I have heard from several readers that the Orange County Supervisors discussed moving out of Santa Ana at their last board meeting.
Here is one of the comments: At the Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, after the Supervisorial election discussion and further into the agenda, was a proposed contract to hire a consultant to identify possible uses for 100 acres the county received at the El Toro Base. The Board discussion was most interesting. The most newsworthy point I think was John Moorlach proposing the study take a look at moving some or all of the County Seat government offices to that location. His idea got some support in concept from other Board members and they ordered the scope of work for the consultant re-worked to include taking a look at that possible use. Thus, the possibility of moving some or many county government offices out of Santa Ana is on the table.
This would be akin to pulling our troops out of Baghdad. It is apparent that our Supervisors want to cut and run and flee Santa Ana. This will have a negative domino affect on our entire city.
The question of course is why would the Supervisors do this? Well, they are all Republicans – and up until now the 1st District was the only one that swung Democrat. But Lou Correa ditched us and now the entire Board will be Republican. There will be no one there to fight this plan – unless Janet Nguyen decides to do so.
I believe that Moorlach and Pat Bates are looking to do this so they can get friendly with the contractors who would be demolishing the old buildings and the developers who would end up building the new ones. These businesses would become major donors to all of the Supervisors.
I also believe that most of our Supervisors have no great love for the people of Santa Ana. Moving would allow them to escape and not have to deal with Latinos at all.
Moving to Irvine would also allow the OC GOP to build a new base to go after the Democrats on the Irvine City Council. But the move would screw Santa Ana.
I don’t see how we are going to stop the Supervisors from doing this. I wonder if Correa saw this coming and retreated so as to not get dragged down in this disaster?
Wasn’t John Moorlach supposed to be some kind of wise-spending fiscal watchdog or something? How much is moving the county seat to El Toro for no discernable good reason going to cost? (That must be why Moorlach was making such a big deal out of retirement benefits for County employees — every dollar saved goes to upgraded carpeting for his Supervisorial suite in a brand-new South County office tower!)
Until the sky falls in Irvine, the OCGOP will never be able to get rid of Agran and the Agranistas. Larry’s been on that City Council since 1978 and since then, Irvine’s the safest city, it’s schools are consistently the best, the Will Ferrell kicks a thousand field goals for Uni High.
Art, as a Santa Ana resident I understand you want them to stay but why would ANY business or agency that could move to the great park NOT move there? First American moved to Hutton center South Coast Metro because their employees got tired of walking through the human blight that is down town S.A. The Great Park will have athletic facilities, museums, and great places to eat in a beautiful park. Of course they will move.
Another example of Art Pedroza-hypocrisy: He is against the city subsidizing the courthouse a couple of years ago…………but now the move “would screw Santa Ana”.
You cant have it both ways Arte: Was the city wrong to subsidize downtown government buildings or will it be wrong to let these buildings go to south county?
Amazing.
Another option mentioned at the Board meeting by one of the Supervisors was the possibility of selling the 100 acres and generating $ 200 million or more in cash for mother county. I believe it was Supervisor Campbell who mentioned he had been approached by some developers interested in buying the 100 acres. It sounded like the Board wants most any idea assessed as to feasibiltiy, pros and cons, etc. Stay tuned —-
Let the voters decide if they should move. Not Moorlach. They could sell the land and save the money. It is a no brainer. Moorlach is just another greedy man who wants all the perks he can get. His true colors are coming out. I regret voting for him.
Why not sell their civic center property?
No. 7 – I believe most county owned property was pledged as security for the bankruptcy recovery bonds – in essence mortgaged, and if so the bondholders would not agree to a sale until if and when the bonds are paid off. Not sure about this, but that is my understanding —-
So why can’t they sell the county civic center property and use the proceeds, or part of them, to pay off the bond holders???
Geez, don’t get all up in a bunch here.
First, the county buildings are not likely to leave the county seat.
There are peripheral services like the coroner, waste management, and others that don’t have much public contact. The ones that that do, like the registrar of voters and health services that have a lot of walk in business, and it would be a disservice to the public to move them to an outlying area like the alleged “great” park.
Lastly, the land is too valuable to waste on county buildings. By selling and developing the land, the county generates ongoing revenue through property taxes over and above the income from the initial sale. It just makes more sense to go this route.
The request by Moorlach was only to have the consultants look at look at maybe building county offices as one of the several options they will consider as they look at alternative uses for the 100 acres. It is one of the least fiscally responsible options, and only one of many that will be investigated.
Wait and see what the consultant comes up with before getting all worked up over this issue, and don’t listen to Art’s silly conspiracy theories about the supes courting developer money, Correa bailing out, and how the supervisors hate Latinos.
If we can get a UC campus to go in to what is now the Civic Center I say let them go. Then Santa Ana and points west can join with Long Beach and other points in between to create a new county with Long Beach as the seat. We are more closely related to them than the Stepford areas of South County anyway. But it is all predicated in getting a strong higher educational facility in the Civic Center NOT just a vacancy. A UC would actually be a brain influx instead of today’s brain drain known as ‘the County’ and its supervisoral quagmire.
One possibility is to sell the land and use the proceeds to finance the county’s unfunded liabilty for retiree pensions – the county could dig its way out of that fiscal hole, at least partly, with the proceeds —–
It doesn’t matter what color the supervisors or the residents of Santa Ana are. It’s a normal human desire to locate an enterprise, including the supervisors’ meetings, in a nicer location. It’s a free world, and there is a message here. Santa Ana should be wondering what needs to be done to make the city as safe, culturally diverse, and attractive as other locations in California and the United States.
Look at the problems in Santa Ana, not at the sensible supervisors.
Santa Ana is a toilet bowl. Why anyone would want to locate their business or other facilities is beyond me.