Header image with Photo of Supervisor Pat Bates. Followed by office information
July 11, 2014

Pat Bates's Picture

Welcome to this edition of the Fifth District Report, an electronic newsletter keeping you updated about the events taking place in Orange County and in the Fifth District. It is my hope that you find this distribution informative and I would encourage you to contact me regarding any thoughts, comments, or concerns you may have.

PatBates@ocgov.com

IN THIS ISSUE...

1. BOARD BULLETIN BOARD

2. TRANSPORTATION INFORMATION

3. COUNTY CONNECTIONS

4. HEALTH HERALD

5. SAFETY SENTRY

6. ENVIRONMENTAL MEMOS

7. TAX COLLECTOR COLLECTIBLES

8. ASSESSOR ASSESSMENT

9. NOTES FROM THE FIELD

10. SOUTH COUNTY CALENDAR

11. FIFTH DISTRICT WRAP-UP

OUR STAFF...

Don Hughes:
Chief of Staff

Sergio Prince:
Policy Advisor

Erik Weigand:
Policy Advisor

Emily Osterberg:
Policy Advisor

Veronica Yniguez:
Policy Advisor

Ruth Strachan:
Office Manager

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Volume 8 Issue 27
BOARD BULLETIN BOARD

No Board Meeting This Week

There was not a regularly scheduled meeting of the Board of Supervisors this week. To view the 2014 Board meeting schedule, please click here.

Our next Board meeting will be held Tuesday, July 15. Regular Board meetings begin at 9:30 AM in the Hall of Administration. For Agenda & Meeting Information, please click here.

Live Internet broadcasts of Board of Supervisors meetings can be viewed online and are archived as video-on-demand. To view live and/or past Board meetings, please click here.
TRANSPORTATION INFORMATION

OC Fair Express

For the 4th straight year, the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) is providing the OC Fair Express!

This year’s kickoff for all of Orange County was held today at the Laguna Hills Transportation Center. The first trip to the Orange County Fair left at noon with FREE rides for the first 100 people.

If you plan to go to the Fair this year and have not taken the OC Fair Express before, it is the only way to go. OCTA is serving eight locations with direct service from Laguna Hills, Orange, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Anaheim, Irvine, Huntington Beach, and Fullerton.

Service will operate every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from July 11 through August 10. Use your OCTA bus pass and board a clean, air-conditioned OCTA bus for a ride to the entrance of the Fair, where you will avoid parking costs ($10) and get a $3 coupon off admission (regular admission is $12).

For more information on the OC Fair Express, including service locations, please click here.
COUNTY CONNECTIONS

Celebrate Orange County’s 125th Birthday

The Orange County Fair will open its gates Friday, Aug. 1, with a special celebration in honor of the County’s Quasiquicentennial, a fitting tribute to be held 125 years to the day that Orange County officially split from Los Angeles County.

Additionally, an exhibit titled “OC Circa 1889” opens Friday, July 18 and runs until Friday, Oct. 10 at the Old County Courthouse in Santa Ana. The opening reception Thursday, July 17 from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM features a lecture by historian Phil Brigandi, who assembled the photos and information for the exhibit. The reception is FREE and open to the public.

The Orange County Historical Commission will also debut a special OC 125 map later this month, available both on paper and as an app! For more information, please visit the Commission’s website.

Here’s the story of how Orange County was born:

In 1870, Max Strobel, the first mayor of Anaheim, helped push a bill through the State Assembly to form Anaheim County. The new county would have included the area south of the San Gabriel River. The bill failed in the Senate.

In 1872, a second bill was introduced – proposing this time to create an Orange County – but it never made it to a vote. Four years later, Anaheim leaders tried again, this time under the name Santa Ana County, hoping to gain support from that city. But since Anaheim would have been the County seat, the city politely declined support.

In 1881, the undaunted Anaheim supporters were back again, this time creating an Orange County but designating Anaheim as the County seat for only the first two years. A subsequent election would then determine the official County seat. Once again, the bill never came to a vote. Yet another attempt in 1885 also failed, even though that bill creating an Orange County passed through the Assembly.

By 1889, County supporters had regrouped and brought in some political heavy-hitters. Area Assemblyman Col. E.E. Edwards of Santa Ana introduced a new bill to create Orange County, bringing in Santa Ana’s founder, William H. Spurgeon—a prominent Democrat—and local Republican leader James McFadden to lobby the Legislature. Santa Ana business leaders kicked in $30,000 while San Francisco County legislators pledged support as a way to reduce Los Angeles County’s influence.

The bill passed both houses of the Legislature and was signed into law by Governor Robert Waterman on March 11, 1889. It allowed for local residents – by a 2/3 vote – to decide whether to create the county. The vote was held June 4, 1889 and passed easily – 2,505 to 499.

Once the vote was in, a second balloting was held July 17, 1889, to determine the County seat – a wise decoupling of the issue given the territorial pressures between Anaheim, Santa Ana and even Orange, the third incorporated city. Santa Ana emerged victorious.

With everything in place, Orange County officially came into being Aug. 1, 1889. The Board of Supervisors met for the first time Aug. 5, 1889, triggering yet another celebration when our Board meets this coming Aug. 5.
HEALTH HERALD

OC Reports First Human West Nile Virus Case of 2014

A Santa Ana man has tested positive for West Nile Virus (WNV) infection, becoming the County’s first human WNV infection in 2014. This is the 10th human case of WNV reported in California. The man was admitted to the hospital in late June with symptoms of West Nile Virus, and is now at home recovering.

Recommended WNV precautions include:
  • Emptying all standing water on your property to reduce areas in which mosquitoes may breed, including flower pots and pet bowls
  • Making sure your window and door screens are in good condition
  • Using insect repellent containing DEET, picaridin, oil of lemon eucalyptus, or products containing IR3535, always following label directions
  • Limiting outdoor activity at dawn and dusk, when mosquitoes are most active
  • Wearing long-sleeved shirts and long pants when outdoors.
Most people who become infected with West Nile Virus do not experience symptoms, but about 20% will develop fever and may have headache, body aches, nausea, tiredness and sometimes a skin rash.

More serious symptoms, such as severe headaches, neck stiffness, confusion, muscle weakness or paralysis, occur more rarely, but people who develop these symptoms should seek medical care immediately. People over 50 years of age and those with certain medical conditions are at increased risk of serious complications from WNV infection.

For more information, please click here.

Eat. Play. Breath.

Here’s a sobering statistic: Six in ten preventable deaths in Orange County are due to chronic disease. Of those, three behaviors – unhealthy eating, lack of physical inactivity, and smoking – are the main contributors.

To address this startling fact, the Health Care Agency (HCA) is launching Eat. Play. Breathe. – an awareness campaign that encourages individuals to eat fresh foods, play in some way, and breathe smoke-free every day.

The campaign promotes positive health messages and features a valuable website, myHEALTHOC.org, where the community can find simple, useful tips and resources to eat better, become more active and stop smoking.

Through September 1, be sure to keep an eye out for the campaign’s advertising messages, which will be seen on Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) buses, billboards, the Outlets at Orange, OC Fair, and the lobbies of many County agencies.

For more information, please click here and here.
SAFETY SENTRY

Emergency Preparedness Tips: Wildfires

We're all aware of the drought conditions that have plagued Southern California for many years. We should also be aware that drought conditions make numerous communities vulnerable to wildfires where homes are built in or next to national forests.

Below are 10 ways that you can be more prepared in the event of a wildfire:
  1. Keep roofs and rain gutters free of leaves or other debris.
  2. Clear brush and or weeds away from your property a minimum of 100 feet from any private property structure, and trim all trees away from electrical lines and chimneys. If your property line abuts the public open space, the City will clear the brush and/or weeds on the open space.
  3. Install a smoke detector in every bedroom and in the hallways leading to the bedrooms. More importantly, test them at least every six months. A recommended time is when we adjust our clocks for daylight time saving every six months.
  4. Reduce the amount of hazardous materials in your home, like unused paint, and take it over to the local Household Hazardous Waste Collection Center off La Plata (714-834-6752).
  5. Maintain a list of valuables that you want to take with you in case you must evacuate on short notice. Remember to include valuable documents and prescription medications.
  6. If you have animals, have a list of private shelters you can take them to outside of your immediate area.
  7. Listen to the radio and/or TV for emergency instructions.
  8. If you do have to evacuate, leave an inside light on so emergency responders can tell if your neighborhood has power.
  9. If directed by public safety officials to evacuate, don't think about it. Just go. More details are available at www.ReadySetGoOC.org.
  10. Be a Good Samaritan and assist a neighbor that might need some special assistance in getting out of the area.
With a little time and effort spent preparing, you can reduce the amount of chaos and anxiety that will be prevalent during an emergency situation. For more information, please click here.
ENVIRONMENTAL MEMOS

OC Waste & Recycling’s Greener Fleet

OC Waste & Recycling’s commitment to reduce emissions in its bulldozer fleet and other heavy equipment used at County landfills earned a feature spot in the current issue of Government Fleet Magazine. While the public is aware of efforts to limit vehicle emissions on highways, similar regulations have been phased in since the late 1990s to rein in the once-uncontrolled belching of off-road heavy machinery.

OC Waste & Recycling is well ahead of the game, so much so that most of the environmental upgrades the Government Fleet article touts were accomplished years ago, and the OCWR team is already focused on meeting new sets of standards taking effect 2020 and 2025.

While Federal EPA requirements set standards for the manufacturers of new engines, California’s strict environmental laws affect existing fleets, requiring fleet-holders to replace or retrofit vehicles that don’t meet the standards.

SOON is the acronym for the awkwardly titled “Surplus Off-Road Opt-In for NOx” program (NOx being the pollutant nitrogen oxide). It provides grant money from the state to offset the costs of repowering old equipment with newer low-polluting engines. There are several catches to the grant, one being that the money wasn’t available to those trying to play catch-up and bring dirty fleets into compliance with current law; the money was available instead for fleets already in accord with current standards and looking to the next round of emission reductions.

Thanks to foresight and much hard work, that’s where OCWR’s fleet was.

The $1.4 million received from the program paid 65% of the cost of equipping 12 heavy machines with new engines. Along with running cleaner, they’ve given the old equipment a new lease on life, adding years to service life. The grants also facilitated the purchase of a Caterpillar D7E diesel/electric hybrid bulldozer, the first of its kind in the state.

The cash savings are impressive, but pale beside the environmental benefits, highlighted by a 63% reduction in NOx emissions. Most of those fleet improvements were accomplished by 2011, meaning that OC’s skies have already been saved from more than 50 tons of NOx.
TAX COLLECTOR COLLECTIBLES

Installment Payment Plan for Unpaid Property Taxes

The Orange County Treasurer-Tax Collector (TTC) states that as of July 1, any real property that has outstanding taxes, penalties, and fees levied for FY 2013-14 that were not paid or postmarked as of June 30 has been declared tax defaulted.

For those taxpayers who have defaulted property taxes, the TTC offers taxpayers an installment payment plan for delinquent secured taxes as of July 1. The taxpayer must qualify to enter into an installment plan by meeting certain criteria.

For more information, please click here.
ASSESSOR ASSESSMENT

2014-15 Local Assessment Roll of Values

The Orange County Assessor has delivered the 2014-15 Local Assessment Roll of Values, which includes all locally assessable property in Orange County. The total net taxable value on the Roll is over $471.2 billion. The Roll of Values is up 6.42% or $28.4 billion more than last year (FY 2013-14).

Each of Orange County’s 34 cities and the unincorporated areas had a year-to-year increase in net taxable value. Value changes are reflecting the Orange County real estate markets that show significant increases in property values this year and the restoration of values previously reduced under decline in market value provisions.

It is important to emphasize that the Assessment Roll of Values reflects taxable property values as of January 1, 2014. New construction is up, sales are up, and market values are moving up after the recession, this activity helped to add value to the Roll.

Many properties that had a taxable value decrease in prior years will see their taxable value increase back up to their Prop. 13 limit based on market conditions. Increases are applicable only up to the Prop. 13 taxable value limit for each property.

A property value notice for each property is in the mail to the owners of real estate as of January 1, 2014. These notices help taxpayers to review their taxable values and follow-up with the Assessor before tax bills are issued in the fall. If a notice is not received by July 18, owners should contact the Assessor Department at (714) 834-2727 to verify their mailing address or to request a duplicate notice.

Taxpayers seeking to appeal the values on their notice of valuation can find information about the appeals process on the Clerk of the Board of Supervisors’ website. For more information, please click here.
NOTES FROM THE FIELD

Doheny Update

The Doheny State Beach Interpretive Association (DSBIA) has issued its latest edition of DOHENY UPDATE to better inform the public about events and conditions in the State Park.

To view the DSBIA July e-newsletter, please click here.
SOUTH COUNTY CALENDAR

Rancho Santa Margarita: Summer Concert Series

The City of Rancho Santa Margarita presents its 2014 Summer Concert Series, beginning with Stone Soul (Motown) Sunday, July 13 from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM at Central Park, 30842 La Miranda. For more information, please click here.

Dana Point: Summer Concert Series

Enjoy Raymon Michael's Elvis Tribute and Hot August Night, A Tribute to Neil Diamond, Sunday, July 13 from 2:30 PM to 6:00 PM at Lantern Bay Park, 25111 Park Lantern, Dana Point. For more information, please click here.

Dana Point Harbor: The America’s Cup

The America’s Cup, the “Oldest Trophy in All Sports”, makes a visit to Dana Point Yacht Club on Saturday, July 19 from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM, bringing you a day filled with fun and excitement in Dana Point Harbor. For more information, please click here.

Lake Forest: Summer Concert

Flashback to the good old 80's with the City of Lake Forest’s second summer concert, featuring A Flock of Seagulls with special guest 80z All Stars on Sunday, July 27 from 5:00 PM to 7:30 PM at Pittsford Park, 21701 Pittsford Drive. For more information, please click here.

Laguna Beach: Art Festival Season

Laguna Beach’s world famous summer art festival season runs daily throughout the summer. For information on the Festival of Arts / Pageant of the Masters, please click here. For information on the Sawdust Art Festival, please click here. For information on Art-A-Fair, please click here.

Doheny Beach: Farmers and Craft Market

The City of Dana Point invites you to visit the new Doheny Beach Farmers and Craft Market. The Market takes place Wednesdays from 3:00 PM to 7:00 PM in the Capo Beach Church parking lot, 25975 Domingo Ave., Dana Point.
FIFTH DISTRICT WRAP-UP

In addition to my many meetings, briefings, and other supervisorial activities, I also:
  • Participated in the Orange County Local Agency Formation Commission meeting.
  • Attended the Wells Fargo Annual 2014 Community Connection Breakfast in Aliso Viejo to present a certificate of recognition in honor of the occasion.
  • Presented certificates of recognition to the honorees at the San Juan Capistrano Chamber Installation Dinner & Awards Banquet.

 My staff and I look forward to continually providing you updated information in our Fifth District Newsletter and website.

Please feel free to contact my office with your concerns, comments or questions at (714) 834-3550. It is an honor and a privilege to serve as your Supervisor for Orange County's Fabulous Fifth District.

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