O.C. First District Supervisor Janet Nguyen really came through for her constituents today, with her Fund 130 allocations. Matt/Jubal Cunningham, over at Red County, did a good job of highlighting some of these expenditures, such as:
- Approve expenditure of $100,000 from Fund 130 for development of the Tierra de las Pampas exhibit at the Santa Ana Zoo for the City of Santa Ana, and direct Clerk of the Board to execute the submitted agreement between the County of Orange and the City of Santa Ana.
- Approve expenditure of $5,000 from Fund 130 for the purchase of a swing set for Logan Park in the City of Santa Ana, and direct Clerk of the Board to execute the submitted agreement between the County of Orange and the City of Santa Ana.
- Approve expenditure of $9,000 from Fund 130 for basketball court renovation at El Salvador Park in Santa Ana for Netz 4 Life, Inc., and direct Clerk of the Board to execute the submitted agreement between the County of Orange and Netz 4 Life, Inc.
- Approve expenditure of $33,675 from Fund 130 for basketball court renovations, purchase and installation of monkey bars, and installation of an alarm system and parking gate on the exterior of the Santa Ana Police Athletic Activity League building, and direct Clerk of the Board to execute the submitted agreement between the County of Orange and the Orange County Community Foundation.
- Approve expenditure of $10,000 from Fund 130 for industrial lighting at the City Lights Skate Park and Dream Center in Santa Ana for the City Lights Dream Center, and direct Clerk of the Board to execute the submitted agreement between the County of Orange and the City Lights Dream Center.
- Approve expenditure of $100,000 from Fund 130 for building of a new soccer/sports field on the grounds of the new Santa Ana Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) facility located at 2100 W. Alton Parkway for the Santa Ana YMCA, and direct Clerk of the Board to execute the submitted agreement between the County of Orange and the Santa Ana YMCA.
- Approve expenditure of $55,661 from Fund 130 for a playground upgrade at Santa Ana’s Hoover Elementary School, and direct Clerk of the Board to execute the submitted agreement between the County of Orange and the Santa Ana Unified School District.
- Approve expenditure of $14,000 from Fund 130 for purchase of outdoor equipment and payment of fees associated with outdoor activities for Lien Doan Huong Dao Truong Son (Santa Ana Boy Scout/Girl Scout Troop 680), and direct Clerk of the Board to execute the submitted agreement between the County of Orange and Lien Doan Huong Dao Truong Son.
- Approve expenditure of $15,000 to refurbish dugout fencing at Riverview Park for Santa Ana Northwest Little League, and direct Clerk of the Board to execute the submitted agreement between the County of Orange and the Santa Ana Northwest Little League.
- Approve expenditure of $10,000 for youth recreation programs in Westminster for The Association of Vietnamese Language and Culture Schools of Southern California, and direct Clerk of the Board to execute the submitted agreement between the County of Orange and The Association of Vietnamese Language and Culture Schools of Southern California.
And here’s an item that the City of Santa Ana refused to fund. Thomas Gordon asked Supervisor Nguyen to help out, and she did: Approve expenditure of $25,000 to contract with California State University, Fullerton for a study researching the causes and spread of gangs for the City of Santa Ana, and direct Clerk of the Board to execute the submitted agreement between the County of Orange and the City of Santa Ana.
Great job Supervisor Nguyen! Joe Dunn better forget about running against you…
Wow, impressive.
Janet for Santa Ana Mayor!
Looks like Jubal should change back the OJ link to Janet Nguyen for Supervisor!
Hmmm, let me see why do kids join gangs. Has anybody realized that maybe kids want to fit in with kids that are in gangs. If a child grows up in a environment that has gang members and all of his peers are in a gang he would hang out with them so he could fit in. Even though he has good parents and teachers he would still hang out with them. We as humans are very social beings we always want to get accepted and socialize with our peers.
As I spoke to Thomas Gordon, on Sunday night when they had the Christmas parade on Wilshire Square. One of the biggest influences in gangs is the Mexican Mafia. They want gangs to run their drugs, killing contracts and for future recruits for La EME.
When I was going to High School in the early nineties, in Santa Ana. Gangs were the only role models, were we saw cholos with their Low Riders. So it was cool to be in a gang, We knew it was wrong, but we wanted to fit in, We wanted to socialize with our peers. That is one the many reasons why we joined gangs.
The only way we would get ride of gangs is to keep positive role models to stay in this city like young professionals that were raised in the city of Santa Ana. Have more parks learning centers, libraries, Sport activities, Hire ex gang members that want to make a differance with this kids not join a gang, psychologists and have stronger communities.
My parents live in Sandpointe, I started to notice that some kids that live in the neighborhood started selling drugs, spray painting on the walls.
I went to talk to them and I told them about my mistakes that I did and how I turned my life around and they have seen that im on the right track to be successful and now to the whole community surprise threes hardly any graffiti on the walls and these kids realized that I was right on the advice that I gave them.
Flowerszzz,
I just restored Red County’s link on my blog. Many readers told me that they could not find the OC Blog link, so now they can.
It is a sad commentary that the Board of Supervisors has chosen to largely ignore the degrading infrastructure of its own county parks system while doling out money to city parks in order to curry favor with city councils and other special interest groups. This is nothing but passing out pork, or as politicans tend to describe it “passing out the candy” not based on merit, but based on political calculations designed to score political points locally. Sick. (Of course, Ms Nguyen is the same Supervisor who, according to this blog some time ago, said she did not have any County Regional Parks in her District – untrue, plus the term “regional” means people from all Districts travel to other Districts to use parks. For instance, many First District residents use the County’s Irvine Park which is in another District.) Art, by your post you are feeding into this political pork-barreling at the cost of the county park system. Your zeal to promote certain electeds is too shallow. For shame.
So when is she going to restore the money she “borrowed from the Health Care Agency to fund her staff?
All that goodwill earned from these cash gifts of taxpayer fund is flushed down to toilet by a bad vote on keeping a criminal as county treasurer. net effect – Zip
I can’t help but laugh at Art’s attempts to cover for Janet.
Not even your strongest kool-aid drinkers agree with you anymore Art.
Better jump off this sinkin’ ship while there are still some life rafts left…seems like everyone else has been (i.e. didn’t one of her staffers just bail on her for a less paying job with the state? says something about the climate in her office…)
D’Anaconda,
Unlike you, I live in Santa Ana. I know where that money is going to be spent. It is going to benefit A LOT of our residents. They will care about this, and will happily vote for Janet next year. Mark my words.
As for the staffer you mentioned, perhaps he wanted to go to Sacramento for other reasons. Maybe he is a Kings fan.
D’anaconda, just to play devil’s advocate… should Art jump ship from Janet, who should he go for?
Trung? Please, if I had to choose between those two I’d rather be on a sinking ship instead of one that’s already sunk. At least there’s life boats on a sinking ship instead of none at all 😉
All of the Supervisors have these stupid pork funds, but Supervisor Nguyen’s expenditures are being scrutinized? What city parks or other local projects have the other four Supervisors spent their pork funds on?
Did Norby used his fund to hire a staff for the library as well?
Oh Flowerszzz there is nothing wrong with that now right? If Janet did it, you’re all over it.
Anon @ 7:21am actually I did not criticize Janets expenditures one bit….they get that money to spend as they please. Although, she SHOULD use some of the money to pay back the HCA for the extra staffer, IMO.
I was making reference to Art’s overly schmooozy, brown nosey advertisement of if. All the supes did similar things and he only advertised hers.
Where is the scrutiny of the other four Supervisors’ pork fund expenditures?
Poster 14,
Good question. I have not been able to find that information. If you can point me in the right direction, I would be happy to write about those expenditures.
Are the pork expenditures public record? Otherwise, how did Faux-Red County get their information on Supervisor Nguyen’s expenditures?
You can view the agenda here – Nguyens is item 51:
http://cams.ocgov.com/Web_Publisher/agenda12_18_2007.htm
And then it appears Norby added his as a supplemental which you can view here:
http://www.oc.ca.gov/supervisors/agenda/rev-sup12182007.pdf
Does not appear the others had any on that agenda.