Here is another roundup of some of the most thought-provoking reader comments of the week. Comments are selected by our editors and subject to editing for grammar, spelling, clarity and length.
Click on each topic’s headline to see the article in question.
OCTA’s Public Relations Contract
Why not write in that unless one cannot be found, all lowest responsible bidders or contractors for Orange County work should come from California to promote local employment and help the local economy. What rule says we have to allow foreign bids?
I say this as a California resident who was raised in that foreign land, New Jersey.
— Macdoodle
Why Always Santa Ana?
Whenever there is bad news, why does the city of Santa Ana always take the lead?
Fifty-six million dollars due [demanded by the state]? Compare that to the amount owed by the other cities. [Santa Ana’s bill] is about 22% of the cumulative amount owed. Over one-fifth.
Just recently Santa Ana was celebrating its new-found solvency with the Orange County Fire Authority taking over the firefighting services in the city. Now it looks like they are about to go underwater again.
Do you think the leadership has anything to do with it? Or is it just bad luck that most everytime we read about bad news, Santa Ana seems to be involved in one way or another?
— Beelzebub
County Government Managers Contract
[Supervisor Shawn] Nelson said the managers deal includes a message for the county’s other employee organizations: “All employees will be expected to pay the employee share of the pension,” he said. “It should have been paid a long time ago.”
Then he followed [by saying, in effect:] Except for me, as I like only my management to lead by example. When I signed up, I looked after myself by signing up for the fattest retirement possible at the cost of the people.
This is OC leadership in action.
— Bill 714
A Plan From the Mayor
Thank you, Mayor [of Anaheim Tom] Tait for bringing forth the idea of using a percentage of [transient occupancy tax] revenue for neighborhood improvement. It is about time that money was used for city services versus being sucked back into the resort for hotel subsidies and Disney projects.
— SaveAnaheim
More Jobs for Supervisors’ Cronies?
If the fix is in before the job interviews even started, it just adds insult to injury. You have to show up and compete and didn’t have a snowball’s chance from the very start.
Don’t you get it? We have no real power by pointing out the corrupted nature of all these acts. They just don’t care. The fix is in. They got us just where they want us. Sorry to state the sad facts; somebody has to.
I would rather they just appoint the crony and save the other applicants time. Doing it in disguise is even more deceitful.
— Beelzebub
Toll Road Trouble
Route 73 has been functionally bankrupt for years, only surviving based on a $120-million payment from the other toll agency for the revenue that would someday be lost when Route 241’s south extension was built.
Instead of paying off bonds, they continue to expand the amount of their debt and lengthen the term.
In their latest deal to stave off bankruptcy, they surrendered their control of tolls to an agreement with the bondholders, so they will continue to raise tolls and lower expenses to maximize revenue, regardless of any effects on congestion.
Time for the healthier Foothill agency to demand return of the $120 million, lower their own tolls and force the 73 into bankruptcy.
Then the Orange Coutny Transportation Authority and Caltrans could buy it for pennies on the dollar and turn it into a freeway.
— Moonunit