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Fair board complaint could die

November 19th, 2009, 4:44 pm by Jennifer Muir

Allegations that the Orange County Fair Board violated open meeting and conflict of interest laws may not ever be officially resolved.

Orange County’s head lawyer Nicholas Chrisos last month complained about the fair board to the state Attorney General, who declined to look at the case. See, the AG also represents the fair board on legal matters, so it would be a conflict. Plus, the county’s District Attorney should investigate crimes in OC, the attorney general said.

DA spokeswoman Susan Schroeder said earlier this week that the attorney general was forwarding the complaint to her office, and they’d look into it. This morning she clarified: The AG responded to the county, and did not forward the case to the district attorney. So her office is waiting on the county to file a complaint before they can investigate, she says.

That might not happen. When asked today whether the county plans to pursue the allegations further, a spokeswoman would only cryptically say: “County counsel is reviewing its options.”

Chrisos’ complaint alleges that the fair board misused public money when they hired former state Sen. Dick Ackerman and a consulting firm to influence the state’s sale of the fair grounds. Fair board members also have formed a nonprofit that’s looking into buying the 150-acre fairgrounds and if they do, could get perks such as free parking, Chrisos wrote. So, Chrisos argues, the fair board used the public money to pay for contracts that could personally benefit them financially.

Fair board members also are quiet on the complaint and referred calls to board chairwoman Kristina Dodge. A secretary for Dodge said she would not be available until Friday.

Posted in: County government | Post a Comment »

County lawyer: OC fair board violated law

November 17th, 2009, 2:04 pm by Jennifer Muir

Has the Orange County Fair Board gone too far in its efforts to preserve the Orange County Fairgrounds?

Orange County’s head attorney believes it has. In an Oct. 30 letter to the state attorney general asking for an investigation into possible illegal activity, county counsel Nicholas Chrisos raises questions about whether the fair board illegally used public money to pay for lobbyists charged with influencing the state’s sale of the fair grounds.

Board members also have formed a nonprofit foundation that could buy and operate the fairgrounds, and Chrisos says the public contracts were aimed at ensuring their foundation would be qualified to bid — essentially using public money for personal gain. Here’s how he figures:

“If past practice holds, members of the Foundation Board would enjoy some (even if minimal) perquisites, such as free tickets to the fair, parking passes,” the letter says. “Those are financial interests.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: County government • OC Fair | 14 Comments »

The $100,000-plus pension club in La Habra, Laguna Beach, Los Alamitos

November 17th, 2009, 11:00 am by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer

retirementWe really don’t like to irritate so many of our readers. But we’ve been working our way through the CalPERS database of public retirees for weeks now, and it would be wrong to stop halfway through.

So, we pick up today with three of O.C.’s smaller cities, which have eight retirees who get pensions of more than $100,000 a year. They are:

  • La Habra, which has four (the top guy being former City Manager — and current county CEO – Thomas Mauk, at $120,265 a year, which brings his total annual haul to almost $500,000, our colleague Jennifer Muir recently discovered)
  • Laguna Beach, which has two (the top guy being former Police Chief  James Spreine, $125,647)
  • and Los Alamitos, which also has two (the top guy being former Police Chief Michael McCrary).

This brings total membership in O.C.’s $100,000-plus club to 195 (with a baker’s dozen more O.C. entities to go).

See full lists and links to previous stories below. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Big public pension club • Cities • County government | 342 Comments »

State stumbles on anti-fraud efforts for food stamps, welfare-to-work

November 10th, 2009, 5:00 am by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer

no-cheatingIf one wants to game the system, Los Angeles County may be the place to be. Potential cheats face a tougher time in Orange and San Diego counties - but California in general is in a bit of a dither when it comes to detecting fraud in its $6.4 billion welfare programs, according to the California State Auditor (welfare-fraud-full-report).

Some anti-fraud programs actually cost more than they save.

A STITCH IN TIME…

The good news: For every $1 spent on early fraud detection (i.e., nipping it in the bud as people apply) for welfare-to-work, California saves $1.35.

The bad news: For every $1 spent on early fraud detection for food stamps, California saves, um, 93 cents.

Whoops. These early detection programs cost the state $28 million.

…SAVES NINE

The picture is bleaker for late fraud detection (i.e., mounting investigations to see if aid recipients are cheating), where California spends more - $34 million - and gets less.

For every $1 spent on ongoing investigations on welfare-to-work fraud, the state saved 88 cents.

For every $1 spent investigating food stamp fraud, it saved 72 cents.

Gathering evidence for ongoing investigations costs lots, the auditor says.

FURTHERMORE….

  • Counties sometimes fail to match their welfare rolls against regularly-updated lists of people who are ineligible for benefits. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: County government • State government | 34 Comments »

Greed forces local governments to blow $504 million on lawsuits, group says

November 9th, 2009, 5:00 am by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer

ladyjusticeA handful of local governments in California spent more than a half-billion dollars dealing with lawsuits over two years - including $14.2 million spent by the good County of Orange, and $4.4 million by the city of Anaheim, according to a report released by California Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse.

“Not only are these costs outrageous in their own right, the money spent by Orange County in just one year could have more than paid for both the county’s Domestic Violence program and Emergency Medical Services,” said the group in a prepared statement. “In Anaheim, one year of litigation costs could have maintained 146 acres of park and 105 sports fields for the same year.”

Of the nine counties examined, Orange County had the fourth-highest total spending on lawsuits - much more than similarly-sized San Diego and Santa Clara counties. See charts of totals below.)

Of the eight cities, Anaheim ranked No. 7.

“Orange County is facing severe cuts to vital services and programs like public safety, parks and education,” said Maryann Marino, Southern California Regional Director for the group, in a press release. “Yet we are doing nothing to curb litigation costs, which could actually provide substantial savings to local governments without sacrificing jobs or programs.”

The group acknowledges that some lawsuits are meritorious, but “(g)overnment entities are too often seen as deep pockets, even in today’s tough times, and abusive lawsuits are filed in an attempt for some plaintiffs to get rich quick,” the report says. “With many of these lawsuits being filed on a contingency fee basis, plaintiffs’ attorneys have plenty of motives to file lawsuits in the hopes of a quick settlement or a large verdict.” Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Cities • County government • Justice • Schools • Special districts | 13 Comments »

OC’s questionable planning fees won’t change until December

October 27th, 2009, 1:18 pm by Jennifer Muir

build-your-own-solar-panel-main_fullPlanning to renovate your home in unincorporated Orange County?

You might want to wait until the new year to start.

That’s because the county’s planning department won’t change the way it charges — and sometimes overcharges — residents for simple planning permits until sometime in December.

They’re researching and finalizing new fees, and that takes time, Public Works Director Jess Carbajal told the county’s board of supervisors today.

The county’s current  practice is called charging for Time and Materials, and it was one of the main problems called out in July in a  scathing audit of the county’s planning department, which described customer service as “mediocre at best.”

Still, two months later, the Watchdog talked to retired police officer Mark Rodina, who was charged more than $400 for a permit that would cost just under $50 in Fountain Valley under the time and materials system. (Rodina needed to update the aging electrical panel in his home so he could install solar panels. County officials have noted that many cities subsidize the cost of issuing permits.)

Nobody disputes that Rodina was overcharged. Still the system is slow to change. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: County government • Silly policies | 2 Comments »

Supes ponder legislation to stop double dipping

October 20th, 2009, 2:47 pm by Jennifer Muir

Orange County could soon back legislation aimed at stopping double-dipping, the practice of retirees collecting their pension, then going back to work for another public agency.

Supervisor John Moorlach today asked the county’s legislative staff to begin looking at crafting legislation that could curtail the practice.

“The people who double dip are not bad people,” Moorlach said. “This is a system that has allowed them to do certain things like this.”

Here’s how the system works and how Moorlach is thinking of changing it: Right now, public employees who retire under one public system, such as the California Public Employees Retirement System, can’t collect a pension and go back to work full time for another agency if the second agency also is under same retirement system.

They can still double-dip, but they can’t work more than 960 hours a year.

But if a Calpers retiree goes to work for an agency like Orange County, which has its own retirement system, they can collect a pension and a paycheck for working full time. That’s why Sheriff Sandra Hutchens and CEO Tom Mauk are able to rake in nearly half a million dollars a piece each year when you add up their pay and pension.

Moorlach thinks there should be a law that requires public employee retirement systems to work together and offer reciprocity instead of allowing folks to collect two checks every month. It would be no different than when an Orange County employee who is not retired goes to work for Los Angeles County: The two retirement systems work together to transfer over pension credit for the worker’s eventual retirement.

So he asked staff to look into crafting legislation and how it would work.

(Worth noting: A ballot initiative by the pension watchdog group the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility also plans to address the double-dipper issue. Moorlach sits on the foundation’s advisory board.)

Board chairwoman Pat Bates said the effort should dovetail with the county’s effort to come up with a policy for the other kind of double dippers — county retirees who come back to work part time. And she asked that staff also look at elected officials with term limits who get a pension.

Posted in: 000-plus pension club • Big public pension club • County government • pensions | 54 Comments »

Questionable cartoons pulled from OCSD website

October 14th, 2009, 5:03 pm by Tony Saavedra, Register investigative reporter

inspector-c

It started out humorous but became less funny with each click of the mouse as The Watchdog looked through the Orange County Sheriff’s Department official website.

On the investigations division web page we found a cartoon of world famous — and thoroughly inept — fictional French detective Jacques Clouseau where a portrait of the captain should be.

The cartoon seemed just a tad overboard. Is this the proper mascot for Orange County’s top detectives? Isn’t this like having Barney Fife represent the patrol deputies?

The Watchdog called sheriff’s spokesman John McDonald on Wednesday afternoon and in what seemed like an hour Clouseau was gone.pinkpanther

In the meantime, The Watchdog continued to click through the investigations division web pages — and our jaw dropped with each click. People sitting around our desk gasped at what appeared on screen.

The page dedicated to homicide detectives was anchored by a cartoon featuring a vulture sitting atop a badge dug into the desert sand. Leaning against the badge is a human skull. Not very sensitive to homicide victims or their families.homicidecartoon Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: County government • Sheriff's department | 162 Comments »

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