Grand Jury Probe Would Be a Ploy

* Re your March 14 story “Grand Jury Asked to Probe Irvine Fire Spending”: Assemblyman Ken Maddox’s call for a grand jury investigation of the Orange County Fire Authority’s board structure and financing plan is yet another transparent case of a politician attempting to push his personal political agenda to the detriment of good government and common sense.

The authority comprises 21 Orange County cities that have pooled their resources to provide fire and emergency services in an efficient and professional manner. The authority is governed by a board comprising representatives from each member city, a structure that has helped produce a customer satisfaction index that is the envy of every public agency in the state.

The financial structure is such that some member cities, such as Irvine, are required by state law to spend a fixed percentage of their property taxes on fire service. This results in Irvine contributing a sum ($21 million) that is greatly disproportionate to the service it receives. Thus, in the interest of fairness, the board voted unanimously to return $3.3 million to Irvine--funds that must be used for fire protection services.

Enter Maddox, who is likely to lose his Assembly seat because of redistricting and will soon be looking for work. But to run for another office, he needs much higher name recognition than he currently enjoys, and he needs more powerful political patrons. Enter the firefighters union, which would like nothing better than to see the current authority board structure changed to five elected members, confident it could gain control of such a board by using its considerable influence to elect a three-member majority.

And voila! Maddox levels charges against the authority designed to undermine confidence in the structure, which he seeks to change by legislation in order to further his, and the union’s, political agenda.

And elected officials wonder why the public holds them in such contempt.

CHRIS MEARS

Mayor pro tem, Irvine

Board Member, Orange County

Fire Authority