Public Vents Anger at Privatization Ideas Offered for Bankrupt County

In your article “Conservative Activists see O.C. Crisis as Rallying Point� (Jan. 14), you provide front-page exposure for a blatant piece of demagoguery designed to serve special interests in the county.

It starts with the premise that the Orange County bankruptcy proves that county government employees are inept, and therefore privatization is the obvious solution. The county did not lose one cent because their landscape architects were incompetent or their clerks weren’t productive in the recorder’s office. The loss was caused by the machinations of a department head. Privatization would not have changed the county’s loss scenario one iota.

Under privatization, department heads with a small administrative staff would still be responsible for the management of large sums of money. The only difference would be that instead of having the work done by county employees, the work would be doled out to private contractors with political connections. This is the real reason that “conservative� Republicans want privatization. The county wouldn’t save a cent.

True privatization would happen if no taxes were collected for roads, and if a developer wanted to build homes to sell he would have to pay to build the road as well. This is obviously not what these so-called conservatives want. The reason these people are “giddy� while considering the “possibilities� is that they are drunk on the scent of pork.

WAYNE L. WILEY

Huntington Beach

* As demonstrated in Greg Johnson’s Jan. 14 article, there is a plethora of reasonable--and wacky--ideas on how to deal with the county’s bankruptcy crisis.

One wacky idea, reported as the brainchild of Newport Beach attorney Paul Hegness, caught my eye: mobile home development of so-called “huge, underutilized parks in the county,� or sale or lease of these lands “for commercial and retail development.�

The reason many of these “huge, underutilized� parks exist at all is because they were dedicated to the county as mitigation measures for impacts associated with land uses (read developments) in south Orange County. Many of these parks include extremely steep topography, unstable surface/subsurface soil features and waterways prone to extreme and often sudden flooding (just what we need, more liability).

Further, attorney Hegness apparently didn’t do his homework. Besides the obvious legal problems (and certain litigation) associated with selling mitigation lands--some with deed restrictions--the sheer expense of developing such lands is prohibitive. Don’t count on selling a bunch of $1-million mobile homes.

But in the spirit of compromise, and privatization, Mr. Hegness, I offer the following win-win situation: You agree to tear down the developments these parks mitigate (most of South County) and you can have them!

SHERRY LEE MEDDICK

Silverado

* Privatization of portions of the county’s responsibility is certainly a commendable concept. To have competition to provide services that were a county monopoly would be beneficial.

But to sell John Wayne airport and El Toro airports, combined, for a price in the range of just $250 million to perhaps over $500 million to assist in the county’s current fiscal crisis is ridiculous.

Such a decision when our back is to the wall clearly puts the county at a disadvantage.

ROBERT M. CROWDER

Laguna Beach

* You bet I’m a liberal “enraged� by attorney Paul Hegness’ suggestion that we use our “huge, underutilized parks� to develop mobile home parks or sell (or lease) these same parks for commercial or retail development. What universally accepted pragmatic formula did he use to determine park underutilization?

Mr. Hegness should recognize that parks have value beyond the count (or take) at the gate. Seeing a verdant park in a crowded urban setting of concrete and asphalt is emotionally pleasurable, even if the park is void of humans. Parks also provide much needed refuge for wildlife. To lose our parks is to lose some of our humanity.

Do we really want unrelieved housing and strip malls? One need only take a low-flying commuter plane between L.A. and San Diego to see that the ratio of development to open space in Orange County is staggering.

I hope Hegness doesn’t next suggest we sell school playgrounds since they are used only during recess!

LEONARD S. VINCENT

Laguna Beach