The County-run park system includes 36 different facilities totaling nearly 20,000 acres. Our system ranges from the 8,000-acre Caspers Regional Park to the 2-acre Key Ranch home and grounds in Placentia. It includes the contemplative Yorba family cemetery and Mile Square Park’s multiple recreational activities. It includes beaches crammed with sun worshippers and wilderness lands where mountain lions still roam.

The Board of Supervisors has recently taken significant steps to broaden and deepen our commitment to public recreational and leisure opportunities:

Increased Funding: The Board voted to begin negotiations to transfer the responsibilities for Harbor Patrol funding from the County to the Cities of Newport Beach and Huntington Beach. Those cities should pay for the police and fire services of the harbors within their city limits. Taxpayers in La Habra, Garden Grove and other inland OC cities should no longer pay to patrol yachts or bayside mansions.

The transfer of Harbor Patrol funding would save the County $5.7 million annually, money for park upgrades or new facilities in park-poor areas.

Park Equity: The Board moved to establish a trust fund to provide expanded recreational facilities and park land in densely populated North and Central Orange County. Supervisor Janet Nguyen’s First District and my Fourth District have 40% of OC’s population, but only 1% of its county parkland. This fund will begin to address this inequity.

Paleontology Preservation: By law, all fossils, bones and other historical artifacts unearthed in public and private construction projects are turned over to the County for safekeeping. From arrowheads to mastodon bones, thousands of such items are stored in vast warehouses without public accessibility.

The County already has an excellent fossil museum at Clark Park, but it can display only a fraction of our total collection. The Board directed staff to actively seek a non-profit partner to properly catalog and display our paleontology collection. Cal State Fullerton has already expressed interest in partnering with the County.

Conservancies: While expanding access to county parks, we will work for better preservation of privately held wilderness and open space. The Irvine Ranch Land Reserve, for example, has set aside over 50,000 acres of natural open space, and other private developers and non-profit associations have set aside additional hillsides, wetlands and other natural spaces. While the County cannot directly take control of these properties, we can partner with these various conservancies to better preserve and protect these natural areas for the common public we serve.

One conservancy originally proposed by Senator Lou Correa would help restore the Santa Ana River to a more natural state and more open to recreational uses. Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle has also proposed the Santa Ana River restoration as a countywide resource that touches nine cities. The river is under the jurisdiction of Orange County Flood Control District, administered by the Board of Supervisors. It provides vital protections against flooding while serving as settling grounds to increase our underground water table. Yet the Board is open to greater recreational uses and passive wildlife enhancement that OC’s longest river could provide, so long as we do not sacrifice local control to upstream agencies in Riverside and San Bernardino County.

At our May 22 meeting, the Board of Supervisors will discuss a proposal for a Citizens Law Enforcement Review Board to review complaints and investigate deaths and injuries the OC Sheriff’s Dept., Probation Dept. and District Attorney’s office. The proposal is being brought forth by Second District Supervisor John Moorlach who is motivated by what he calls “recent events at Theo Lacy facility, as well as numerous published reports of inmate on inmate violence.”

The Moorlach plan calls for a 7-member board serving a three year term. Each Supervisor would nominate one member, with the County Executive Officer (CEO Tom Mauk) nominating two. All nominations would be subject to final Board approval. The proposal is modeled after a San Diego County panel, in operation for 17 years.

Emergency response service response levels in Orange County are the highest in Southern California. OC has recorded only 15 state disciplinary actions per 10,000 responses, compared to 122 and 84 for Los Angeles and Riverside Counties, respectively. Complete comparisons below:

There are 19 different private ambulance companies operating in Orange County. Contracts are awarded by city through individual City Councils and the OC Fire Authority Board. Service contracts for the unincorporated areas are awarded by the Board of Supervisors.

Complaints can be filed with the OC Emergency Management Service Agency at 714-834-3500 or with the State of California at 916-322-4336.

Child Care Rep Sought: A Fourth District representative is currently being sought to serve on the Orange County Child Care and Development Planning Council. The citizen panel meets the third Wednesday of each month, 9:30-11:30 a.m. at the OC Dept. of Education in Costa Mesa. Interested applicants should call my office at 714-834-3440. Ask for Eileen or Kara.