This Time I’ll Be Listening, Mr. Moorlach

If there’s a patron saint for guilty columnists, it would have to be Orange County treasurer John Moorlach.

At least, he’d be mine.

That’s because my biggest regret in nine years at this post was not listening to the lanky Moorlach when he ran for treasurer in 1994 and warned against incumbent Robert Citron’s investment strategies.

What galls me is that I had actually planned a column on the Citron-Moorlach campaign, even though it was just going to be one chastising Citron for being so haughty in answering Moorlach’s challenges. But I put it off and put it off and it never got done.

How was I to know Moorlach really was on to something?

That’s ancient history.

Moorlach has kept kind of a low profile since taking over in 1995, but he’s gotten a lot louder lately.

And I’m all ears.

A Lonely Voice

In fact, his voice has boomed, if only in contrast to the virtual silence of other Orange County governmental officials over the now-dead sale of the 91 Freeway Express lanes to an Irvine nonprofit group. Riverside County officials have carried the ball publicly, but it’s not as though those lanes don’t run in Orange County or the deal didn’t have local implications.

Where’s the noise from local politicos?

Moorlach didn’t lead the cry against the proposed sale, but he jumped in fairly quickly after the press broke the story.

And Moorlach has, by far, been the most vocal local official in the last week.

First, he urged the county to cut its ties to the Irvine-based nonprofit group that had hoped to buy the 10 miles of freeway lanes that were being offered by their original private owners.

And this week, Moorlach cheered when the proposed sale fell through.

We talked Tuesday evening, and Moorlach confessed to getting back some of that old juice that he had in 1994 and 1995 as the county declared bankruptcy and he took the helm from Citron.

“The tiredness, the exhaustedness of December of ‘94, of being on the phone all day--for the last week-and-a-half, that’s what it’s been like again,” he says. “Deja vu all over again.”

Moorlach was quick in 1995 to blame the press for missing the pre-bankruptcy story, and he’s just as quick now to praise it for breaking the express-lane story.

“In ‘94, talking to reporters I felt like I was talking to the wall,” he says of his ill-fated treasurer’s campaign. “Here, reporters are doing the heavy lifting.”

Some Similarities

He got into the current fray, he says, as details of the proposed sale increasingly bothered him.

“What’s wrong here is that you’ve got a private business benefiting from a government-approved bond financing,” he says. “I just have a problem with anyone enriching themselves at the expense of taxpayers.”

While the express-lane deal doesn’t approximate the bankruptcy in potential negative impact, Moorlach says, some similarities exist.

“What’s happening here is that you have sort of the same formula. You have outside consultants making considerable amounts of money by doing transactions with government. Because they’re making so much money, they’re not looking up, they’re not standing back and saying, ‘How does this really look?’ ”

I ask how he sees the current brouhaha playing out. “Obviously, the current owner wants out, so let’s hope they get a fair price, market value for their investment and that we have a new owner that is extremely concerned about the welfare of the general public.”

Such as government?

Why not? Moorlach says. Those express lanes would look pretty inviting as freeway lanes. “What I have said to the governor’s office is, ‘Gov. Davis, tear down those cones.’ ”

One final question for him: Why the silence from other Orange County officials over the express-lane controversy?

That’s the one question Moorlach wouldn’t answer. He begged off, suggesting only that it might be a worthwhile avenue for enterprising reporters.

This time, I have a feeling we’ll listen.

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Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by calling (714) 966-7821 or by writing to him at the Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, or by e-mail to dana.parsons@latimes.com