OC Blog

Loretta - On OUR Side?

With her sister Linda, and Maxine Waters voting with her, Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez (47th CD, Garden Grove) could not support a house bill earlier this week which would cut off American aid to any country that fails to extradite suspects in the killing of federal, state or local law enforcement officers:

Beauprez Cop Killer Amendment Passes the U.S. House

June 28, 2005

Washington, D.C. - The U.S. House tonight overwhelmingly passed an amendment to the Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill offered by Reps. Bob Beauprez (R-Colo.) and Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) that will cut foreign aid to countries who refuse to extradite cop killers back to the U.S. for trial. The amendment passed by a vote of 327-98.

See also: House vote squeezes Mexico.

Update (7/2): House votes to limit U.S. aid to Mexico, in part,

"Countries refusing to extradite cop killers and other serious offenders should not be rewarded by receiving American foreign assistance," Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, who voted for the measure, said in a statement.

He was joined by Reps. Joe Baca, D-San Bernardino; Ken Calvert, R-Riverside; Elton Gallegly, R-Thousand Oaks; Gary Miller, R-Diamond Bar; Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach; Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena; and Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks.

Voting against the measure were Xavier Becerra, D-Los Angeles; Howard Berman, D-Van Nuys; David Dreier, R-Glendora; Jane Harman, D-El Segundo; Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands; Juanita Millender-McDonald, D-Long Beach; Grace Napolitano, D-Santa Fe Springs; Linda Sanchez, D-Lakewood; Hilda Solis, D-El Monte; and Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles.

Dreier spokeswoman Jo Maney said the congressman voted against the amendment "because its unintended consequence would be eliminating aid to Mexico for enhancing border security, eradicating drugs and reducing their illegal entry into the U.S."

Dreier's statement is ludicrous, but even more amazing is that our government actually gives the Mexicans money to completely fail at border enforcement, drug interdiction and maintaining their people within their own country.

An Umberger please, well done

OC Weekly's Scott Moxley, exposes the exposes with the best headline this month: Tour of Booty. 

Who says there's no political intrigue or backroom maneuvering in the OC?  It's all about character Tom -- that means having it, not being one.

We chided the Register a bit on the day the Times story came out, when in fact the real story from John Gittelsohn was published the next day.  Per Moxley:

Gittelsohn (OCR) got the last laugh, though. On June 29, Register columnist Frank Mickadeit outlined the hilarious backstory: Editors at the Reg only planned to reveal the Gitmo angle and not the infidelity. According to Mickadeit, Umberg’s preemptive strike with Pasco and the Times “actually opened the door to us using . . . information we had not been entirely comfortable using beforehand.”  In military parlance, we can say Umberg was downed by friendly fire—his own.

Aside from the character issues, Umberg's going to have one tough time with the possibility of investigations over his head (government or press) -- particularly if he was lying about his military service -- we hope the local press will pay the same attention to this as the MSM did to Bush's Guard service.  Umberg's cooked, and the Republicans will be ready to take that seat back.

Should Van Tran Adjust His Target?

Silence Dogood has a very good post on the whole Umberg affair (pardon the pun), in which he makes this observation:

I've been reading on other blogs, like Hack n Flak, that Assemblyman Tran is seriously considering a run at succeeding John Campbell in the 35th SD. In light of the recent developments with Umberg, I think it would be unwise for Tran to run against Orange County Republican Party Chairman Scott Baugh (who has already expressed interest), when there's another opportunity where Republicans could pick up a Senate seat running against a shamed Tom Umberg.

Silence has an excellent point. Umberg has been seriously weakened, and my instinct is the continued coverage of whether he was in Gitmo when he said he was will further weaken him, since they damage the core of his heretorfore political strengths.

Van Tran is better positioned than any other potential Republican candidate capture the 34th SD and re-plant the GOP flag in central Orange County. He can beat Umberg, and would be a tremendous addition to the Senate GOP Caucus.

The 35 SD will be a Republican seat, regardless of who runs -- while which party controls the 34th SD depends very much on who runs. Tran should seriously consider switching his sights from the 35th to the 34th SD -- which allow the OC Republican Party and conservative acitivists to rally around him, rather than dissipate themselves in a needless fight between tran and Scott Baugh.

Everyone Take A Deep Breath

OC Blog has never been the GroupThink Blog, and on the matter of initiating a recall of Supervisor Bill Campbell, I vigorously disagree. It is pure folly.

I disagree with Campbell's votes on increasing pension benefits for county employees. It is imperative that we stop this legal piracy by the government employee unions, who view taxpayers the same way that dairy farmers view milk cows. The most recent pension benefit increase sought by the unions will assuredly not be the last, and in the meantime the rising costs of these benefits will rob county government of its ability to meet necessary functions like being able to simply maintain the county park system.

At the same time, recalling Bill Campbell is foolishness in so many ways.

First, the only way it could ever be qualified is with a lot of money. There is no grassroots support for recalling Bill Campbell, and any purely volunteer effort to gather sufficient signatures would fizzle like most recall attempts do.

The only interest group with the money, organization and motivation to qualify it are the public employee unions. Consequently, they would also be in driver's seat should a recall make the ballot -- precisely the opposite of what those on this blog who have advocated a recall desire.

Another consequence of this mischief would be a conservative/Republican movement too spent and divided to afford assistance where it is really needed -- helping John Moorlach defeat Tom Harman -- thus leaving the unions a free hand to hammer Moorlach.

Secondly, while I am appalled at the rising pension costs, the numbers in the recent actuary report would be the same even if the recent pension spikes had no it been enacted. So to use the actuaries report as a basis for advocating Campbell's recall is unsound.

Thirdly, Bill Campbell is a conservative. In the extremely remote possibility that a recall ever got farther than a few posts on this blog, why on earth would conservatives want to expend enormous time and resources in a fratricidal donnybrook that is would most likely further empower the government employee unions?

Bill Campbell is a good, decent man -- and a good conservative. We conservatives revere Ronald Reagan despite the fact that he approved some of the largest tax increases in state and national history -- yet a few of us want to politically defenestrate Bill Campbell on the basis of a couple of lousy -- albeit very costly -- votes?

Let's not cut off our nose to spite our face. Instead of squandering energy in fruitless and self-defeating talk of a recall that only delights the public employee unions, let's focus on electing a third conservative (John Moorlach) to the Board of Supervisors. That is the only way things will begin to change in county government.

Congress gets a Raise

House members OK $3,100 pay raise

The House on Tuesday agreed to a $3,100 pay raise for Congress next year - to $165,200 - after defeating an effort to roll back salaries.

Per the Register:

Orange County members of Congress voting for the raise were Reps. Ken Calvert, Christopher Cox, Gary Miller, Dana Rohrabacher, all Republicans. Voting against the measure were Democrat Loretta Sanchez and Republican Ed Royce.

Call for Recall

Greenhut from the Register's Blog:

Any good lawyers out there?

The Orange County Grand Jury report has made it clear that, in granting a massive pension spike to county workers, the county budget will be stressed for years to come. Unless someone challenges the way this benefit was granted -- i.e., Weren't there conflicts of interest as negotiators on both sides of the bargaining table stood to benefit from the agreement? -- before it goes into effect on Friday, it is set in stone. Surely, someone somewhere in the county can file a lawsuit by then, can't they?

Angry county residents need to stop talking about a recall of supervisors and actually start one. Bill Campbell is the obvious target. He led the charge for the unions and has the most to lose, politically. Huntington Beach needs a better candidate to run for Assembly against Jim Silva, who also is in the pocket of unions. Surely, someone in this sophisticated county can mount a serious, conservative, winning campaign. It shouldn't matter how much the GOP establishment tries to keep others out to clear the way for Silva.

We know how it works. Even self-described conservatives such as Campbell are afraid of angering the unions, so they do the union bidding and spit on their base. Those of us on the right need to inflict every bit as much pain when we are treated shabbily as the unions will inflict. Campbell needs to feel it ... and a recall would be a wonderful way to punish him for selling out taxpayers on behalf of a liberal special interest.

Posted by Steven Greenhut -- sgreenhut@ocregister.com at 12:33 PM

Greenhut's got a point -- a good one.  Anybody out there have the courage and capability to go after a restraining order tomorrow (the new pension scheme kicks in on Friday)?  How tough could that be -- helluva way to make a name for one's self -- you'd need that when cranking up the Recall effort next Tuesday.

OC Blog News Roundup -- June 29, 2005

Today's top stories from behind the Orange Curtain:

LAT: The Case of the Disappearing Dune.

LAT on the budget and Grand Jury report: O.C. Approves Budget, Hears a Fiscal Warning.  In part,

Under the new budget, the probation department will get 85 new positions, the public defender will get 10 more employees, and John Wayne Airport will get 18 new positions. The district attorney and social services agency will each get five new positions.

LAT's Parsons on KOCE: Network Has God, Law on Its Side.  In part,

It's a whole other discussion as to whether it would be better if KOCE remains in the Public Broadcasting System fold. I wish it would, but as the appellate court unflinchingly noted, you can't be so obvious in trying to thwart televangelists from buying your station in a fair auction.  Or, as we nonlegal people might say: Pity the fool who rattles the heavenly cage.

OCR on our next bankruptcy: Grand jury warns of 'another county crisis'.  In part,

A county employees' union representative denounced the report as biased, while one supervisor called it factual.  "They were critical, but I think they were also very accurate in describing the situation," said Supervisor Bill Campbell, serving as chairman of the five-member board.  But Nick Berardino, general manager of the Orange County Employees Association called the grand jury's report a "strident attack."

OCR's Mickadeit on Umberg, and getting scooped by the Times: The inside story on Umberg revelations.

OCBJ on Lyon Buyback: Nixed Bid Hits William Lyon Shares.

OCR Editorial on SAUSD's Principal Jones: Give principal an 'F', quoting from the actual memo OC Blog posted Monday.  In part (note her defense against FRAUD in green),

Superintendent Al Mijares quickly called it a "serious violation" and said, according to a Register article: "Principals and teachers are expected to hold the line with regards to grades that are necessary to the high school diploma, and under no circumstances will teachers be pressured to change a grade." That's the right initial approach, but we're still waiting to hear whether Ms. Jones will be disciplined for this behavior.  Mr. Mijares this week expressed deep concern over the matter to us, and said he was meeting with the board to discuss the proper action. He raised the possibility that Ms. Jones may have simply been assuring that teachers had properly accounted for all students who had already improved their grades above the failing level.

Moorlach on Real Orange Last Night

Notes from Treasurer/Tax Collector John Moorlach's interview with Ann Pulice on 6/28, he's speaking (with some comments and clarification):

Sorry about the topic.

The County's encouraging employees to retire earlier, with a higher benefit.

We're trying to reach our unfunded liability target is $2.34 billion.

The unions were so successful in getting these egregious, enhanced benefits that now they're going to see major layoffs, and alot of early retirements because we encouraging them to leave earlier, so that means we have to pay the benefit out longer as well (and hire someone else to do their job), so it just gets bleaker as you go.

The current board members, over the last four years, have done the same thing that my predecessor did (Bankrupt Bob Citron), that is make decisions based on the fact that the market would bail you out.  So here we are -- we've got all this history and we didn't learn anything.

We are (already) faced with $90M a year to pay for the bankruptcy -- which is an incredible amount -- add to that another $120M to our existing $180M in pension plan payments -- it's like a train wreck in slow motion.

We should be re-evaluating what we're doing with our pensions, what kind of benefits we're giving -- certainly we'll probably see reform like Schwarzenegger and Assemblyman Richmond were advocating -- that is, convert new employees to 401k plans.  You'll still have the rat going through the python -- we'll have to have something to stop the bleeding with new employees.

You're going to see alot of budget cuts (not yesterday), alot of layoffs -- sort of what's happening with the City of San Diego -- they're even talking Chapter Nine (Municipal Bankruptcy).  If they can successfully renegotiate employee bargaining unit agreements, then you might see Chapter Nine as a whole new cottage industry.

(Pulice asks, 'If you could fix things, what would would do?').

The first thing I would do is hire an attorney to see if we can rescind these benefits before they become effective on July 1st (this Friday) -- is there anyway to undo these agreements, legally?  The second is we've got institute pension reform, like Schwarzenegger's plan.  And third, we've got to find where else we can cut.

No easy answers -- but this could have been avoided -- that's the frustrating part.

Board Fails to Cut Spending

With a runaway budget obligation previously approved by Supervisors Campbell, Silva and Wilson, the Board of Supervisors has failed to cut costs and personnel with today's approval of a $4.9 billion budget.  Per the Register story, Board OKs $4.9 billion budget, the budget has actually increased nearly seven percent.

Particularly onerous is this formation of an Assessor's Goon Squad, covered days ago in OC Blog:

Included in the spending plan with today's vote was an extra $89,000 for Assessor Webster Guillory to hire temporary workers. The workers will survey properties across the county to make sure their physical descriptions and assessed values match what is on the books. The overall, three-year program will cost about $320,000, Dunivent said. 

Supervisor Chris Norby registered his opposition to the idea, calling it a "fishing expedition."

But you voted for it, Supervisor:  "All five supervisors were present for the budget vote, which was unanimous."  When the Assessor's boys are "surveying" your backyard, maybe they'll find your backbone.

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Update: Steve Greenhut weighs in from the Register's Blog:

Guillory's snoops

OC Supervisor Bill Campbell, the union lackey who has helped plunge the county into a fiscal crisis by championing massive pension increases for government workers, recently questioned Assessor Webster Guillory's plan to hire 29 snoops to traipse all over your property to check for illegal additions. That was good. But this "conservatism" was just for show. At today's board meeting, he apologized for having done so and promptly supported a budget that adds the inspectors. Meanwhile, the Orange County Grand Jury released a report today detailing the pension mess Campbell helped create. Let's call it the Bill Campbell Pension Deficit -- at least until he is recalled.

Posted by Steven Greenhut -- sgreenhut@ocregister.com at 3:33 PM 

OC Grand Jury Report on Pensions

Per the FACT (Fullerton Association of Concerned Taxpayers) list server, pensiontsunami.com, the Grand Jury has released a 17-page report entitled:

Another County Crisis:  Pensions, Health Care, and Other Benefits

It's available here as a .pdf.  And here are pictures worth thousand of words and BILLIONS of dollars:

Don't miss the tables in the Appendix!

From the Register's website this aft, Report: Benefits could break county.  Their Lead, our emphasis:

In a scathing report released today, the Orange County grand jury says the county's increasingly attractive employee benefits could cause a $4.4 billion shortfall and rival the problems created by the bankruptcy a decade ago.