Skeptics Weigh In on Don Saltarelli

* I would like to congratulate Don Saltarelli on his appointment to the Orange County Board of Supervisors, filling the unexpired term made vacant by the resignation of Gaddi H. Vasquez. As a resident of Lake Forest, I am concerned that no member of the Board of Supervisors lives south of Newport Beach and that two members live in the city of Orange. I am also a little taken aback that the newest member, appointed to represent me and others in South County, should have already made up his mind about the reuse of El Toro Marine Corps Air Station at the same time that a nearly all-volunteer effort has collected a record number of 106,000 signatures to revisit Measure A, the airport initiative.

Mr. Saltarelli is surely a very funny fellow. I take grave exception that one of our greatest obstacles is our “negative attitude.” No amount of attitude adjustment will address the following consequences resulting from the bankruptcy: Public health has cut 232 positions and experienced a loss of 45.9% of its county funding. All prenatal care and perinatal outreach has been eliminated. Home Health Agency field nursing is eliminated. Other field nursing has been cut 33%. Westminster Maternal Child and Adolescent Health Clinic was closed, sending the patients to Costa Mesa or the 17th Street Clinic with very poor public transportation.

Orange County has a rising TB rate, with high incidence in West County, the site of the closed clinic. There is currently no decentralization of TB access for treatment. Forty percent of Orange County’s 2-year-olds have not be completely immunized, yet the program was cut 30%, in a year that the Centers for Disease Control is predicting a severe measles outbreak.

Child health appointments take up to 12 weeks. Homeless mentally ill will not have access to treatment. Forty shelter beds for the homeless mentally ill have been reduced to 18. Forty-nine percent of court-ordered child support in Orange County is not being paid. The number of children receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children increased 92% from 1989-1993.

Mr. Saltarelli, my attitude is just fine. The statistics related above are real cause for alarm. I trust that at some point you will concern yourself with them.

JEANNE COSTALES

Lake Forest

* If there were any doubt about who is running Orange County, the appointment of Irvine Co. lobbyist Don Saltarelli to be 3rd District supervisor should end that. We all realize that Gov. Pete Wilson is beholden to Irvine Co. Chairman Donald Bren, due to Bren’s strong support of Wilson’s failed presidential bid. However, Wilson’s choice of Mr. Saltarelli is a slap in the face to Orange County taxpayers. A perfect example of the problem is demonstrated in Saltarelli’s first vote as supervisor. Instead of offering Orange County’s data processing contract to the least expensive qualified operator, he voted to continue the current more expensive contract. His vote was the swing vote and he voted with the two remaining supervisors that got us into the bankruptcy, Steiner and Stanton. To quote Bruce Whitaker, “We think it’s very unhealthy not to give competitive forces a shot at it.” The other two supervisors agree with him.

Whitaker is right. It is business as usual in Orange County. When are Wilson and Bren going learn that the voters in Orange County are fed up and want change, not more of the same?

GEORGE M. GALLAGHER

Irvine