Category: Orange County Government

Posted onBoohooism

Everybody Talks The Talk

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Us rock-ribbed Republicans believe in lots of transparency and accountability.

It’s true. Ask anybody. Everybody says they want accountability and transparency in government, especially political candidates; but those in authority have a lot of incentive to keep their doings free from risk – the risk of being exposed as responsible for some screw-up or other; and the risk of fighting the inertia produced by institutional dead weight in a gravity-free environment. And of course the ability to pass along lucrative contracts to their pals.

And all this bring me to the point of this essay: it’s time for the Orange County Board of Supervisors to take charge of semi-autonomous agencies that have been operating under the public radar. Two of these “hidden governments” spring most immediately to mind: the Children and Families Commission – that seems to have been operating as a cash cow for the local repuglican machine, and the OC Cemetary District, ditto.

The Children and Families Commission is a poster child for liberal, under-scrutinized government. You may agree with its goals and method of revenue collection. But even if whole-village child rearing and confiscatory income redistribution are your cup of tea, you have to admit that paying a connected political operative like Matthew J. Cunningham $200 an hour to update Facebook and read blogs and hand out toothbrushes must diminish from the resources available to actually help kids. And what’s with all the lobbying?  Hundreds of thousands worth in any given year at the State level, with Anaheim’s mayor-for-hire Curt Pringle being the chief beneficiary.

And then there’s the Cemetery District that paid Pringle to find a new graveyard and paid him another $25,000 as bonus for finding a site in Brea. I’m not even sure if Brea is going to go along with this, but let’s hope Pringle’s fee included guaranteed entitlements from the city. But I digress. The real issue here is why the District hired Pringle at all to do the work of a real estate professional whose compensation would have been a partial commission from the seller, not the taxpayers.

Well, we’ve got some new blood on the 5th Floor of the Hall of Administration, and hopefully these guys will start to attend to these and other agencies that need to be examined, made accountable, taken over, and if appropriate, disbanded. Sure, the ‘pugs will squeal and squawk.

And that’s when you know you’re doing the right thing.

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Posted onBehind Closed Doors

The Scandal of Government Lobbying Government: The Children and Families Commission

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If I cry will you believe me that it's well run?

A while back we posted a story about the OC Grand Jury callying for a lobbyist registry. They also attacked the practice of government agencies paying lobbyists to lobby other government agencies. Teri Sforza at the OC Watchdog did a post, here.

Yes, it certainly seems even more disturbing when practiced by opaque agencies like Water Districts and of course, by our old pals at the Children and Families Commission.

God bless America, land of opportunity!

As we have amply documented, this commission has paid Curt Pringle to lobby on its behalf and it has also employed the services of former State legistalor Phil Isenberg. Just yesterday we did a post about wordsmith Matthew J. Cunningham raking in some big bucks getting ready and attending a lunch for legislative staffers. Presumably the whole thing was a lobbying sales job.

The worst part of this of course, is that the OC commission is not lobbying for itself. No point in that – unless there’s a call to change the money distribution formula to benefit OC. No, all these hundreds of thousands of lobbying dollars are going to defend Prop 10 revenue in general. In other words, the OC Children and Families Commissions is spending all this dough lobbying for the other 57 counties’ First Five Commissions.

Yeah, but those other counties don't have a wordsmith of my caliber!

Are these other counties lobbying themselves? Who knows. Not unlikely. But this just emphasizes the point that the whole thing is out of control – no matter how many times Cunningham ghost writes blather about how well run they are.

And while we’re at it, let’s remember The White House Writers Group and their six-figure contract to promote the commission outside around the country!

If you think about it the whole thing really stinks. Time to pick off the scab on the commission and see what’s supperating underneath.

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Posted onBoohooism

Bill Campbell Weeps For Human Relations

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Self-styled conservative 3rd District Supervisor Bill Campbell, who supported Harry Sidhu and who sits atop the Children and Families Commission – where he directs public largess to his pals and cronies, supports the OC Human Relations Commission.

Does he ever.

Here’s a clip of Big Bill actually choking up over the possibility that the Board of Supervisors might actually do the right thing and pull the taxpayer plug on this nonsense.

Notice that his focus is not on “measuring” anything, but is anecdotal and really is just about “showing” that the County has concerns for everyone. Typical.

Oh, and way to be in touch with your feelings, big guy.

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Posted onDead heads

Voice of OCEA and LIB OC Cook Up More Crapola

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Me 'n Norberto 'n Matt are on the same page.

Well, they’re at it again. The Voice of OC which is funded by (drum roll) the OCEA and the OCEA PAC Treasurer Chris Prevatt have coughed up yet another load of happy horse shit about Shawn Nelson.

Here is Tracy Wood of the Voice of OCEA; and here is Prevatt, picking up the ball and running even farther out of bounds. Of course Matthew Cunningham passes along the story as a “top story”, too, just as if the Voice of OCEA were a real news source.

They are deliberately mischaracterizing Nelson’s statements about a possible new Coyote Hills meeting, trying to make it look like Nelson was trying to lobby for a new meeting so he could change his vote.

At the Council meeting last Tuesday at a “second reading” of the Council denial (BTW, that’s a new one on us!) discussion arose about additional information that the Council had not heard. Whether there was any real merit to that claim remains to be seen. Nelson was dubious, but basically volunteered to attend one last special meeting before swearing in as Supervisor if his colleagues felt inclined to do so.

Quirk and Keller declined, and on a vote of 3-2 the original denial was confirmed. Story over.

What’s funny is that Prevatt is spinning this as some sort of issue that Hairball Sidhu can use in the fall against Nelson. Did he let slip the official union position on the fall election? Hmm.

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Posted onDead heads

Too Fun To Pass Up

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Cue the foxtrot

Okay, this isn’t about Fullerton – not directly, anyway, but Janet Nguyen is indeed the Chair of the County Board of Supervisors. And we’re in the County.

Our Fringe Friend Gustavo Arellano has passed along an invite to Ms. Nguyen’s August fundraiser at the OC Weekly with the usual mordant commentary. Depending on the amount you give to her you will be classified:

No level for rickshaw driver?

WTF? You can be a “bamboo?” Or two? Then comes the “Empress” and “Emperor” sponsor level. Sweet Baby Emanicipator! Okay, the comestibles are some sort of Asian fusion blah-blah-blah, but this is America fer chrissakes!

How about a Mandarin level for a hundred bucks? Or a coolie grade for 50 dollars or less?

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Posted onDead heads

Pacific Strategies – My Big Fat Staffer Lunch

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If you take a doggie bag you can actually feed your whole family on the Commission's dime - and get paid, too!

Looks like about $2,540 billed for activities leading up to and including a Republican legislative “staffer lunch” back in March of 2009. Hope there were some crusts left over to help feed the children.

View the Full Invoice

All that dough to persuade GOP staff aides about how wonderful the Rob Reiner commissions are? You’ve gotta be kidding!

Note that third item about Riverside County making their “first Five” Commission a county agency. I wonder what that sort of scrutiny would mean for our Commission. No more Campbell crony contracts?

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Posted onBoohooism

The End May Be Near for Rusty Kennedy’s Human Relations Commisssion

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An evanescent smile?

Talk about a hold over from a different era. No, not Rusty Kennedy (above), but the OC Human Relations Commission that has given him employment for Lo these many years.

But the final curtain may be about to ring down upon a typical 1970s “feel good” venture –  a government operation that has no specific metrics for performance and no objective criteria for success. In other words, a typical lefty government program.

At their preliminary budget hearing on Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors broke 2-1-1 on whether to keep this dinosaur around any more. Nguyen and Campbell who seem to want to cater to the unquestioning liberal vote want to keep this dinosaur; Campbell, whose adherents describe as conservative, was actually moved to tears by the very though of it. John Moorlach voted no. Pat Bates abstained for reasons that only Bates could possible explain.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Which means that when he votes on June 29, Shawn Nelson’s first budget decision may well involve pulling the plug on the comatose patient. Well, we say do it. Do Not Resuscitate!

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Posted onBoohooism

Pacific Strategies – Normally Loquacious Hugh Hewitt Needs, Gets Help Organizing Thoughts

by 12 Comments on Pacific Strategies – Normally Loquacious Hugh Hewitt Needs, Gets Help Organizing Thoughts

I was just too doggone busy to be bothered with it.

UPDATE: Gustavo Arellano has weighed in over at the OC Weekly.

Here’s a compilation of  invoiced time Matthew J. Cunningham spent ghost writing for the supposed conservative Hugh Hewitt,who is a proud member of Rob Reiner’s Children and Families Commission.

Hewitt is Cunningham’s blog mentor who encouraged him to start what is today called “Red County”.

As noted above Hewitt is also a commissioner on the CFCOC, and thus Cunningham’s boss.

It’s odd that the presumably literate Hewitt can’t write his own letters and “op-ed” pieces if he believes so strongly in the Commission. He needs his buddy Cunningham to do it at a cool $200 an hour; and he’ll do it too, dammit, no matter how many hours it takes.

Hugh believes in the Commission almost as much as I do! I know because I wrote it.

Of course it’s also odd that Hewitt is on this ridiculous commission in the first place, unless one recognizes it as a platform to dispense patronage to old pals.

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Posted onOrange County Government

$1.4 MILLION – THE COST OF CLERK-RECORDER TOM DALY’S CRONYISM

by 25 Comments on $1.4 MILLION – THE COST OF CLERK-RECORDER TOM DALY’S CRONYISM

Dear Friends, we have just received this essay from one of our long-time readers. Enjoy.

If the election for Clerk-Recorder had anything to teach us, it is that the best candidate doesn’t always win the election. And we wonder why we have the ineffective government we have. I guess all I can say is that we deserve the government we vote for.

As the County budget approval meeting approach we found even more government waste by election victor Tom Daly.  If you look at the previous three years you’ll become aware of yet another way in which this inept “Manager of the Year” continues to waste the taxpayer’s money. In the past three years, Tom Daly has doled out more that $1.4 million for “temporary help” and “extra-help.” This is easily verifiable by looking at the County’s Proposed Budget Book for 2009-2010.

We have previously reported that Tom Daly likes to give non-competitive “extra-help” jobs to his friends and the relatives of campaign donors. But in a time in which the County is laying off employees and forcing furloughs on other agencies, Tom Daly is getting away with budgetary murder. His budget is at the same levels they were when recording and revenues were at an all time high. Property recordings have declined to almost half of the all time mark in 2005, yet Daly seems to believe he is still entitled to hire his friends and relatives of campaign donors at a whopping cost of $1.4 million. This essentially means the County General Fund is being deprived $1.4 million over the past 3 years.

How come? From what we have heard, most of his cronies are in non-essential jobs so if these useless bodies were to go home tomorrow, the department and the County would be just fine with more money in the General Fund. Tom loves to claim that he has reduced his budget by 26% but really that isn’t true – all he does is cook-up the numbers or overspends and draws from his piggy-bank account known as 12D.  He is not supposed to use this fund for plugging his over-spending, but he does, and the County does nothing. He loves to claim that he has only 102 staff but if you count all the extra-help and temp help he is closer to 110 employees. Maybe someone needs to go to the state agency responsible for investigating this fleecing of the county.

Daly’s needs to give back more to the county General Fund; and he can start by letting go of his friends and crony’s relatives like Bruce Mathias, Jennifer Lowe, Steven Oftelie, Dulce Cuevas and a more; and not the extra-help that are not his buddies.

We will be watching who he lets go and hope that the Board of Supervisors deny his request for these extra-help and temporary help expenses. Hopefully with Shawn Nelson now elected to the Board, Tom Daly will be under more scrutiny. Let’s hope for the right thing to happen soon.

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