Measure A gets an ‘A’ from Moorlach

Danette Goulet

NEWPORT-MESA -- The district received top marks across the board from

Orange County Treasurer John Moorlach, who released his “grading” of

Measure A on Thursday.

Moorlach completed his evaluation of the Newport-Mesa Unified School

District’s $110-million school bond measure that will go before voters

June 6 -- and it fared even better than supporters had hoped.

In four of five categories, Newport-Mesa received an A. In the fifth

area, which looked at how the bond money would be used, Moorlach awarded

the district the highest possible grade -- an A+.

Overall, the plan received an A.

“It is our opinion that Mr. Moorlach’s letter confirms the position that

our group of volunteer citizens has taken all along,” said Mark

Schultheis, who leads both the citizens bond committee and the bond

campaign group.

Moorlach began the practice of scrutinizing Orange County bond measures

when he started receiving numerous calls, faxes and e-mails from voters

asking for advice.

“I’m an elected official and I have a lot of constituents who call me up

and say, ‘what should we do?’ ” he said.

So Moorlach and a small group of conservative, anti-tax county residents

developed a system by which he has graded the last four school bonds put

before voters.

He asked the “hard-core ‘no’ voters”: “What are you looking for? What

would make you more comfortable when voting -- you pick the criteria

because it doesn’t always make sense to vote no.”

Three of the school districts he graded -- Capistrano Unified, Santa Ana

Unified and Magnolia Unified -- each received an overall grade of B. The

only other district to earn an A under Moorlach’s scrutiny was the

Huntington Beach Union High School District, although voters failed to

approve a $137-million school bond there in November 1999.

His grading system uses five main components. He begins by looking for a

set-aside fund for future maintenance, then he determines whether the

bond would cut into the district’s maintenance budget in future years.

Next, Moorlach makes sure the bonds are not all borrowed in the

beginning, just to sit around accruing interest before the funds can even

be put to use.

The fourth factor is the use of proceeds, which in the case of

Newport-Mesa is detailed in the extensive facilities master plan.

Finally, the grading system looks for a community oversight committee to

ensure the funds reach the proper destinations.

In all of these areas, Moorlach’s grades reflect how he felt the district

met the criteria.

Although Moorlach is a resident of the Newport-Mesa area, he said the

grade is objective, based on hard data and consistent with all of the

other evaluations.

“I don’t endorse, I just say ‘hey, based on what was agreed to as a fair

rating system, this is the grade,’ ” Moorlach said. “In this case,

Newport-Mesa met all the five points.”

When composing the Newport-Mesa bond measure, district officials studied

Moorlach’s critiques and criticisms of other bond measures, said Mike

Fine, the district’s assistant superintendent of finances.

“I’m glad that John [Moorlach] felt he could give us an A based on

criteria,” Fine said. “It’s an affirmation, in many ways, of ours and the

[facilities oversight] committee’s assertion that if we did this, we

would do it right.”