Everyone agrees there’s a problem in Orange. The solution? Not so much.
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With yesterday’s California primary election now behind us — and early results not available by this newsletter’s deadline — be sure to follow the Los Angeles Times for the latest scoop; its mighty election coverage team began filing live updates yesterday. To check on Orange County results, you can also find updates at ocvotes.gov.
Once all the results have been officially tabulated — and as we’ve learned, that can take some time — we’re on to the Nov. 3 general election.
One measure that might or might not appear on the November ballot is a proposed 1% sales tax increase in the city of Orange. It seems there’s some hesitance on the part of the Orange City Council to ask voters to help the city, which is looking down the barrel of bankruptcy, meet its financial obligations.
This council was cautioned by accounting consultants Grant Thornton Advisors last July that the city could be belly up, financially speaking, as soon as 2029 and that it faces a projected budget deficit of $46.5 million by 2031. Prescribed “radical” measures to correct course included them seeking a 1% sales tax hike — which could annually harness $37 million — slashing 12% from department budgets and aggressively courting business development.
According to this report in TimesOC by my colleague Gabriel San Román, for the last three meetings of the City Council the idea of asking the voters to consider a sales tax boost from its current 7.75% has met with heel-dragging.
To be fair, there is the inescapable truth that Orange voters turned down Measure Z, which sought a 10-year, half-cent sales tax hike just two years ago. The vote was narrow at the time, but could enough Orange residents be convinced to support twice that amount this year? Or are they feeling even more pinched in the pocketbook in 2026 than they were then?
Part of the debate among the Orange councilmembers has been whether such a measure would sunset in 10, 15, or 20 years; a compromise of a 12-year term gathered some favor but ultimately failed to gain the necessary supermajority of council votes to move ahead.
I gather from the article there’s been some sniping at the dais as the debate has been kicked from one meeting to the next, with one councilmember suggesting during the April discussion that some of his council colleagues would be hesitant to float a tax measure during an election year to avoid political suicide.
Meanwhile, time is running out if it is to be placed on the ballot this year; July 14 is the deadline for that.
MORE NEWS
• A public health warning was issued last week for the potential outbreak of rabies after a rabid bat was found at Irvine Regional Park in Orange on Sunday, May 24. Another health warning, this time about West Nile virus, arrived in my inbox Tuesday afternoon from the Orange County Mosquito and Vector Control District, which reported that mosquitoes collected in Newport Beach have tested positive for the virus.
• Elected officials and stakeholders turned out last week to break ground on a renewal project at Shalimar Park in Costa Mesa’s west side.
• A recently released economic impact report showed that the annual Orange County Fair, which this year returns on July 17, boosts the regional economy by $331 million over the three weeks of its run.
• The Newport Beach City Council last week decided to relax the city’s ban on cigar lounges, clearing a path for new businesses to open in Fashion Island and the airport area. At the same meeting, the panel tightened up regulations for smoke shops.
BUSINESS
• GKN Aerospace in Garden Grove, site of the chemical scare that displaced tens of thousands of residents for several days last month, is not only facing class-action lawsuits, but also supply disruptions, The Times reported. “They are a large tier-one supplier to the major [original equipment manufacturers], and they provide many products that are proprietary in nature to the industry,” Alex Krutz, managing director of Patriot Industrial Partners, an O.C.-based industrial advisory firm, told the paper. “It will be a challenge for the industry if GKN has a problem.”
• South Coast Plaza introduced its new executive director of marketing, Tenley Zinke, to the media at a luncheon held in early May. Zinke is stepping into some big shoes left by Debra Gunn Downing, who is winding down her career in a role she’s held since 1999. Daily Pilot & TimesOC reporter Sarah Mosqueda interviewed both women for an article you can find here.
COURTS
• Laguna Beach businessman Mohammad Honarkar was awarded $1.34 billion by an arbitrator last month in connection with a years-long real estate dispute with financier Mahender Makhijani, the Newport Beach firm Continuum Analytics and affiliated entities. “I got my judgment,” Honarkar told the Daily Pilot Friday, adding that he now hopes authorities will help him retrieve the documents necessary for the 14 properties claimed by Makhijani to be returned to him, including the Hotel Laguna and 14 West in Laguna Beach.
• A lawsuit filed last week claims a 3-year-old Costa Mesa girl fell ill with acute kidney failure after eating a beef kofta plate at the Kebab Shop on Adams Avenue on March 28, during what USDA officials later determined to be an E. coli outbreak.
• The Anaheim Chamber of Commerce has filed a lawsuit against Todd Ament, its past president and chief executive for fraud. Political consultant Jeff Flint is also named in the suit, as are Wendy Curtis, a former chamber employee, and past businesses tied to Ament and Flint. “This action arises from a multi-year scheme of self-dealing, bribery, kickbacks and political influence peddling,” the suit claims.
• Chris Kluwe, the former NFL punter and Huntington Beach civic activist who was on the ballot yesterday in a state Assembly race, announced last week that he’d settled a defamation lawsuit he filed in July against author Chris Epting.
• The trial began Monday in a Santa Ana courtroom for Irvine dog trainer Kwong “Tony” Chun Sit, 54, who is charged with 22 felony counts of cruelty to animals in connection with the deaths of 11 dogs, City News Service reported.
• Orange resident Joe Sanberg, 46, the co-founder of the now-bankrupt digital bank Aspiration who pleaded guilty in October to a $248-million fraud scheme, was sentenced Monday in Los Angeles to 14 years behind bars, CNS reported.
• Also from CNS: 81-year-old Tanh Thien Tran was sentenced Monday to 37 years to life in prison for fatally stabbing his 11-year-old stepdaughter and trying to kill his wife in their Garden Grove home in August 2018.
SPORTS
• Times sports columnist Bill Plaschke has joined the chorus calling for Arte Moreno to sell the Angels. “Arte, please, listen to your customers, heed your record, recognize the inherent sadness of a 79-year-old man being chased out of his own home,” Plaschke writes.
• Laguna Beach High’s baseball team has had a great year, making it all the way to the CIF Southern Section Division 4 championship game played Saturday night at Cal State Fullerton. Alas, the Breakers lost in the bottom of the ninth to Glendora High.
LIFE & LEISURE
• Costa Mesa resident Michael Moses Nolf on Monday evening held the inaugural meeting of his brainchild, the Costa Mesa Ukulele Club, at Deli Nerds. He hopes people will turn out on the first Monday of every month for “bad singing, mediocre playing and great community,” according to this feature story.
• The newest art installation at Laguna Beach City Hall features giant sculptures of chess pieces from Pageant of the Master’s “Indian Chess Set.” The sculptures arrived Friday via a wheeled procession from the Festival of Arts grounds to the city’s Forest Avenue headquarters.
• Having “the talk” about the birds and the bees with kids can be challenging for some parents. Newport Beach resident Annette Dunn, who has extensive experience guiding such discussions, recently established Nurse Netty, an educational A1 guide that can be accessed online.
CALENDAR
• “120 Years of Welcome,” an exhibit on local history presented by Visit Newport Beach, is on view now through October at the Balboa Island Museum, 210 B Marine Ave., Balboa Island. The museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., except for major holidays. For more information about current exhibits visit balboaislandmuseum.org.
• “Awakening,” an exhibition of the works of Mexico City-born artist José Ramón González, who goes by Moncho, is on view through June 16 at Gallery Sonder, 3435 East Coast Hwy., Corona del Mar. For more information visit gallerysonder.com.
• The 42nd annual Tustin Street Fair and Chili Cook-off is set for Sunday, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. in Old Town Tustin and Peppertree Park. It features food vendors, chili tasting, stage contests, live entertainment, a car show, a beer & wine garden and more. For details, go to tustinca.org.
KEEP IN TOUCH
We appreciate your help in making this the best newsletter it can be. Please send news tips, your memory of life in O.C. (photos welcome!) or comments to carol.cormaci@latimes.com.