Category Archives: orange county
Goodbye, Mr. Moorlach
The dust has settled around the county after the most recent election. It looks like former senator John Moorlach has been trounced….again.
Moorlach will probably tell you (and he did) the reason he lost was due to those other silly Republican candidates that refused to drop out of the race. At the start line were five candidates three Republican, one Democrat and one pretend Democrat who later claimed she was running a non-partisan campaign. Huh….there hasn’t been a non-partisan race in Orange County in 50 years.
The non-partisan Democratic candidate, Janet Rappaport, has the qualifications if not the name recognition. She told other news outlets that she felt transparency was important and sadly lacking in the Supervisors’ office. Unfortunately, she was transparent enough in her campaign to show that she was heavily backed by the ultra-conservative Lincoln Club. That obviously outed her as a decoy to draw down the liberal vote. It was apparent she was out as any viable kind of candidate.
The three Republican candidates all had pretty good name recognition within the county. Kevin Muldoon, Mayor pro tem in Newport Beach, jumped into the race early on. Mayor of Fountain Valley, Michael Vo, waited a bit before signing on. Huntington Beach City Councilman, Michael Posey, was an early candidate but dropped out after pressure from John Moorlach and the OCGOP.
Katrina Foley was the only viable candidate to be fielded and endorsed by the Democrats. For a local candidate Foley, Mayor of Costa Mesa, has surprising name recognition in Southern California. She has served on the city council for more than ten years and before that she served on just about every committee and commission in Costa Mesa. She has shown she can do the job and, yes, we like her.
Then came John.
Fresh from a brutal beating at the state level, former Senator John Moorlach, was coming home to roost. A former county supervisor, he once said he was not a career politician and would not run beyond county office. Well, he must have forgotten that remark. When Moorlach ran for the senate in 2015, he handily beat his opponents, both of them Republicans, in a special election for Mimi Walters’ senate seat. He won the regular election again in 2016 against David Min. Unfortunately, in 2020, the tides changed in that part of Orange County and Min edged out Moorlach by a little over 12,000 votes. So what was an out of work former senator and blowhard supposed to do?
For Moorlach, any old port in the storm will suffice. Like the professional politician he has become, Big John saw an opportunity to sit it out in a nice comfy office at taxpayer expense. He (mistakenly) thought he was still popular among the literate, washed rabble. Hence, he ran for the open county seat left vacant by Michelle Steele’s ascension to the House of Representatives. There, he would be able to wait it out until another opportunity arose for higher office (Moorlach made an initial run for the 45th Congressional District in 2014 but wisely dropped out before spending his patrons’ hard earned money).
That was the plan.
Then came Katrina Foley and a host of other Republican opponents. Moorlach couldn’t do much about Democrat Foley (although the Lincoln Club made a sorry attempt). Not a problem in a solidly conservative district, right? The Republicans were another matter.
Instantly, Moorlach went on the offensive with the other candidates. Muldoon and Posey had come out early in the race. Moorlach made an attempt to quash both saying the Republicans needed to rally around one candidate…and that candidate should be him. Why not? It worked for him before. Only trouble is, Posey and Muldoon weren’t buying it. Well, Muldoon anyway. Posey did eventually drop out, saying on his Facebook page the Republican supermajority needed to be maintained on the BoS. Kevin Muldoon agreed with Moorlach. He just didn’t agree the proper candidate to rally behind was Moorlach.
So the stage was set and the players cards were in play. Foley kept pushing her message of transparency, something we agree is sorely lacking in the county) Muldoon, without saying it, was pushing a non-Moorlach agenda because, like most of us who are not out of touch with reality, he knew a vote for Moorlach was a vote for the same old-style (corrupt, non-transparent) county government. Muldoon also had what I would call a surprising approach to the pandemic.
Moorlach kept relying on the same old rhetoric that got him this far – You should vote for me because I have experience. I was an [innefective, beligerent to unions] OC Supervisor before. And even though I fled the county to make a run for the senate, you are lucky to have me here to take the reins and steer the county aright once again [until I can successfully run for higher office].
Moorlach, of course, lost his pants when the still unofficial results showed Foley ahead by more than 12 percent of the turnout. Turnout, by the way, was surprisingly good for a special election.
I will say in the fast paced (ho-hum) days leading up to the election, Moorlach did focus on other issues besides his enormous ego. He said he would (probably) wear a mask at meetings. He also said the state had botched the response to the covid crisis (duh) and that the governor should not be telling counties 400 miles away how to respond. So, there’s that.
In the meantime we now have, what I believe to be, the best makeup for an Orange County Board of Supervisors – slightly right with a heaping helping of left. If the conservatives left on the BoS can figure this out, they can reap a goldmine. I mean, if the board is truly non-partisan as it should be, then start working toward gaining fruitful alliances. That shouldn’t be too hard. Foley is an excellent addition to the board with an exceptional and diverse background in local politics. Costa Mesa’s loss is the county’s gain. And we will all be the better for it. And now maybe Doug Chaffee can have a friend on the dais.
And don’t worry about John Moorlach. Even as a has-been politician (did we mention his enormous ego?), he has his county public pension, that will amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, to help him through his grief. Need we say more?
Making a Difference: OWW to Offer Free Grocery Shopping and a Life Lesson
Operation Warm Wishes Presents: The Great! The Amazing Food Shopping Spree and Budgeting Lesson for Children in Need! A Shopping Spree like No Other! Monday, January 18th 2021
It’s more than food; it’s an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of our children and families in need.
Each child will receive a $40 groceries gift card and a shopping list with items that must be purchased (cereal, pasta, canned goods, fruits, vegetables and bread – any of their choosing, as long as it does not over $40) along with coupons and healthy and inexpensive meal ides and recipes. Each child will be teamed up with a shopping coach and a calculator to help them shop and budget.
The purpose of this event is not to only provide children and their families with food, but to also give them a lesson on budgeting and working together.
Monday, January 18th 7am to 11am at Albertsons in the city of Tustin (13270 Newport Ave, Tustin, CA 92780)
To register your child and for more details please contact TyRon Jackson at (714) 363-6621 or www.OperationWarmWishes.com
It’s going to be great! It’s going to be amazing!
I’ll Have the Fancy Water, Please
Several months ago, Our Town Tustin wrote about the shady dealings with Poseidon Surfside and their 20 year push to build a desalinator in Orange County. The idea is to use land where a power generating station stands in Huntington Beach and suck water out of the ocean, several miles from shore to make clean, potable water at the expense of the marine ecology. Of course, everyone from the Sierra Club to the Surfrider Foundation has rightly objected to the project. The most important reason, however, is that Orange County simply does not need a desalinator as they are not and will not be short on water any time soon.
The company has made every play in the book to get their project off the ground, despite the enormous opposition. They even had their choirboy, Gavin Newsom, take out a major stumbling block to insure passage over the last hurdle. That stumbling block was Santa Ana Water Board member, William von Blasingame, an outspoken critic of the project. Newsom then replaced him with our very own City of Tustin Mayor Letitia Clark. Clark, a second term member of the city council, has so far failed to make a public statement regarding her position on the project.
Step back in time, once again, to OTT’s post regarding Gavin Newsom’s faux pax at the ritzy French Laundry, a restaurant in the Napa area. You may recall that Newsom attended a large gathering to celebrate a birthday of one of his close friends and lobbyist, Jason Kinney. Neither Newsom or, as far as we could tell, any of the guests were wearing masks or social distancing. Newsom made a lame apology for getting caught and hoped it would all go away.
There’s just one little problem.
It seems Newsom and Kinney are BFFs. And, until recently, an entry on his firm’s website boasted of his close connection with the governor saying he has been advising Newsom for over 14 years. That wouldn’t be so bad except Kinney is a professional lobbyist and has some big name companies he lobbies for. In fact, one of his biggest clients is Poseidon Surfside which, over the last year and a half, paid Kinney’s firm Axiom Advisors, $500,000 to bend the ear of the Governor and other officials. They also contributed $25,000 to Newsom’s inauguration party.
It’s not hard to put two and two together to realize that there is a rancid conflict of interest with Kinney’s friendship with Newsom. Unfortunately, it has been clear from the beginning of his term that Newsom believes he is invulnerable. In the same manner he has recklessly wielded his executive power over the Covid-19 debacle, he has worked to clear the way for Poseidon.
The desalination project is prime example of corrupt politics. Poseidon is owned by an international holding company that stands to make millions off this project for its (mostly) foreign investors. That is, of course, what international conglomerates do. Through Kinney’s firm they have invested heavily in lobbying efforts to see their project through. But the billion dollar project will be built at the expense of every resident and business in Orange County. And for what?
Current estimates put desalinated water from the project at $1800 an acre foot while current groundwater cost is about $600 for the same amount. Orange County now imports about a quarter of its needed water at almost twice the cost for groundwater. An MWDOC study stated that, even in the worst case scenario, Orange County would be short 23,000 acre feet in a drought year. The Poseidon project would generate a minimum 50,000 acre feet of water per year with no place to sell it. Yet, if this project is approved, ratepayers will be on the hook for drastic increases for water they cannot use.
Poseidon execs refute the study, saying the governor’s abandonment of the Delta Tunnel project means that Orange County could actually suffer a 100,000 acre foot shortage. Uh….no, the governor did not abandon the project. He did downsize the project to one tunnel but the water is still coming (eventually). And, the cost of the tunnel will be borne by the entire state and serve 25 million residents. It seems Poseidon stretched the truth a little.
So, where does this leave us? More precisely, where does it leave Mayor Clark? In past discussions, it was clear that the Santa Ana Water Board, which must pass approval for the project to go forward, was split on the issue. von Blasingame was simply the target Newsom aimed at. There are other dissenting voices on the project. Unless they have changed their minds, Clark may hold the deciding vote on the board.
Most cities in Orange County have shown little interest in seeing this project go forward. As far as we know, Tustin has not made a public statement on the desalination project, even though it would impact customers of the city water department. Clark’s position is likewise unknown. The Santa Ana Water Board has not agendized the matter for discussion or vote. When it does, Clark should do what is good for the city and county and join other dissenting votes to put this project to an unglorified end.
Saying Goodbye
You may have heard by now that former Orange County Sheriff, Sandra Hutchens, passed away a few days ago. Hutchens, the third female sheriff in California and the first in Orange County, was 66 at her passing. Current Sheriff Don Barnes wrote an eloquent press release of admiration and respect, calling her a mentor and friend. “She led the department with courage, grace and dignity.”
Sheriff Hutchens took office in a time of strife and crisis in the OCSD. The former sheriff had been tried and convicted of federal charges of witness tampering, stemming from a year long investigation of corruption in the department. The department, to say the least, was left tattered and worn.
Hutchens was appointed for the remainder of the term and went to work immediately to repair the damage done by her predecessor(s). She made substantial changes to the department that left many conservatives wondering about her ability to lead. She was, after all, a product of a liberal Los Angeles County law enforcement agency. But, she was determined to restore the honor and dignity of the deputies who worked for her.
When the federal courts found in favor of the gun-toting crowd in 2014 (Peruta vs. San Diego), Hutchens complied by relaxing the standards for which a concealed weapons permit would be issued. She gained further favor and respect with the conservative crowds when, after the courts overturned the initial order, she left the looser standards in place.
Hutchens’ instincts helped her give the department direction and purpose again. She made changes to the jails to keep prisoners and deputies safer and more accountable. She brought the department into the 21st century regarding the use of electronic databases for record keeping – records that could not be altered. She withstood attacks from the DA’s office and criticism from the Board of Supervisors. Where there was praise, it went to staff; when there was criticism, she readily took the blame. She had high ethical standards and expected the same for those who worked for her.
I met Sheriff Hutchens when she first took office in 2008. I was a board director of the union that represented the sheriffs special deputies and most civilian employees of the department. I found her to be affable, intelligent and respectful of others. She was genuinely interested in the welfare of her employees and it showed. Her demeanor commanded respect, not fear. I liked her.
Sheriff Hutchens retired in 2019 I think due mostly to her long standing battle with breast cancer. She was diagnosed in 2012 and she successfully fought it into remission. She successfully ran for two terms as Sheriff, choosing not to run for a third. Unfortunately, cancer became the ultimate winner and, after a brief relapse, she succumbed to the disease over the weekend.
OC Sheriff Don Barnes said, “She restored our pride, gave us back our dignity and rebuilt trust with the people we serve. She kept her oath, kept her promises, and ended her time in office leaving this agency better than when she started.”
I agree. RIP, Sheriff.
Our Town Tustin 