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Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach is a personable fellow. His 6’5” presence, sense of humor and automatic ability to schmooze with most anyone makes him easy to like. Sometimes liking someone makes it harder to criticize. But, Moorlach has been an elected public official for over a decade now, and that places his actions in the public sector on the table for all to see. And it is time to evaluate his performance on behalf of the taxpayers.
This morning’s Register reports that the State Supreme Court has declined to hear the county’s appeal on its lawsuit seeking to invalidate the retirement plan the County Supervisors (before Moorlach was on the Board) made with the Sheriff Deputies Union. The legal logic of this lawsuit has been reported and debated in this blog several times, so no need to repeat that. The pertinent issue is that it was Supervisor John Moorlach who spearheaded this lawsuit against the advice of several law firms who predicted failure. It was Moorlach who convinced 3 of his Board colleagues to sue, and then to appeal when an adverse decision was rendered against the county. In pursuing the appeal, Moorlach got the county to double-down, in Las Vegas terms, and risk not only losing the lawsuit but risk having to pay the Deputy Sheriff Union’s legal fees.
The Register story quotes a Sheriff Deputies Union spokesman as saying they plan to pursue recovery from the County of their legal fees and that could bring the total taxpayer cost of this Moorlach project to over $ 5 million. The article does not mention the legal costs incurred by the Orange County Retirement System (OCERS), also named as a defendant by the County in the suit, but logic would say they too could be eligible for reimbursement.
The Deputies lawsuit is strike 3.
This year there has been a scandal regarding the performance, or lack thereof, of Public Administrator-Public Guardian John Williams. While Williams captured the elected spot of Public Administrator at the polls, the media has reported that Supervisor John Moorlach was the primary advocate for naming Williams as the Public Guardian as well, in spite of recommendations from the County CEO and others to not do so. The Board majority did appoint Williams to that job at least partly in response to Moorlach’s advocacy, and it has now blown up. Currently Williams is drawing the salary for the job, while another person has been assigned by the County CEO to actually do the job. Williams was a personnel pick by Moorlach that we now know was a big mistake.
The Williams fiasco was Moorlach’s strike 2.
Moorlach brought us Assistant Tax Collector-Treasurer, and eventually Treasurer, Chriss Street. His character has been pretty well exposed in a lawsuit brought against him for his duties as a court-appointed bankruptcy trustee prior to his work for the county. This caused Moorlach to convince his Board colleagues to strip former friend Street of the responsibility to invest county funds, and that led to Street leaving office. Clearly, Moorlach’s management ability to pick good people to fill key positions in the county organization was inadequate in this one too.
The saga of Christ Street was strike 1.
So there are now three major costly public policy mistakes by Moorlach (though the Register story this morning quotes him as arguing the Deputies lawsuit and appeal was not a mistake, it was the right thing to do). The taxpayer cost of these mistakes is well into the 7 figure range, and possibly 8 figures. This is real public money gone because of bad management decision making.
Nice guy or not, the other members of the Board of Supervisors would be well advised to try and contain Moorlach’s influence during the remainder of Moorlach’s term. Once his term is over the taxpayers would be best served if John returned to the private sector where his management decisions can do less damage.
I wish the 2.5 million he wasted on this fools folly had to come out of Moorlocks pocket! Wayne Quint is a gentleman and a scholar and is the best Union Rep I’ve ever seen.
I couldn’t agree more.
I have no doubt he’s a good union rep as he scammed the Board out of hundreds of millions of dollars that will come out of the taxpayers’ pockets. A few million in legal fees for a chance to recoup hundreds of millions long term – that’s a gamble I would take every time.
Moorlach hacks say, “A few million in legal fees for a chance to recoup hundreds of millions long term – that’s a gamble I would take every time”
With tax and spend RINO Republicans like .Johnny Moorlach we might as well just elect Democrats to run the County. Moorlach makes Super Lib RINO former Sup Chuck Smith look like a real John Bircher! What a bunch of Pinheads! Speaking of which…
Moorlach’s also been a strong supporter of “never read the Constitution” Sheriff Hutchins. Strike FOUR. He didn’t object, either, when a well-connected County ‘ol boy’ got appointed got appointed by Mauk to Williams’ job, so let’s expect more of the same there and a continued cover-up.
With this record, and since he’s termed out in ’14, I expect he’ll run to the private sector which may be more forgiving of his broken picker, financial “acumen” and especially the Rolodex he’s built up.
Yea, he was properly outspoken on Bozo Bob Citron, but as the old expression goes, “what have you done for us lately, John?”.
For me, Moorlach’s strike 1 was defunding Planned Parenthood. Real brave stuff, taking away healthcare & birth control for poor women. I guess he was ahead of his time on that, just like John Campbell wanting to scrap Medicare.
STEEERRRIIIIKE FOUR!!!!!!!!
Comrade Vern, can’t you pay for your own abortion as result of your lavish liberal horny sex lifestyle?
I should add, comrade Vern, that you do not have to solicit for a beer on every corner.
Newbie, it is easy to take a gamble like that when it is other people’s money you are gambling, in this case taxpayer dollars. The question is whether, as a steward of taxpayer money and taxpayer interests, it is a wise decision to appeal to the Supremes given the rather scathing rebuke by the Court of Appeals. Given that Appeals decision, it is hard to imagine how anyone would think an appeal to the Supremes would stand a snowballl’s chance. Looks to me like political passion overcame objective analysis in Mr. Moorlach’s case (and apparently 3 other Board members too). It is not often that Janet Nguyen comes out looking like the only Supervisor capable of making a well reasoned decision, but in this case she sure did.
FMO.
Elected officials have some very difficult decisions to make as our nation (and county)goes deeper in debt to meet everyone’s entitlement thirst.
I would cautiously say that having your case heard by the nine in black robes is easier said than done and, with a 5-4 split, it is impossible to forecast the outcome John’s leadership in raising a valid challenge. Right or wrong, it is not political. Aside from their fiduciary responsibility in spending of taxpayer dollars I would label it survival for our kids and grandkids when you’re my age.
FMO,
My point was that Moorlach is being a steward of taxpayer money by trying to reverse the scam the public unions have perpetrated on Orange County with their incredible and financially-devastating pension deals. He wasn’t part of the Board when they (including Republican who should be held accountable for their votes) gave away the farm, so he was trying to reverse the policy the only way he could.
Bigfoot? Jebus, I just blew coffee out my nose.
My favorite part of being editor is finding the images to illustrate these “old guys'” stories. I’ve been referring to Moorlach as a Sasquatch for some time.
But OBNO is worried that the image I chose for his San Onofre story might be construed as “sexist.” What do you all think?
Reminds me of that classic scene in Naked Gun – rest in piece Leslie Nielson.
Any woman bloggers out there care to comment regarding Vern’s request for input on the San Onofre post? (come to think if it, what does that have to do with this Moorlach post anyway?)
And, Tony, as implied by Vern’s post, it is he who chooses the images for my writings, with my appreciation (most of the time). However, I see them for the first time when they are up for everyone to see. Sorry about the nose – I thought the Big Foot selection was pretty good.
It seemed Moorlach had some very good points in the suit. Now we will just have to fire some people because of this outrageous giveaway of taxpayer money by the Board of Sups.
Thanks John for trying, definitely worth it when you think of the millions given away so the can “retire” at 50 or so. No wonder people are so upset with unions when not long ago they were held in very high regard.
Chewbacca?
That’s no defense.
As someone who also stands 6’5” I say… go right along with ‘big foot Moorlach!”