Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/shawn-nelson/)
Orange County’s ethics commission now can legally meet for the first time – over 15 months after voters overwhelmingly approved its creation – after a retired judge was appointed as the third member.
Nelson received $539 worth of wine from Potomac Partners, a Washington D.C.-based lobbying firm, a few weeks after he cast a deciding vote to award them a county contract. He says his approach is legal because he paid the contractors for the items out of campaign funds and will use them at an office event.
Fire Authority officials say they’ve been performing air rescues for over 20 years and are well-equipped for the job, but that in recent years sheriff’s helicopter crews have been racing to the scene and taking control.
The latest campaign finance disclosures filed with the county Registrar of Voters show Supervisor Todd Spitzer, who is challenging District Attorney Tony Rackauckas for his seat in 2018, leading in fundraising with more than $1.29 million in his campaign coffers at the end of June.
In a public rebuke, one of Supervisor Andrew Do’s colleagues said Do has been pushing for the takeover because the health plan’s board refused to elect him chairman.
For months, top county officials have had drawings of the Civic Center’s new Building 16, but kept them under wraps from the public.
As a growing opioid epidemic claims hundreds of lives across Orange County, Supervisor Todd Spitzer said heroin addicts should be given help for their addiction, not antidote kits to reverse the effects of opioid overdoses.
CalOptima provides health care for nearly 800,000 disabled, elderly and low-income Orange County residents. County supervisors are moving to expand their power on its board of directors, but state legislators are moving to block that effort.
Peter Agarwal, who was recently appointed as the county’s first ethics commissioner, wrote that he is on the governing board of a national association. That’s not true, he acknowledged in a recent interview.
Among those who will be subject to enforcement by the commission are the county supervisors and their election opponents. The changes would make it so commissioners “serve at the pleasure of the supervisor” who appointed them, said Supervisor Andrew Do, who supports the effort.