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.”
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