at no financial cost or risk to county mega-developers? Probably this sort of thing had nothing to do with the county bankruptcy.

I don’t think the toll road agencies’ CEO and finance director, both of whom are to receive 5% bonuses on top of their bloated salaries, should be held responsible for investing $325 million in former County Treasurer Robert Citron’s “fools’ pool,” either. A leprechaun did it.

JEAN JENKS

Laguna Beach

* I see that the tollway agency wants to build a $10-million monument to its own greed. With the help of the Orange County supervisors, the Transportation Corridor Agencies has funneled hundreds of millions dollars of the taxpayer’s money into these supposedly privately funded roads. Aliso Viejo has had $67.9 million of its Mello-Roos money, money that is supposed to go for local schools, libraries, fire stations and sewers, funneled into the toll roads. Foothill Ranch had the completion of Portola Parkway stopped. On top of being forced to use the toll road, you guessed it, Foothill Ranch has had $15.7 million of its Mello-Roos money funneled into the toll roads.

Now, if you do not live in a Mello-Roos district, don’t fret; the TCA has not ignored you. The TCA has spent $110 million of your state gas tax money, which is supposed to go for freeways and mass transit, on the toll roads. So when you see the TCA’s now building, you will know you have been a part of it; it was your tax dollars that helped build it.

GEORGE M. GALLAGHER

Irvine