Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/author/scustodio/page/2/)
Spencer Custodio joined Voice of OC as a full-time reporter covering south Orange County and Fullerton in August 2017. Previously, he worked as one of Voice of OC’s first interns starting in 2010, covering Fullerton and general assignment stories. During his time with Voice of OC, Custodio covered the Joe Felz election night car crash that lead to him being charged with a DUI (the case is ongoing). He also has been covering the Irvine Veteran’s Cemetery, a first for Orange County, that led to a land swap with a developer that divided many veterans and residents. Recently, he covered the sudden resignation of former Laguna Niguel Mayor Jerry Slusiewicz over claims of bullying and intimidation that started when Slusiewicz found a tree trimming contract that was overpaid by $410,000. Custodio graduated from Cal State Fullerton in 2015 with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism with extensive education in Constitutional law, public policy, economics and international law. He worked as the news editor at the student newspaper, The Daily Titan, during his last semester. Languages spoken: English Areas of expertise: Voter registration and turnout, data analysis, homelessness, Irvine and Fullerton.
Under the pressure of a federal lawsuit against the County and other cities for homeless policies, North Orange County cities have banded together in an effort to create two homeless shelters in the area, while each city pays a percentage of construction and operating costs.
Board of Accountancy Executive Officer Patti Bowers beefed up a 2018 complaint against the Great Park auditors in an attempt to have the Board of Accountancy revoke the licenses of the auditors for mismanagement of two park audits.
Anaheim City Council members, after learning Mayor Harry Sidhu met with Angels President John Carpino earlier this week, voted to axe their monthly public update on negotiations and instead directed City Manager Chris Zapata to update when there’s only “relevant information” — effectively leaving the negotiations process in the dark.
OC Supervisors took the first step this month in creating a regional housing finance trust that will build 2,700 housing units for homeless people and affordable housing for low-income residents. Cities still need to sign up for the housing trust first.
The ACLU, Thursday morning, issued a report highlighting unsanitary, unsafe and abusive conditions at three County run shelters as the County and all OC cities are scheduled to appear in federal court in less than three weeks over the shortage of shelter beds and homeless policies.
County Supervisor and CalOptima Director Andrew Do is criticizing the county health insurance agency for the poor and elderly for being too slow in implementing medical teams that will treat homeless people on the streets, just as CalOptima is being asked to appear in a federal court hearing over homeless policies next month.
OC Fair and Event Center CEO Kathy Kramer faces questions from state auditors about a potentially illegal $75,000 separation agreement as well as a public showdown with her Finance VP in front of board members in public session. Since Kramer was hired in 2015, the fairgrounds have gone through four VPs of finance.
District elections could be implemented in Orange, following a voting rights lawsuit claiming the city’s current at-large election method disenfranchises the Latino electorate and hinders the election of Latino candidates.
Five South Orange County cities will head to Federal court after a lawsuit filed by attorneys alleged dumping of homeless people and blamed the region’s lack of shelters.
The Angels are talking to Long Beach about potentially moving the team there after the Anaheim City Council extended the stadium lease with the team until 2020.