The O.C. Register’s editorial department took a whack at the Rancho Santiago Community College District (RSCCD) today, over their horrifying waste of bond (tax) money on the Carona Sheriff Training Facility. You can read their editorial at this link. I will also provide the fully copy below, as it is brief.
I have written about how the RSCCD lied and blew our tax money. I also wrote about RSCCD Board President John Hanna’s reaction to the O.C. Register article about this boondoggle, and my own reaction to it.
Here is today’s Register editorial:
Defenders of the Rancho Santiago Community College District’s decision to divert millions of bond dollars away from school classrooms and into a modern training facility for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department have raised the specter of 9/11. These folks ask: Shouldn’t deputies enjoy the very best facilities given that they, like many who were killed by terrorist attacks, are first-responders?
Yet, Santa Ana area residents who supported the bond have every right to be angry. This has nothing to do with 9/11 and everything to do with the promises made by school officials and with the wise and proper use of public resources. As the Register reported, “Voters who approved $156 million in construction bonds for the college in 2002 were promised that the majority of the money would go toward a new math and science building, a parking facility, a child-care center and other campus improvements. Voters were also told that $10 million would be spent on a new sheriff’s training facility.”
But the sheriff’s center has used up more than $30 million of the bond money “while other projects have received less than what was promised
Art: My only comment about the Register editorial:
Consider the source.
Your comment about my campaign page and the training facility was almost as trite as your misleading headline you used on your post after I responded to you.
Here’s a thought Art which I communicated to Claudio in person:
If you want to encourage local elected officials to come on and blog or comment, don’t play cute little games with cut and paste and put out misleading headlines. I expect that from MSM but I didn’t expect it from you whom I have gotten along with well. I don’t expect you to agree with me all the time and I enjoy a good give and take. But I do expect fairness. And the manner in which you dealt with my response was c.s.
When you have decided to throw down whatever gauntlent you throw you might want to consider offering the elected official or organization an opportunity to post their response. What is it, does somebody have to threaten a lawsuit to get an offer to post on this blog?
I’ll be happy to take e-mails to correct the misinformation put out by you and the Register at jhanna@seedlaw.org or they can be sent to the District Office at Lucarelli_Anita@rsccd.org and she’ll forward them to me. People should include their residence address as well as their e-mail address if they want a response from me.
Who owns the facility?
If it is RSCCD then they should charge a fee to the trainees or their employers to recover the cost, plus maintenance and a large profit.
If it belong to the sheriff department, then they should pay back the entire amount to the college.
And then the political types who did this should be tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail.
John,
I have major issues with the way the Register beats on immigrants, but that aside, they are a legitimate newspaper. So bashing them by saying “consider the source” doesn’t make much sense to me.
You are always welcome to post here. I applaud the fact that you have already done so.
Whether or not politicians choose to blog here is up to them. Our door is always open.
The problem is that the OC GOP machine hates my guts since I left their party, and the Democrat Chair, Frank Barbara, is wary of us because he cannot control us.
The Orange Juice, moreso than any other blog in the O.C., tells it like it is, irrespective of what the party machines on either side are putting out for public consumption.
BTW, given what has been going on with RSCCD, I will now be reading your meeting agendas and commenting on them on a regular basis.
Lastly, I spoke to Amezcua today and voiced my displeasure at the fact that the RSCCD website does not contain contact information for any of the RSCCD trustees. That needs to change ASAP. At bare minimum there should be phone numbers to contact each of you, and at least an email address to RSCCD staffers who can field your emails.
Even the Cal State Board of Trustees include phone numbers on their website.
Art–
You say your door is always open but then you slam it shut on my hand. Think blog etiquette–be a gracious host, not a slicer and dicer.
As for Frank Barbaro, I don’t think he is wary of you because “he can not control us.” Frank is my dear friend but he has enough trouble trying to control Democrats without having to worry about controlling you. He couldn’t even deliver an endorsement for me!
As for the Register, I like Martin, Peggy, Marla and some of the columnists, but the editorial folks and reporters who don’t like Mike Carona have been driving this story. The register has fought our District every inch of the way on the Tustin Air Base fight for the land, both bond measures and has always looked for an excuse to pound on public education. So yes, I consider the source when the Register tees off on us.
As for the contact information, people have always been able to reach me through the college district. And the contact information is on the web site. I don’t think anyone should be required to give out their personal phone numbers but I have no problem with people e-mailing me or contacting me by phone.
I can only speak for myself–but I will ask that my web site information include an e-mail contact and phone number. Thanks for the suggestion.
John,
I will tell you the same thing I told Gustavo earlier today. We are at war in Santa Ana. If it was not for this blog, there would be no revolution at all.
The corruption in our city is an octopus with many tentacles. One of those is Pulido and his cabal. But we are the county seat, so Carona is in the mix too.
There is a reason the Register reporters don’t like Carona. He is an evil, corrupt sick SOB. If you cannot see that then you must be so compromised that you have lost the ability to discern good from evil.
Take Frank Barbaro. He is Pulido’s lawyer. Every time that Pulido is up for reelection Barbaro makes sure he is endorsed. Barbaro has enabled the Pulido empire for years.
Next year I will make sure there is a progressive Democrat on the mayoral ticket in Santa Ana. This time we will take out Pulido.
As you know, I did not oppose Measure O. I thought I could trust you guys with the funds obtained from Measure E. Well, I guess not. Now I will oppose any future bonds, no questions asked.
I do appreciate your willingness to add contact information to the RSCCD website. I do think that elected officials should give us contact information. If they don’t want to be bothered by the voters, I suggest they not run for office in the first place.
BTW, I am not slamming your hand. I am slamming the waste of tax money that is the Carona Sheriff Training Facility. And the lies RSCCD perpetrated on the voters. I am sorry you got caught up in this crap. You are a better man than that.
As for being a gracious host, well, it is hard to be gracious when we are just a few against a massive horde of corruption and greed. Perhaps when we have taken out some of the leaders of this corrupt pack we will be able to put away our swords and beat them into plowshares. Until that day, we will probably be rough around the edges and we will probably P.O. a few people. Sorry, guerra is never pretty.