Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/orange-county-board-of-supervisors/)
County officials are trying “to circumvent California Supreme Court precedent regarding the preservation of text messages,” the ACLU told the court in response. County officials declined to respond to questions about their proposed order.
Supervisor Andrew Do called such language “bigotry” and related it to “hatred” he said led to assaults against his family when he was growing up as a Vietnamese refugee in Orange County.
OC officials may have found a way to continue to immediately destroy many public records of their government communications, despite a court ruling that it’s probably illegal to do so.
Orange County officials likely are breaking the law with a policy allowing immediate destruction of public records and another rule banning public commenters from asking questions of county supervisors or addressing supervisors by name unless they have permission, a Superior Court judge ruled Wednesday.
County costs are growing faster than revenues, most prominently with the Sheriff’s Department, officials said.
The so-far unexplained death of Anthony Acevez is drawing interest from two county supervisors, in response to the man’s mother publicly asking for answers.
Last year, as county officials were hauled into federal court over a shortage of homeless shelters, Voice of OC reported the stockpiled mental health funds had reached $186 million beyond the reserves.
Newport Beach residents and small plane owners succeeded in getting county supervisors to step back from controversial plans to add more private jet spaces at John Wayne Airport.
The move to put the crime lab scientists under a law enforcement agency directly contradicts the national best practices Sheriff Don Barnes and DA Todd Spitzer cited to justify the change.
Smaller counties than OC have asked for and received tens of millions more in state and federal funds for preventative health and housing programs that studies have shown save taxpayer dollars overall, help homeless people get off the streets, and save lives.