Should It Be Called the Builders Department?

Re “O.C. Rehires Planner,” April 19:

Here we go again with the Orange County planning department. It can’t survive without bringing back someone who was employed there as the cash seeped out and it went broke?

Charles Caproni

Costa Mesa

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In the interest of truth in labeling, the Orange County Planning Department needs to change its name to the O.C. Builders Department. It’s outrageous that developers are so upfront about their cozy relationship with the county planning department that they openly offered to pay retired planner Pat Stanton to return to his job to speed up their project applications. The planning department is supposed to work for the people of Orange County, not the developers.

The job of the planning department is to plan, not to develop. They have made quite a mess of it. Over the last 50 years, “planners” have allowed over-building in Orange County to run rampant without considering the impact it has on our lives.

For the last 50 years, Orange County planners have been lackeys of developers. It is time for the Orange County officials to take charge in favor of the people they are supposed to serve: the taxpayers who pay their salaries.

Marinka Horack

Huntington Beach