Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/oc-public-works/)
Orange County Superior Court Judge Geoffrey Glass has upheld a decision by the county’s retirement board to reduce the pension of Orange County Public Works executive Carlos Bustamante, following Bustamante’s criminal convictions for sexually assaulting women who worked for him at the county.
Riprap has moved two homeless camps from the Santa Ana riverbank, one by the Honda Center last year and the other this year along the 57 Freeway from roughly the 22 Freeway to Angel Stadium. The Honda Center riprap was requested by Supervisor Shawn Nelson, according to county emails.
The removal comes less than two weeks after the county entered a $750,000 contract with the non-profit City Net to provide services to a separate group of homeless people camped on the western bank of the Santa Ana River near Angel Stadium.
The settlement agreement extends the deadline to next Thursday for people to leave an encampment on the eastern banks of the river from Orangewood Ave. to just south of the 22 freeway.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California has filed a federal lawsuit claiming that by erecting a chain-link fence next to the Santa Ana River in Orange, county officials have unconstitutionally “imprisoned” 75 to 100 people living in a homeless encampment there.
Supporters of a plan to slash City Manager Paul Emery’s signing authority on city contracts from $100,000 to $50,000 say it will increase accountability. But opponents said it shows a lack of faith in Emery and will bog down the city government.
The board of the Orange County Employees Retirement System is scheduled to vote Monday on whether to dock the pension benefits of former county public works executive Carlos Bustamente because of his sex crimes.
The Orange County Board of Supervisors approved settlements totaling $1 million with two female county workers who accused the former county executive and Santa Ana councilman of sexually assaulting them.
Former Santa Ana City Councilman and Orange County executive Carlos Bustamante will turn himself in and begin serving a one-year jail sentence for various sexual crimes on Feb. 26.
Carlos Bustamante — a former Orange County Public Works executive and one-time rising star in the local GOP — pled guilty late Friday morning to sex crimes and grand theft of public funds. He is expected to serve jail time.