Moorlach Losing Taxpayers’ Trust

Re “Moorlach’s Office Alerted on Edison Before It Invested,” Jan. 24:

When John M.W. Moorlach took office after the Orange County bankruptcy, he was highly critical of the investment policies and management controls of his predecessor. Now he claims that he was not aware of the Sept. 7 warning report.

Really? Why not?

What evaluation process did take place before the $40-million investment?

Brings to mind the comment of the late Tom Riley, then chairman of the Board of Supervisors, who claimed that the supervisors just didn’t understand investment strategy well enough when authorizing investments that led to the county’s bankruptcy. Riley knew then, and senior managers and officials have always known, that you can delegate authority, but you cannot delegate responsibility.

That is a basic principle of leadership and management, and one we must insist that our elected officials accept and practice.

Bottom line: If Moorlach didn’t know of the warning report, he should have known, and he is responsible, period.

BARKLEY B. YARBOROUGH

Huntington Beach

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So Moorlach gave away $40 million of our money to a sinking Edison just as the lights are going out (“Moorlach Feels Pain of School Losses,” Jan. 18)?

Some Orange County taxpayers are beginning to have serious doubts about our treasurer-tax collector’s judgment. This revelation comes on the heels of his attempt to confuse the voters over the tobacco settlement in authoring Measure G in opposition to the health-care community’s Measure H.

With the latter measure overwhelmingly endorsed by the voters, and now with this new blunder, I wonder if perhaps Moorlach has been consulting Robert Citron’s astrologer.

FELIX A. SCWARTZ

Irvine