Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/category/columnists/norberto-santana-jr/page/2/)
While OC Health Care officials have been scrambling daily for weeks to find more N95 protective facemasks for a variety of first responders, doctors and nurses, in February HCA procurement executives listed as government surplus more than 100,00 of the cloth masks, possibly selling them for as little as $1 a piece.
Whether it’s finding out about the readiness of hospitals or figuring out how many testing kits exist or asking about what cities’ residents are testing positive for the virus, the answer most often from the County of Orange in the past few weeks is we can’t say.
It’s time for government leaders at the local, state and federal level to step up and work together to quickly figure out the nuts and bolts of pandemic response in an environment where they are clearly playing catch up.
Politicians should pull away from the press conference podium and let public health professionals handle public information updates.
Former Public Affairs Director Melanie Eustice was paid out a $75,000 settlement last fall after dropping her public contracting corruption claim against District Attorney Todd Spitzer and agreeing to silence. Eustice was one of Spitzer’s longest-serving aides.
A countywide report on hate incidents and hate crime data across Orange County shows that incidents have gone up by more than 100 percent since 2008 while crimes have spiked by nearly 50 percent.
While Voice of OC celebrated its decade anniversary in 2019, our biggest story of the year came from our readers, who became donors in record numbers.
Melanie Eustice, a top ranking executive who worked for OC District Attorney Todd Spitzer filed a legal claim with the county earlier this year obtained by Voice of OC alleging that Spitzer was an abusive boss and repeatedly engaged in a pattern of illegal behavior, highlighting instances of improperly releasing information from county bids and public records. Spitzer disputed her characterizations in email correspondence also obtained by Voice of OC.
Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer and Sheriff Don Barnes continued to take aim at each other this week, in the wake of an evidence-booking scandal that has already triggered four fired and seven disciplined deputy sheriffs along with four ongoing probes inside the Sheriff’s department.
A disturbing OC Sheriff’s Department Audit of late evidence bookings finds that 30 percent of evidence booked by deputies over the last two years didn’t comply with policy. While photos and videos are the majority of late bookings, there’s also cash, drugs and guns among the items booked into evidence late, sometimes by as much as a month. The audit, kept secret until recently, raises a host of issues for Sheriff Don Barnes and District Attorney Todd Spitzer and could affect thousands of criminal cases across Orange County.