Garden Grove City Council members this week pushed a GKN Aerospace executive to hold a future town hall meeting so residents can ask questions about how a chemical tank nearly exploded, leading to 50,000 residents being evacuated.
It comes a couple weeks after the near-disaster shutdown a large swath of North Orange County, pushing city officials to demand accountability over the emergency – something GKN representatives have apologized for and helped create a $3 million fund to begin reimbursing impacted residents.
Meanwhile, more homeless people are being jailed after new state laws cracked down on street crime – which may have impacted the biannual homeless headcount, which showed a dip in people sleeping on the streets this year.
Cities and school districts throughout Orange County are grappling with mounting e-bike crashes, injuries, deaths and even child endangerment charges as local officials figure out the best way to curb the worsening trend.
Local officials are also signing off on surveillance cameras throughout Orange County, raising privacy questions over the increasing presence of license plate readers and other similar technology.
Driving through North Orange County could get faster as Anaheim kicked off a traffic light synchronization project along State College Boulevard that’s slated to impact driving through Anaheim, Brea, Fullerton and Orange.
Orange County Supervisors whittled down a proposal that would’ve phased out herbicide use in all waterways and instead applied it to the two creeks that kicked off the chemical concern – San Juan and Trabuco Creeks.
While county officials filled a budget gap using $75 million in one-time funds amid rocky budget projections, OC Grand Jurors issued a scathing report this week focused on the growing bureaucracy of the OC Board of Supervisors – questioning if the increased staffing and spending levels directly benefits residents.
Orange City Council members are also dealing with bleak budget projections and are asking voters to increase the city’s sales tax to stave off what some city officials say could be a municipal bankruptcy down the road as they’ve been cutting spending.
Anaheim City Council members backed off mandating staffing at self-check out lines after a majority of officials expressed support for the move earlier this year after Costa Mesa and Santa Ana rolled out similar laws.
Santa Ana Councilmembers Jessie Lopez and David Penaloza – both Democrats – were on track to face off against each other for the 68th Assembly District seat this November, according to vote tallies as of Thursday.
Democratic OC Supervisor Katrina Foley regained a slight lead against Republican Assemblywoman Diane Dixon in the First District supervisorial race, setting up a November showdown.
And Democratic Buena Park City Councilman Connor Traut gained a lead over Republican OC Board of Education trustee Tim Shaw in the Fourth District race – another supervisorial race likely headed to the November ballot.
Lake Forest could soon have the largest public skatepark in California after city officials signed off an overhaul as other municipalities are expanding their skateparks and building pump tracks – with Orange taking steps to build the city’s first skatepark.
Westminster is one step closer to renovating the Rose Theater as city officials are reviewing overhaul bids this month.
