THE BELL CURVE:Teacher, police pay speaks to priorities

Did anybody else see the irony in the back-to-back headlines on the front page of the Daily Pilot recently? One headline read: “Mayor: Raise pay or reduce services.” The other said: “Funding system in local district affects salaries.”

You don’t have to read far into the copy to get the irony. The first story tells us that “a new, three-year, $3.7-million contract will make Newport Beach police officers Orange County’s highest paid in salary and benefits.” And the second says that “the Newport-Mesa Unified School District is busy negotiating salaries for its teachers after a report showed that they were the lowest paid in any unified district in the county.”

This would seem to offer a blueprint of priorities in this wealthy, predominantly conservative area in which we live. We can’t do enough for the cops while we’re scratching to avoid the embarrassment of doing too little for the teachers. Newport Mayor Steve Rosansky said the raises are necessary for the city to compete with other law enforcement agencies. This would seem to raise the question of whether competing for the best teachers isn’t comparably urgent.

Sure, Newport-Mesa school funding is more complex because it mostly comes from local property taxes rather than the state. But running last in teacher salaries among the 12 unified school districts in Orange County should be unacceptable. Educating our kids is every bit as important as protecting them.

Education took another fist in the stomach recently when the Costa Mesa City Council majority, in its normal arrogant mood, shot down a youth-in-government program that had been introduced by Councilwoman Katrina Foley, worked its way up through two appropriate committees, and had already signed up 18 enthusiastic students. Since no reasons were given for excising it, the role model delivered to the students was the destructive nature of petulance in government.

Contrast this decision with the manner in which Mayor Allan Mansoor steamrollered his program to use local cops and funds to assist federal immigration agents. The commander in chief had made up his mind and saw no necessity for the normal give-and-take of debate or committee hearings. Just lay it on.

So once again, the lesson would appear to be that controversial policies that the majority initiates need not bother with the public scrutiny routinely given other measures before they reach the council. Minority issues — like the youth-in-government program — can be shot down by the majority after approval in the proper hearings. That’s called democracy in action.

The timing of the appearance of the musical “Annie” at the Orange County Performing Arts Center — so well celebrated by Peter Buffa in the Pilot — has one aspect close to us former Chicagoans that Buffa didn’t note. Little Orphan Annie, who hasn’t looked her age for 75 years, is a kind of godmother to those of us who draw paychecks from the Pilot, which is owned by the Los Angeles Times, which is owned by the Chicago Tribune, which was owned for many years by Col. Robert McCormick, the godfather of both Annie and the colonel’s alter ego, Daddy Warbucks.

The colonel’s editorial views were offered up in the comic strips he created for that purpose. “Dick Tracy” represented tough, implacable law and order. “Gasoline Alley” and “The Gumps” glorified the unshakable moral ethos of family life. And “Little Orphan Annie” fought the good fight against socialists, whom the colonel defined as anyone not committed in totality to his take on laissez-faire capitalism.

God knows how many young people like me were brought up under the spell of the Tribune comics and entered adulthood determined to join ranks with Daddy Warbucks in ridding the world of soft-in-the-head, pusillanimous liberals. In my innocence at the time, I think I went into World War II ready to die to protect my family and Daddy Warbucks’ right to chase and run down socialists in his yacht.

The guys running the business affairs of the Tribune pale by comparison with the colonel, who reminds me of the men who owned professional sports teams and movie studios before faceless corporations took over. Many of them were arrogant, tunnel-visioned and sometimes brutal in their tactics, but they knew and understood and — in their own way — loved their work.

As a young reporter in Chicago — along with a lot of fellow reporters home from the war — I didn’t agree with much of what McCormick and his right-wing soul mates were putting out, but it was fun to take them on.

Now, the contest going on for control of the Los Angeles Times is being fought in board rooms by anonymous investors with little or no knowledge of or love for journalism. But there are also some heavyweights in the mix of potential owners that even Daddy Warbucks might find acceptable.

I’d rather take my chances with one of them. They might even reincarnate a liberal Annie.

I usually get in the popcorn line during the half at UCI basketball games, but last Thursday I stayed in my seat and watched a bunch of old guys shoot free throws by way of raising scholarship money for UCI athletes. The shooters, all members of UCI’s Chief Executive Roundtable, are hoping to provide increasing visibility of UCI among local businesses and the community through sports.

I would suggest that short of talking John Wooden out of retirement to take over the basketball team, the Roundtable members might well focus on the UCI campus for starters. It would be a lot easier to involve the community in UCI sports if the student body would even occasionally fill the Bren Center for basketball games.