‘All about the money’

The more we learn about Assemblyman Chuck DeVore and his proposal to

allow El Morro mobile home park dwellers to stay at the Crystal Cove

site another 30 years, the more we agree with DeVore that “it’s about

the money.”

But we have to wonder which money it’s about.

DeVore has proposed two bills that would extend some 300

long-standing leases on state park land for as long as 30 years, and

use the rent money -- some $30 million -- for various state financial

needs.

DeVore says the state’s financial mess warrants the continuation

of private leases on a site that the public has long waited to use.

He also says the state can’t afford the $12 million it will take to

carry out the park plans, and that the parks department -- with a

reported $900-million maintenance backlog -- can’t afford to take

care of the park even if and when it is completed.

When parks enthusiasts reacted to DeVore’s proposal with alarm --

noting that the state has planned for decades to turn the

exceptionally beautiful area into a public facility and end what

amounts to state-subsidized ocean-view housing -- DeVore’s response

was, “My El Morro bills are entirely about money and nothing more.”

DeVore wraps himself in the cloak of fiscal responsibility, and

it’s hard to disagree with him that the state needs a cash infusion

if we are not to be saddled with generations of debt given the

state’s budget troubles.

Apparently this argument is swaying some of DeVore’s peers in the

legislature, and more than one has eagerly signed on to co-sponsor

the “fiscally responsible” legislation.

But now we learn that it was DeVore himself who got a $66,000 cash

infusion from those very El Morro residents during his campaign for

office, and he still owes $28,800 to a man on the board of the

company that handles the community’s leases -- a man who also

happened to be DeVore’s campaign finance chairman.

The fact that this legislation was among the freshman legislator’s

very first acts in office lends to the appearance of

“bought-and-paid-for” legislation benefiting a tiny minority of his

constituents at the expense of the vast majority of the public.

DeVore denies any unseemly connection, saying his plan to get more

money from the homes, rather than spend money to turn the area into a

campground, was consistent with his fiscally conservative beliefs.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s 50 bucks, 100 bucks or 100,000 bucks;

my position was set before I got money from these people,” DeVore

says.

But many have wondered if DeVore’s zeal on the El Morro issue was

fostered by the desire to balance the state’s budget, or whether his

attention to the monetary issue struck a bit closer to home.

It’s a question that could dog DeVore for years to come.