OC Blog

Red County/OC Blog News Roundup -- June 27, 2007

Today's top stories from behind the Orange Curtain:

$5.9 Billion OC Budget Avoids The Deepest Cuts -- LAT
The spending plan is 6.2% greater than last year's. New expenditures include money for crime detection and prosecution.

Drought Boosts Fire Danger -- OCR
Firefighters pushing flexibility, resident help to get handle on potential problems.

Public Hearing On Wal-Mart Set For Next Month -- OCR
A draft environmental impact report for a proposed Supercenter says the store will have a minimal negative effect on traffic, environment and the neighborhood.

Editorial: Public's Right To Know Hinges On Vote -- OCR
Bill to restore public access to police disciplinary records faces key Assembly test.

Adventure Playground Opens For Summer Entertainment -- OCR
Adventure City doesn't have red plastic slides with wood chips – just mud, wood and rope.

Placentia Board May Vote On Levy In August -- OCR
School officials say voter turnout makes a February ballot issue best.

Deportee Arrested On Sex Crimes Charges -- OCR
Man caught peeping through 12-year-old boy's window and flashing a mother in Lake Forest, authorities say.

Agency On Board With Transportation Center Plan -- OCR (6/27/07)
Developer, architect leave space for proposed Southern California Railroad Experience.

Op-Ed: Arrests Highlight Hmong Suffering -- OCR
Laotian tribal people still being punished for helping U.S. during Vietnam.

Irvine Council Works To Fund Great Park Balloon -- LAT
Ads on the craft itself or sponsor's logos elsewhere are under consideration.  They sure seem to devote a lot of energy to this balloon.

Grounds Fairly Completed -- DP
Piece by piece, the rides and attractions for the 2007 Orange County Fair are coming together as organizers prepare for the fair's opening only a few weeks away.

Church Ordered To Forfeit Property -- DP
St. James Church, which broke ties with the Episcopal diocese three years ago, must forfeit its property in Newport Beach, according to an appellate court ruling Tuesday that reversed a 2005 decision.

Newport Beach Council Adopts Budget, Additional Items -- DP
The Newport Beach City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to adopt a $208.9 million budget for 2007-08, and council members added $1.8 million worth of extras that included a disaster warning system and three new firefighters.

Fewer People To Move To OC Area -- DP
Orange County should see a drop in new residents over the next few years due to a slow-growing economy, according to Chapman University researchers who hosted an annual economic forecast conference on Tuesday.

Riverboat Dismantling Begins; Relics To Be Sold -- DP
Workers on Monday began dismantling the Pride of Newport, a replica riverboat that's become a well-known landmark at East Coast Highway and Bayside Drive.

Janet Nguyen "Food Safety Townhall"

Even small government conservatives can appreciate the role of local government in ensuring restaurants aren't inadvertently making their customers sick:

 

Solorio Wants Governator To Protect $$$ For Adult English Classes

This came over the transom this afternoon from Assemblyman Jose Solorio's office:

Assemblyman Solorio Calls On Governor To Protect Funding For English Classes For Adults

Assemblyman Urges Community Members To Write Letters To Governor In Support of Program

SACRAMENTO, CA—Assemblyman Jose Solorio (D-Anaheim) has called upon Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to fully fund the $50 million Community Based English Tutoring Program (CBET) to provide more than 195,000 adults with limited English proficiency with the language and tutoring skills needed to help their children through school.

As the chart on the next page indicates, the CBET program provides $4.5 million in annual funding to 27 Orange County-based education agencies for CBET-funded English tutoring classes all over Orange County.

Clinton In Newport Coast

Dan Chmielewski of TheLiberalOC.com has a good post about former President Clinton's June 24 fundraiser for Hillary.

This strikes me as an example of how blogs can provide, different coverage of these kind of events than can the MSM. And I agree with Martin Wisckol that it is too bad -- from a press/blog standpoint -- that these fund raisers are generally, as a rule, closed to the press.

But in this Age of YouTube, candidates will do what they must to diminish the probability of being  macaca-ed.

Nguyen V. Nguyen Update From Total Buzz

Total Buzz's Peggy Lowe, who indefatigably covers the ongoing court drama between Supervisor Janet Nguyen and Trung Nguyen, posted this update earlier in the day:

Had a nice meeting of the Recount Recovery Support Group this morning over at Judge MIchael Brenner's courtroom. The Nguyen v. Nguyen peeps were back in court over a couple issues I wrote about last Friday.

In a motion brought by Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley, the boys needed to decide if 1.) Brenner could return the approximately 200 challenged ballots from the trial, and 2.) if Kelley could proceed with routine maintenance on the machines, which means he needs to break the seal on the machines used in the First District special election.

 

Neither Mike Schroeder, Team Trung's guy, nor Phil Greer, Janet's guy, had problems with Brenner giving back the ballots. Brenner's retiring on Friday and so he handed them over to Leon Page, Kelley's lawyer, who walked out of court with them this morning.

You can read the rest of Peggy's post here.

Human Relations Commission Escapes The Axe Again

Well, the OC Human Relations Commission will get to feed at the taxpayer trough for another year, thanks to Supervisors Bill Campbell, Patricia Bates and Janet Nguyen.

Kudos to Supervisors John Moorlach and Chris Norby for voting to end the OC Human Relations Commission's dependence on county taxpayers. I'm glad to see Supervisor Norby returned from the dark side after his straw vote last week to fund the HRC.

Supervisor Nguyen's HBP Commission Appointment Hits A Snag

1st District Supervisor Janet Nguyen today asked to postpone a vote on her appointment of Laguna Hills resident and CWLA officer Susan Caskey to the OC Harbors, Beaches and Parks Commission.

The reason: uncertainty over whether an HBP Commissioner must reside in the district they represent on the commission.

It had been my understanding Supervisors could appoint any county resident, although in practice Supervisors have been tapping constituents as their commissioners. For example, 3rd District Supervisor Bill Campbell appointed me, a 3rd District resident, to be the HBP Commissioner for the 3rd District; 4th District Supervisor Chris Norby appointed 4th District resident Dick Davenport to be the HBP Commissioner for the 4th District.

It seems that is not the case.

OC Romney Supporters Go to Boston

The slew of Orange County political insiders and even more new comers to the world or presidential politics were in Boston Sunday and Monday this week for "America's Calling" national call day--a unique and highly successful fund raising effort by the Romney for President campaign.

I am one of three Orange County co-chairmen for the campaign.  OC GOP Chairman Scott Baugh is a state co-chairman.  The picture to the left is of Baugh taking a photo of GOP fund raiser Beth Holder and Governor Romney during the calling session which took place all day Monday on the floor of the Boston Garden where the Celtics play.

The event which brought in Romney supporters from all 50 states raised millions of dollars and grew the Romney donor/supporter base.

Romney has visited Orange County about a dozen times in the last few years.

On Sunday evening, the kick-off to the two day event, over 1,000 Romney supporters were treated to a barbecue at Fenway Park (the Red Sox were in San Diego playing the Padres at the time).

If you look closely you can see Governor Romney rallying the troops (he is wearing the blue shirt).  And if look all the way down just in front of the bull pen you can see a camera-crazy man taking a photo of the crowd in the stands...can you tell who that is?

Greenhut Slams Solorio On SB 1019

Steve Greenhut reacts to the demise of SB 1019 in the Assembly Public Safety Committee, chaired by OC's Assemblyman Jose Solorio:

The Assembly Public Safety Committee hearing on SB1019, which would have overturned a state Supreme Court ruling that quashes public information about police officers who abuse their power, was one of the most depressing spectacles I've seen in a long time. Committee members, led by Chairman Jose Solorio, D-Santa Ana, refused even to make a motion to vote on the Senate-passed bill. Assemblyman Solorio gave some rather lame explanations for why he opposed it. For instance, he said "Individuals [police officers'] names are released in rap songs and people go out and kill them." He rambled on about rappers and gave a defense of police officers that sounded like it came right from the union talking papers. He argued that this bill could hurt recruitment. Solorio asked Sen. Romero if she wanted to withdraw the bill, but she rightly insisted on a vote.

You can read the rest of Steve's post here.

Oh Boy! A New County Slogan!

We interrupt this program to bring you this important bulletin:

The Orange County Board of Supervisors has vote unanimously to adopt a new county slogan:

"OC: Our Community. Our Commitment."

Each component of the slogan has the initials "OC." Get it?

We now return you to your regular programming.