The Orange County Board of Supervisors is weighing various legal opinions on the “3% at 50” pension spike approved by a previous Board in 2002. That pension boost created a $500 million liability for OC taxpayers. It was granted to all Sheriff’s deputies and District Attorney Investigators.

Research form Supervisor Moorlach’s office indicated that this action violated the State Constitution on two grounds. The pension spike created a retroactive gift of public funds and it exceeded the debt limit without voter approval. My office helped with this research.

Not surprisingly, AOCDS (Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs) has reacted strongly, hiring their own law firm to argue publicly why the pension was legal and that the Board would be wasting time and money in challenging it. Sheriff Carona has personally appeared before the Board arguing to keep the pension benefit intact.

On September 18, the Board hired the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis regarding the case. This firm will report back to the Board within sixty days with advice on how to proceed.

An OC challenge would be watched intensely by both public safety unions statewide (who stand to lose billions in benefits) and by local governments who would be relieved of billions in unfunded liabilities.

Even a successful challenge would not eliminate the “3% at 50” benefit, but would roll back the retroactive portion that rewarded employees who had not paid the additional deductions necessary to cover the benefit.

Despite the controversies surrounding OC Treasurer Chriss Street, the Board held back from Supervisor Moorlach’s proposal to strip the Treasurer from all investment responsibilities. After an hour of public testimony climaxed by an earnest plea from a humbled Street, the Board voted for tighter review and oversight, while maintaining investment powers with the Treasurer’s office.

Typically, the Treasurer invests unused public funds in public securities to maximize returns. It was the irresponsible investment of these funds by then-Treasurer Bob Citron that precipitated the County ban.

Street has been under fire for spending nearly a million on an office remodel and the way the remodeling contract was handled. He is also subject to an ongoing federal investigation about his personal expenses in the handling of a bankruptcy case.

I recently completed a weeklong fact finding visit along the borderlands of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. I toured the extensive groundwater recovery facilities in El Paso and that city’s transit system. I met El Paso Mayor as well as county supervisors, water, airport and transit officials.

All along the border one could see construction of strengthened barriers and heightened Border Patrol activity. Border tensions are nothing new, especially to tiny Columbus, New Mexico, the scene of Pancho Villa’s 1916 raid.

In Nogales, Mexico, I visited the CalCoast facility where Orange County traffic tickets had been processed for the past year. The Board of Supervisors caught heat from KFI’s John and Ken Show for the deal, which was actually made by the State of California’s Orange County Superior Court, over which we have no jurisdiction.

The subsequent press attention and the hundreds of emails and calls it generated forced the OC Court to end the cross-border outsourcing. All tickets are now processed in Cerritos.

So I was naturally interested in visiting the Nogales facility. Unfortunately, shying away from further publicity and noting that I was not their client, CalCoast officials refused my request to tour their Nogales operations. I did take exterior photos of the building. Readers can judge for themselves how secure the facility appears from the outside.

To view the photos, click here.

British-owned Tesco is the world’s third largest retailer, and a dominant force among European grocery shoppers. Here in the colonies, Tesco store are opening under the name of “Fresh & Easy” stores, which will soon have nine locations here in Orange County, including four in the Fourth District.

By year’s end, look for new Fresh & Easy stores in Anaheim (Lincoln & Western), La Habra (Beach & Whittier), Fullerton (Euclid & Orangethorpe) and Buena Park (Valley View & La Palma). After years of consolidation (do you still miss Lucky’s, Alpha Beta and Market Basket, too?), OC shoppers will have new shopping choices.