Mailbag: County candidates must show moral compass

Any potential candidate running to fill John Moorlach’s district on the Orange County Board of Supervisors should have a substantially better platform than having “firsthand knowledge of how things get done at that level,” (Jim Moreno, Daily Pilot, July 30).

The series of 2012-13 Orange County Grand Jury reports containing detailed evidence of our county’s corruption will require a great deal more than a few new ideas that the candidate’s party approves. Included in the array of grand jury reports are “CalOptima Burns While Majority of Supervisors Fiddle” and “A Call for Ethical Standards: Corruption in Orange County.”

Arrogant dismissal of these reports by county elected officials was followed by their recommendation to reduce the daily pittance members of the grand jury receive, even though these volunteers commit to this full-time job for one year.

The damage done by this county’s supervisors is incalculable if one has only followed the destruction of CalOptima, our county’s $1.5 billion healthcare system responsible for serving 427,000 people with low income or a disability.

The FBI has just recently initiated a task force to investigate Orange County political corruption. Undoubtedly the 2012-13 grand jury reports and Fair Political Practices Committee investigation of Orange County supervisors and CalOptima (members appointed by the Board of Supervisors) served as the basis for this attention.

Any candidate for public office wanting my vote must comprehend and acknowledge the damage done. I must be convinced of his or her commitment to ethical behavior and the best interests of constituents.

Rhys Burchill

Huntington beach

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City leaders right to stand with residents

What is going on at Rancho Huntington mobile home park (“Residents angry at status change,” Independent, Aug. 1) is symptomatic of what is going on elsewhere in Huntington Beach and throughout California.

Park owners, egged on by legal and industry allies, are trying to gain total economic control by trampling the property rights of residents and thumbing their noses at local governments that are merely trying to protect homeowners, many of them seniors on fixed incomes, from being victimized and even forced out of their residences.

The City Council majority quite properly is siding with residents, not to deny the private property rights of park owners seeking to convert senior parks to family or all-age parks but to make sure that abuses are not perpetrated.

Park owners will still be allowed to make changes, just not unfairly and arbitrarily. The City Council must stand tall and muster whatever legal resources are necessary to avoid being steamrolled by deep-pocket park owners and their allies. The residential property rights and quality of life for thousands of Huntington Beach residents are at stake.

Tim Geddes

Huntington Beach