Moorlach Wants Longer Term Limits
The Republican county supervisor says he could be more effective if allowed to run for three terms instead of two. Take our poll on the idea.
When it comes to term limits, Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach says the third term is a charm.
“It takes time to build networks and have good relationships in Sacramento and D.C. You lose that when someone walks out the door after eight years,” said Moorlach, a Republican whose district includes Seal Beach, Los Alamitos, Newport Beach and part of Fountain Valley.
Unfortunately for Moorlach, Orange County restricts its supervisors to two terms. However, he’s not ready to throw in the towel.
Moorlach, whose second term runs out in 2014, has begun pushing for a three-term limit, similar to Los Angeles County. Without it, he argued in a recent newsletter, Orange County is “at a disadvantage relative to other counties.”
Beyond that, Moorlach feels more time would help him accomplish such goals as reforming employee pensions, completing infrastructure projects within budget, and managing countywide redevelopment changes.
Having someone with experience is a plus, he said. “What is there to be cautious about? Would the community feel cautious when it comes time to train a new supervisor?”
Dr. Zillman
9:39 am on Sunday, February 12, 2012
"...accomplish such goals as reforming employee pensions,..."
Would that include Moorlach's?
Lisette Gabler
9:41 am on Sunday, February 12, 2012
That's all we need, another term for Moorlach. This guy wants to be sure he gets Los Al, Seal Beach, and Rossmoor to combine. I am totally against this move and will be happy to see Moorlach gone. He ran unopposed for his last term. Too bad, I would have voted for the other guy if someone had ran.
met00
12:53 pm on Sunday, February 12, 2012
Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. Supercity is a VERY VERY bad idea. Moorlach (and Edgar) is (/are both) for it. Economies of scale can be a good thing, just look at the west response center, but each of these communities has a unique and special identity and while there may be a great deal of positive things that can be accomplished by working together, they are NOT a single community with a single purpose and shouldn't be considered as one.
To those that don't know, Lisa and I rarely, if ever, agree on something. That two people with such differing opinions can agree that Moorlach's vision is clouded on this issue means that it is a really bad idea from it's initial conception, and should have been aborted before it sprang from his lips.
The proper thing to do is for LAFCO/the county/the State to redraw the city boundary of Seal Beach at either Lampson or the 405 (let the affected residents choose) and make all that is north of that Los Alamitos - Rossmoor and all that is south of it Seal Beach. Then let Rossmoor and Los Al decide if they want to be a single entity or not (personally I believe the benefits of being a single entity would outweigh the benefits of being separate at that point, especially if the line is the 405).
tinytom
1:20 pm on Sunday, February 12, 2012
Agree. The natural dividing line is the 405 fwy. The idea of Seal Beach determining things in their interests for the Shops AT Rossmoor is like taxation without representation for Rossmoor/Los Alamitos.
met00
3:15 pm on Sunday, February 12, 2012
Alas, that is why Seal Beach will fight it tooth and nail.
Seal Beach is a "beach community" and all the political interests are on the south side of the hill. What happens on the south side of the hill is important, what happens on the north side is not... except that they have a small residential community on this side (College Park) and some very large income generators.
They had no problem fighting to keep LGB air traffic away from their "community" as long as it goes over the College Park homes and not the homes on the hill. In every case the key objective is to protect the Hill and south to the waters edge.
That is why I propose letting the community north of the 405 vote to determine their fate. Do they want to be tied to a city that cares naught for them, or for a community that would welcome their addition? Will the line be at Lampson, or the 405?
There is no doubt that the retail properties should be removed from Seal Beach. It is a finger that sticks up into the neighboring communities, and has been used to destroy those communities with the traffic and other incursions, while not providing any mitigation for the damage they do to the neighboring communities.
Moorlach has made his position clear. He desires to make Rossmoor and Los Al the slums of Seal Beach. Nice slums to be sure, but slums all the same. Does anyone think that SB would treat the new additions to the north any better than they treat College Park now?
tinytom
4:26 pm on Sunday, February 12, 2012
Growing up in Rossmoor one could use Rossmoor, Los Alamitos or Seal Beach as your city address. Was the Rossmoor Shopping always part of Seal Beach, or was it sold to them at some time?
Mike Levitt
9:49 am on Sunday, February 12, 2012
With Moorlach, specifically, I'd go for three terms, even four. If you get a really lousy supervisor, one who is inefficient and unresponsive to the citizens, you vote him out after the first term
Dr. Zillman
10:05 am on Sunday, February 12, 2012
Would Moorlach be willing to divulge his pension plan to the public? I believe that would be of interest to his constituents.
Alan
4:59 pm on Sunday, February 12, 2012
Voters should be able to elect the best candidate, regardless of how many terms he/she has already served. If someone is doing a great job, why force him/her to quit because of arbitrary term limits? Term limits are a relatively recent idea; does anyone think Government functions better now than before term limits? Even without formal term limits, we will always have de facto term limits - they're called elections.
Bo Bo
9:06 am on Monday, February 13, 2012
I like the guy but he should of tackled pensions in his first term. Kinda like Bo. Waits
for the election moment to do something that should of been done when he took office.
2 terms is plenty.
Roy Reynolds
10:20 am on Monday, February 13, 2012
This issue is inapplicable to those of us which live north of Warner Ave. We were GERRYMANDERED into the 1st Supervisorial District by the ambitious but grossly ineffective Janet Nguyen last year. Nguyen's racial politicking says the growing Vietnamese population in the northern end of the city will be advantageous to her re-election.
She's wrong to have done that, and it will cost her her re-election as she'll be soundly beat by an Hispanic. I'd rather be governed, in this case, by a Democrat than a RINO who is incompetent to hold the office and brings back nothing to our city.
Per a fellow OC blogger and friend of mine, Nguyen is corrupt: "she voted against letter-grade restaurant health ratings – but took in over $20,000 from restaurants that had been fined by the Orange County Health Department – and she failed to tell anyone about the Lee’s Sandwiches restaurant that her husband, Tom Bonikowski, and her then Chief-of-Staff, Andrew Do, owned. That restaurant had an absolutely horrible record of multiple O.C. Health Department violations. Nguyen got away with her restaurant health-grade vote. And she will get away with working the health community over while serving on the CalOptima board. The OC GOP will keep on covering up for her – if she was doing this in any other county the District Attorney would be prosecuting her for corruption. And the O.C. Democrats continue to give her a free pass too. Will no one challenge this overtly corrupt politician?"