Carona wants more of our money
OC Sheriff Mike Carona used Orange County money just a few years ago, in 2004, to figure out what OC residents thought of him and his department. Now he wants to do it again, as reported in the OC Register’s Total Buzz blog. Is this really necessary, after we just found out in the June primary that 49.1% of the voters apparently are none too pleased with Carona, as they did not vote for him?
Carona is asking the OC Board of Supervisors for $396,000, which is to come from Prop. 172 funds, to pay for his self-aggrandizing poll. On the face of it, this appears to be an inappropriate use of Prop. 172 funds. Doesn’t Carona have a public relations department that can do this? Doesn’t he pay Jon “Flash” Fleischman way too much money to be his PR flack? Why can’t “Flash” do this – is he too busy running his Flash Report blog during the day? Moreover, as the real reason for this poll is political, shouldn’t Carona pay for it from his campaign funds?
If the Supervisors acquiesce to Carona’s request, they might also open up a can of worms. Why shouldn’t other county departments ask for such funds, ostensibly in the name of public safety, to conduct their own polls? I am sure that the Orange County Fire Authority would love to know what we think about their firefighters.
By the way, the original 2004 poll is available online – and it is quite revealing. The questions asked are unbelievably inane, including these stellar examples:
- When you are walking in your neighborhood do you feel safe?
- When you are walking in business areas do you feel safe?
- When you are inside your home do you feel safe?
- Thinking about crime in your immediate neighborhood would you say that the amount of crime has decreased, remained about the same or has increased in the past three years?
- Thinking of the OC Sheriff would you say your impression is favorable or unfavorable?
You get the idea. These questions are sophomoric at best. Let’s be honest about this poll – we are not talking about useful, empirical data. The 2004 poll was a collection of emotional responses – if you really want to know about the sheriff’s performance you need to look at objective data, such as comparing the OC Sheriff’s 911 response time to the response time in Southern California other counties, such as Los Angeles or San Bernardino.
What this appears to be is yet another one of Carona’s attempts to misuse OC taxpayer resources. Consider the mess he has made of the OC Sheriff’s PSR program, by giving badges and guns to untrained, often felonious, campaign backers instead of allocating them to those who go through rigorous training in order to help the community. This is just Carona’s latest money-grab, for base self-promotion. Remember when Carona wanted to put his name on all OC Sheriff squad cars? It just amazes me that the OC GOP machine keeps letting Carona off the hook, despite the ongoing stupidity that emanates from him and his cronies.
I would also like to know if the consultants that Carona is trying to hire to conduct his latest poll have contributed any funds to him, or have coordinated independent expenditures on his behalf? It is common for OC GOP machine members to pay back their consultants by finding ways to spend taxpayer money on them after elections.
We have an opportunity this Tuesday to stop Carona from stealing almost $400,o00 from OC taxpayers. The Board of Supervisors will be meeting on Tuesday, July 18, at 9:30 a.m., and this matter will be discussed. I urge our readers to try to take the time to be there and to speak out. Or at least send each Supervisor an email or fax, by looking up their information on their website. We already know that close to half of OC voters don’t approve of Carona. If he wants to find out why, let him do it on his own dime!
Art,
It is excellent idea and my heart is with you but I will not send fax nor I will go there to speak.
However, could someone explain to me how this representative democracy suppose to work?
So I have elected a supervisor so he can represent me in the best of my interest. Why do I have to remind him what is my best interest?
The fact is that Correa is my supervisor and I have not voted for him because I consider him a scumbag, and whether or not I will talk to him or write to him he will make scumbag like decision.
I have talk to Pulido and rest of the council and know that they could not care less about Fiala’s ideas. For that matter a majority of people at this forum do not care what I have to say.
I believe that we should let the scumbags do what they do best and if they destroy the County?……. Good.
People should pay price for their stupidity at the ballot box.
Is this why the people dressed in red and yellow are marching in protest today?
This is a joke. During the Measure D fight the Sheriff and his union ran around stating ANY reduction in funding was going to cause mayhem in the streets and 911 calls to go unanswered while big bad bogeyman huddled outside.
Yet now the Sheriff wants $400K to spend on a feel-good report. This coming after he needs close to a $1M being spent on legal fees for ‘personnel’ matters. Most of which are his doing. I’d like to know how the leadership of AOCDS and OCEA (who spent a combined $800K to defeat Measure D and didn’t even get so much as a thank you card from the Supes for fighting their battle) like knowing their resources were spent so Carona could spend Prop 172 funds on something as frivolous as this.
And don’t get me started on Fleischman. No one has ever been able to tell me what he does that is of any positive consequence to the mission of the OCSD. Yet there he sits blasting at ‘big government’ and ‘confiscated tax dollars’ all the while working in one of the largest cost centers of county government collecting a paycheck derived from tax dollars ‘confiscated’ from taxpayers. What a joke. One of his more recent postings details his perception of the individuals hired by the Angelides’ campaign as akin to the Keystone Kops. Sadly for Jon, the more rational (and better looking Karen Hanretty) pretty much tells Jon politely he has no idea what he is talking about since she knows them to be very capable and not give a knee jerk reaction like Jon’s.
As an electorate we truly get what we deserve. We have a person in charge of the OCSD run amok. And that includes those they that surround them.
what type of survey costs 300k? statewide campaigns don’t budget this amount for survey work.
Maybe Fleischman will make another mistake and send a copy of an email to a reporter, like he did during campaigning for Corona (on County time). This one might be suggesting to Carona’s right hand man “Schroeder”, that a Carona backer for the consultant job would be in order. Who knows, maybe someone like Matt “Jubal” Cunningham. He needs the work. Just ask him.
Does everyone understand the fact that this request is to USE PROP 172 FUNDS (Tax Dollars earmarked exclusively for Public Safety) for a campaign function!!!
Carona’s behavior is absolutely absurd. This man is acting like he just won an election with 80% of the vote, when in fact, he only won by .09% (about 3000 votes countywide).
Does anybody remember the RECENT Measure D fight in which the Sheriff’s Department was screaming that every cent was necessary for frontline law enforcement???
Apparently, there’s also a request from Carona to the BOS to give him exclusive control of Prop 172 funds on behalf of the other city police agencies in the county.
This man is out of control – way to go Republican Party of Orange County!
It’s time to restore Integrity and Trust to the Sheriff’s Department and to the OCGOP.
Semper Fi,
Tim Whitacre
I hope to see people there tomorrow. As a Police officers Wife Carona makes me sick to my stomach to see him use money that good go for good use if we ever have our own homeland issue here in Orange County!
Go ahead and take away the funds and give them to Carona so he can do a profile check on himself and I guarantee he will be in bed with you next!
I for one am going to try and speak to a Board that cares nothing about police and fire issues. There is one that truly cares I have found out recently and that is Sup. Norby.
He at least asks the hard questions that no one else has the guts to!
Jim Silva has been endorsed by Police and I for one am going to remind him of just that!!!
Go to floor 5 and get your ticket validated by your sup. I do all the time now. It
How did the vote go on Carona’s issue? Any updates?
Steve,
Norby was not there so they put the vote off until their next meeting. We will keep you posted!
Yeah, but I messed up as a newbie on speaking in front of the sups, and they let me say a few words on the issue in the place of agenda item 34… LOL
They let me go for a few seconds to…. Shows you just how much they really do not listen.
Of course they freaked out and people laughed at me but oh well such is life.
If the sheriff doesn’t perform these duties as the people believe they should, they can remove this person from that job. Remember, it’s all about public safety. Any sheriff who attempts to violate the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, including the Second Amendment, or allows anyone — including a government official — to do this should be removed from office by the people.