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Lucy Dunn is the President, CEO, and ubiquitous spokeswoman of the Orange County Business Council (OCBC.) Masterminded by tireless and insatiable lobbyist Curt Pringle (former Speaker of the California Assembly and Anaheim Mayor), this group’s mission seems to be pursuing ways for well-connected businesses to profit off public, taxpayer money, in what they like to call “public-private partnerships.” (Honest Democrats call it “corporate welfare”; honest Republicans call it “crony capitalism.”) The group seems indistinguishable in this regard from the also-Pringle-backed OC Taxpayers’ Association (“OC Tax,”) which was fronted by waiflike lobbyist Reed Royalty until his sickly place was taken by saucy former Orange Mayor Carolyn Cavecche.
But as an Orange Juice reader, you’re probably already aware of all that and are saying “Duh, tell us something new.” And you probably also know that the slow-talking but very sure-of-herself Dunn has been proselytizing for Toll Lanes on OC freeways for several years, insisting that if OC voters and taxpayers just realized the mathematics of what highway care costs (if we were just “educated”) we would all rush to embrace the idea! (Not that she would ever risk putting it to a popular vote, mind you.)
Well, as the kabuki theater has progressed, and the “bad cop” CalTrans has magically stepped in and decreed that we HAVE to toll the 405 just as OCTA wants, Lucy and her group have jumped in with pom-poms and a joyful noise:
“Folks—I wanted to share some good news from the transportation front. Caltrans boldly approved a plan (Alternative 3) to improve the congested I-405 corridor by accepting OCTA’s recommendations to use Measure M funds construct new general purpose lanes but added to the project by approving express lanes as well, to be constructed when funding is identified in the future. This respects OC voters’ wishes for new ‘free’ lanes…”
An actual champion of local business – spokesman for Seal Beach Chamber of Commerce, speaking passionately against the 405 tolls.
It’s first worth noting that this supposed champion of OC business interests is here celebrating the imposition, by an outside SACRAMENTO agency, of a policy that actual Orange County businesses (in the affected area) have been fighting against tooth and nail, as it’s bound to negatively impact their bottom line. How many times do ACTUAL OC businesses have to see this behavior from Dunn and the OCBC before they realize that the group is just shills for a few well-connected klepto interests – in this case ones that hope to profit off the hoped-for toll revenue, and operating and lobbying for the actual lanes? Can we see a bit of a mass exodus from this phony council sometime soon, please?
TWO. With the embarrassing effort of a feigned orgasm, Lucy continues to perpetuate OCTA’s (now CalTrans’) big lie, that no Measure M funding – none of our tax money – will go into creating the toll lanes that none of us want. OK, once more into the debunction breech:
The two-toll-lane system the toll trolls want to create (Alternative 3) is impossible to create without first using $1.3 billion of our Measure M money to build an extra lane on the outside – $1.3 billion and 5 years of disruptive work tearing down and rebuilding 17 bridges, after which – if they get their way – we taxpayers will still have NO NEW FREE LANES. (I will endeavor to keep finding new ways to get that simple reality across.)
Essential to the credibility of their big lie is the pretense that the building of the new free lane and the building of the toll lanes are completely unrelated, having nothing to do with each other (when they actually share the painful parasite-host relationship of the scorpion riding the frog.) The slow-witted Lucy makes that pretense difficult by still using OCTA’s 2012 terminology for that marriage, “Alternative 3.” OC Tax’ cleverer Carolyn Cavecche knows better. As she wrote in comments on the Voice of OC not long ago:
“I am not sure that advocating the position that once a project is complete using M2 dollars no additional construction or improvement can ever be made to that area if it wasn’t included in M2 is the way we want to plan future infrastructure investment in Orange County. If you are opposed to toll facilities fine, but don’t use M2 as the reason.”
Carolyn was always like that, even back two years ago when she was my friend and a toll-lane opponent on the OCTA Board. She always liked to say “I could argue things either way,” or “I wouldn’t argue it that way.” During her last year on the board, as she made her painful transformation from independent-minded Orange Mayor to Pringle-dependent President of OC Tax, she began to bemoan on the dais how the two issues of 405 expansion and 405 tolls should never have been combined as “Alternative 3.” But they are, and the bell cannot be unrung. And now she won’t talk to me any more, because those are Pringle rules.
But here’s where we pause and appreciate the Orwellian irony of both Pringle organizations – an “OC Business Council” which fights for policies that will devastate OC businesses, and an “OC Taxpayers Association” that fights for such gigantic swindles on OC taxpayers as the 405 Tolls and Poseidon.
Moving on…
Pic from Daily Pilot. Mansoor speaking, L-R Fountain Valley Mayor Vo, Seal Beach Mayor Gary Miller, Westminster’s angel Diana Carey, Costa Mesa’s Riggy, I-don’t-know-who, Fountain Valley’s John Collins. Possibly Harper’s sleeve at very left.
A few days later Assemblyman Allan Mansoor, who’s running a long-shot Supervisorial campaign against heavy favorite Michelle Steel, called a press conference with all the local politicians who oppose the swindle – all from the affected “corridor cities” and mostly Republicans – Moorlach, Mansoor, and city officials. I didn’t really hear any new ideas except complain loudly to Sacramento about how mean CalTrans and OCTA are; and also vote for Mansoor and Harper – nothing as compelling as the Orange Juice idea of suing as an “OC Drivers’ Union.”
Mansoor at least, alone among OC legislators, has been giving this the college try, with his AB 2036 which would have subjected toll lanes in this county to popular approval. Unfortunately that bill died at birth in the Transportation Committee, with no help from our OC Democrats Daly and Quirk-Silva who abstained despite all our lobbying. It seems our Democrats are petrified of the Teamsters and Building Trades who want the toll lane option; and to make things even more aggravating these unions’ desire for toll lanes rather than new free lanes makes no logical sense (as witness my interview with Teamster chief Patrick Kelly at the end of this story.) Kudos at least to LA’s gutsy Mike Gatto, the only Democrat on the committee to support Allan’s bill – I wish he were ours.
HB Mayor Matt Harper‘s solution mainly involved voting for Matt Harper for Assembly. As Matt explained to me between giggles, he could bring forth a bill similar to Allan’s except he “knows how to talk to Democrats” (reasonably implying that Allan doesn’t) and that once he got all LA’s Dems on board it would be clear sailing. Who knows – it’s worth a shot – Matt’s certainly no worse than his opponent Keith Curry, the bane of fire pits.
ALL of the Republican politicians I talked to that day – five of ’em – said the same thing about my proposed OC Drivers Union – “I can’t have anything to do with anything called a UNION!” FINE then – how about “association?” “That would be fine, sounds like a great idea!” OK then. I can’t believe the Party that pretends to be tough and manly and ridicules Dems for “political correctness” prefers a multi-syllabic euphemism, but “OC Drivers Association” it is. You’ll be hearing all about it once the new EIR is done.
So, lotsa trolls, lotsa warriors, and plenty of politicizing the issue in this silly season. I later watched the women of the Costa Mesa City Council barely stop Mayor Righeimer from sending all Costa Mesa voters an anti-toll resolution with Matt Harper’s name on it – a guy who has nothing to do with Costa Mesa except that he’ll be running for assembly there at the same time and can really use and appreciate the free publicity. And there are two competing anti-toll Facebook pages now, one of which accurately calls itself “the one where everyone takes credit for stopping the tolls, not just certain politicians who want the limelight for themselves.”
The Travis Allen Puzzle
For a guy who represents even more of the affected areas in his assembly district than Mansoor does, and for a guy who beat one of Orange County’s slipperiest politicos (Troy Edgar) by highlighting Troy’s slipperiness, Travis Allen has always been slippery as hell on the 405 Toll issue.
Gus Ayer and I tried to get him interested in the issue back in 2012 when he was first running but he wouldn’t respond to us (about that – he did about other things.) When I saw him at the voter registrar he vaguely responded “It doesn’t sound right for Orange County.” And then today when I called to talk about that AND fire pits he said, “It’s two totally different issues, we’ll talk about tolls some other time.” So far from the fighter Mansoor and almost all other corridor politicians.
But most worrisome of all, Travis was overheard at a recent Janet Nguyen event telling someone “What I’m most concerned with is throughput.” Now who uses that word “throughput?” ONLY the folks who want tolls. It’s an agreed-upon mystic sounding word, suggesting that somehow there’s scientific knowledge that MOST EVERYONE will go faster with toll lanes. But in fact, as Diana Carey says, “The word ‘throughput’ is shorthand for ‘throughput for people who can afford tolls.'” Highly worrying.
Someone needs to get this Allen guy on the record and find out where he stands once and for all on this crucial local issue, and what he’s gonna do about it. This guy who’s so bold and brash on non-controversial fire pits shouldn’t be allowed to keep quiet and coy about toll lanes. He is sounding like he’s been hanging out with Lucy Dunn and Miguel Pulido. And the person who should most want to know is Travis’ Democratic challenger Joel Block – this should be the issue he bashes Travis over the head with like Travis bashed Troy.
Lots more news coming up on this whole topic, believe me, lots more news…
This is so infuriating! The corruption never stops! Keep up the fight to arouse consciousness Vern. Every driver wants more freedom and less TOLLS. It just takes an avalanche of data to get most folks’ attention.
But then it takes the National Guard to step in when righteous indignation fires up the angry populace.
Instead of calling the opposition to the toll corruption swindle “a drivers’ union’ lets just be real and call it what it will be if they pull this off: THE DRIVERS’ ANGRY MOB!!!
It makes no sense that for the past 30 years we as drivers paid increased gas taxes to build roads to relieve traffic by ride sharing, knowing full well if you wanted to share ride you could freely use a car pool lane. Now they want to expand that and deny us the right of free use by charging all users a fee, not as a tax, but as a profit for the builder. Not even a vote is allowed, just a decision by the builder. The carpool lanes are in and need to be used more efficiently to ease congestion, not by making them larger reducing space for other traffic and charge all for their use???
“Discrimination clearly exists but discrimination is against the laws”. George W.anker Bush
ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Published: July 22, 2014 Updated: 9:57 p.m.
Costa Mesa, James H. Bridges – co-founder, Citizens’ Bureau of Investigation: The Costa Mesa City Council recently decided to dramatically slaughter citizens’ right of free speech – our constitutional First Amendment. Our city has a relatively new version of a citizen’s free speech rights – lottery-style.
Only 10 selected speakers during the public comments segment at the beginning of every city council meeting are granted their right to speak. And only if it’s considered “allowable,” according to the council’s own standards.
Lottery-losing citizens wishing to speak must wait (often many hours) until nearly the meeting’s end, to exercise their right to three minutes of free speech, while council members have virtually unlimited time to drone on and on during their much earlier scheduled time. And they speak about basically anything on their minds, regarding the meeting and/or previous speakers, directing their comments to the entire council chambers and broadcast audience.
This not only has a chilling effect on the citizens they were supposedly elected to serve, but also impacts those protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act, who may not have the ability to sustain many hours of attendance to be able to exercise their three minutes of somewhat limited speech. The council allows absolutely no accommodations for anyone unable to sit through many meeting hours, simply to speak for three minutes on one item.
If this were not authoritarian enough, prior to meetings, agendas are made available to citizens, having no input as to the meeting agenda items.
It is bad enough that the council chooses to form mysterious “Task Forces” (various, selective neighborhood improvement groups, for example) in an attempt to deny public right of participation and then refer to them as “representatives from the community.” This allows council to violate the intent of the Brown Act, which requires meetings open to the public.
Hopefully, after November, Costa Mesa citizens will have a fair and nonbiased, nonpersonal-agenda council majority.
I, for one, would love to enjoy future Independence Days with my right of free speech and compliance with the Brown Act and Americans with Disabilities Act, for starters.
Harris needs to defend death penalty law
Anaheim, Doug Haynes: Judge Cormac J. Carney apparently has never read the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Gregg v. Georgia, where the court ruled, “The writers of the Constitution never intended to forbid capital punishment,” noting that the Constitution itself provides for the death penalty. He also appears to be ignorant of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Furman v. Georgia, where the court specifically stated the death penalty does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment.
California Attorney General Kamala Harris at the California
Democrats State Convention in Los Angeles.
(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Judge Carney chose to ignore the fact that the delays in executions being carried out and the high costs associated with death penalty cases are caused by defense attorneys who file appeal after appeal and use every method they can to delay an execution.
It will be interesting to see if California Attorney General Kamala Harris fulfills her oath of office and legal obligation to defend our state’s laws or pulls an Eric Holder and chooses to ignore and not fulfill her responsibilities.
Carbon tax as economic stiumlus
Brea, Dennis Arp: Australian politicians’ repeal of that country’s carbon tax this week highlights the importance of our Congress getting it right [“Australia repeals carbon tax, environmentalists upset,” News, July 17]. The Australians’ mistake? Not making the tax 100 percent revenue neutral.
It’s critical that, as we put a price on carbon, we also return every bit of the money directly to Americans as a dividend. This way, as we speed our transition to renewable energy, we also protect our economy.
In fact, a recent study by the respected forecasting firm Regional Economic Modeling Inc. shows that the right plan can be an economic boon. REMI projects the creation of 2 million jobs over 10 years and a cumulative increase in GDP of more than $1 trillion.
And, by the way, CO2 emissions would be cut in half over 20 years.
These numbers are why we shouldn’t abandon a carbon tax. Returning the money directly to households can make this effective tax reform – and a free-market alternative to more EPA regulation.
Find me a suitable client and I will address this. I’m tired of whining; people need to step up. (Seeing what DOESN’T happen elsewhere should help people realize how extraordinary Cynthia, Brian, and other uncredited CATERers are to help me actually take on these sorts of miscreants. And of course I’m not the only lawyer around equipped to do this.)
*Lucy Dunn is a smart cookie……that knows how to get cash into the OCBC. Do not fault her for that. You most assuredly can fault her for supporting the Reason Foundation concept of…………………. “a Toll for Every Troll”. As everyone must have seen today the OCTA is flumoxed to the extreme…..still getting 17,000 drivers a day not paying tolls. Wonder what Lucy might say about that issue? We say, get some homeless folks to put those toll booths back up and collect cash only. We could build seven homeless shelters in about 60 days. OK, the great Travis……..Mr. Fire Rings…….Mr. “I’m more Tea Party than Jim Righeimer……” What is his position on the OCTA fining his constituents $57.50 a day…..for not paying on the toll road? Back to sweet Lucy. We love you Lucy….you are bright as a button…….but way wrong on the Toll Road issue. You can lose that…..still take the Reason Foundation money and bump along through the November election with elan.
Huh? Lucy ain’t running for anything. Is she?
*No….she is simply the President of OC Business Council….. she gets good pay and lots of access to everyone!
I heard a news report this morning about the gap between rising housing prices in OC and lower wages compared to 20 years ago. Who could afford these toll lanes? Two additional free lanes would serve the greatest number of people and wouldn’t impact businesses when Lexus lane users bypass our communities. http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2014/08/21/report-la-oc-residents-spend-half-of-income-on-housing/
*The Toll Roads are for the 1%ers…….they could care less about everyone else.
Call them what you like,
-express lanes
-carpool lanes
-Lexus lanes
-HOV lanes
No matter what you call them, there is ZERO empirical evidence that they do anything to improve the flow/speed of traffic on our freeways. NONE.
Make sure you bring up that point up to anyone who touts them.
There is no “good news” about Alternative 3.
Funny this article tries so wholeheartedly to pin the tail on the donkey at the OC Republicans for the 405 toll lanes. I been on this since it was first championed back in 2005. Jose Solorio, Loretta Sanchez, and other Democrats brainchild this 405 toll idea.
You own this one Vern . Nice try pointing the wrong finger. But your mind altered buddies in the OC Democrat party, Cal Trans drafted this to creat job security to get pensions for the Unions. There is no profit to the Republicans for the toll lanes. California is still $36 Billion in the hole. Jerry Brown cooked the books. The Democrat Assembly just approved a 6% salary increase for Public employees. This is is a Democrats idea right out of the pl;ay book.
Hey, whoever you are, I think you need to read the damn article again. It is EXTREMELY nonpartisan. Just like the issue is. And you are not.
First of all, who do I give most blame to in this article – Lucy Dunn, i think she’s a Dem, not that you’d know. Workin for Pringle who I THINK still calls himself a Reep but he’s really his own Greed party. And Republican Travis who I SUSPECT to not be strong on the issue. And then I mention Dems Tom Daly and SQS as being “no help” with their “abstain” on Allan’s bill. I could have also mentioned that most of the toll trolls on the OCTA board are Reeps – which I think is just because most OC politicians are Reeps – Don Hansen, Paul Glaab, now Nelson and Spitzer, but also Dem Pulido.
And I give credit to Reeps Mansoor and Harper for fighting the tolls. I could also include Moorlach and many other Reep city officials, but there was no news on them. Two of the folks who have fought tolls the longest and hardest and stubbornnest are Dems Diana Carey and the late lamented Gus Ayer. I could also include the “Team HB” people Boardman and Shaw.
So you’re wrong thrice – the issue doesn’t break down in a partisan way at all, you can’t lay it all on Democrats, and my article was totally nonpartisan. YOU MIGHT TRY READING IT.
Whenever there is a large pot of tax dollars created, people in government will think of ways to steal it and give it to people who will contribute to their political campaigns and give their family members and friends jobs. The taxpayers paid for the land to build the freeways. We paid for the “studies”. We paid for the engineering. We paid for the construction. We pay for the maintenance. Now, we’ll pay so these crook politicians can scam money from us again with their business partners in the building and running of these toll lanes. How about we Californians deduct the value of our lost time from our taxes for the next few years, while this boondoggle is being built? Or, better yet, maybe we should reduce “congestion” by moving our businesses and our families to other states that are less corrupt and expensive to do business and live in? Or, how about we fund an independent investigation, and any public official who is found to be benefitting financially or politically from this project gets a ten year prison sentence?
The same thing is happening in South Orange County with the 241. The 241 wants to come in through the middle of the I5 as Toll Lanes on the 5. Please unite with South OC to say no Toll Road or Toll Lanes. This is just a money grab by a selected few with ZERO proven benefits based on lies and deceptions. Using the same arguments of no public money will be used on the Toll Road when the TCA has used almost $2 billion of public money, developer fees (taxes on new construction) and the upkeep of the roads.
All these people with this agenda need to be replaced NOW!!
It’s OCTA that is driving the bus, so to speak, on these developments. The existing Toll Roads infrastructure is just useful to them. All they care about is having a royal road, upon which peasants will not tread, between South OC and DTLA. The rest of us can stand by wistfully and dream of, as Monty Python put it, not having shit all over us.