Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/lisa-bartlett/)
Residents said the county was moving forward with its Yale St. shelter plans without spreading the burden to south county cities that don’t host any shelters. County officials said the shelter would be an improvement over the existing Courtyard shelter that’s being replaced.
While authorizing new spending this week for the Sheriff’s Department, county supervisors continue to remain silent about mounting revelations of Sheriff’s Department evidence booking misconduct that could weaken thousands of criminal cases.
The existing OC Streetcar project has faced scrutiny by some city and transportation officials who say the it is too expensive for its relatively short, four-mile route, when there are less expensive options like buses.
The deaths have drawn unanswered questions from activists about why the county’s main strategy to end homelessness has gone mostly unfunded.
Sheriff Don Barnes’ spokeswoman declined to say why county supervisors and the district attorney weren’t told of the scale of the issue sooner.
Much of the frustration centered on plans to put the shelter in a low-income city that long has hosted more shelter beds than any other Orange County city, while wealthier south county cities have refused to open a shelter.
Third District County Supervisor Don Wagner vented his frustration Tuesday over tickets he says were issued by SAPD to parents dropping their high schoolers off along Santa Ana Boulevard to attend a weekend event he hosts about local government. Santa Ana City Councilman Juan Villegas fires back at Wagner over his public criticism.
In heated arguments over the appointment of Frank Davies as Auditor Controller, Orange County Supervisors air concerns about his dead predecessor’s lax staff oversight calling for a Performance Audit of the department.
The handling of the appointment for a new Orange County Auditor Controller is raising concerns that county supervisors may have violated transparency laws.
County auditors haven’t checked the assessor’s computer systems for security vulnerabilities since at least 1995 – if ever, officials said this week.