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OC Weekly editors can write too, in Letters



From OC Weekly

In his otherwise fine Nov. 12 Insider column, Executive Editor Rick Reiff refers to “several scathing articles in OC Weekly about businessman Eddie Allen’s troubled finances.”

“Troubled finances?” Please, Rick. On Sept. 6, a federal judge concluded that Allen, a Newport Beach resident, had defrauded investors, in part by lying about his resume. In reaching that conclusion, federal bankruptcy Judge Robert W. Alberts stated that Allen “was not a colonel in the U.S. Air Force; he was not shot down, captured and held prisoner during the war in Southeast Asia; he is not a Harvard-educated attorney or, for that matter, an attorney at all; and he was not the very successful, wealthy and astute businessman portrayed. Plaintiffs justifiably relied upon such misrepresentations when investing. . . . (Allen) is liable for fraud and is not entitled to the economic fresh start afforded to honest debtors under the (bankruptcy) code.”

The judge awarded Allen’s investors a million-dollar judgment.

The same “scathing” Weekly articles cite creditor testimony that Jo Ellen Allen played a key role in her husband’s fraud. Given Jo Ellen’s high profile in Orange County politics,she is a SoCal Edison spokesperson, OC Republican Central Committee member, former political candidate and “Real Orange” panelist with Reiff and me,these are newsworthy claims, perfectly appropriate for KOCE’s “Real Orange”. While it is understandable that Jo Ellen would attempt to stifle such a discussion, it would be unconscionable for me to appease her in that effort. The failure to air that controversy,and not Eddie’s “troubled finances”,is why I skipped the Nov. 9 broadcast of “Real Orange”.


Will Swaim

Editor

OC Weekly

It humbles me that the august Orange County Business Journal even noticed that little ol’ OC Weekly is holding its own during these trying times in the media biz (Oct. 29, page 1). But the comments by Cathy Sosa, media director of DGWB advertising in Santa Ana, left me scratching my head.

Sosa says that her firm doesn’t have a lot of clients in the Weekly, talks about needing to define one’s audience “psychographically” and intimates that her clients seek a “straighter, more sophisticated audience.” Fair enough. But why is DGWB always sending me press releases about their “edgy” new ad campaigns, their “funky” new office building and job promotions for their staffers? It seems to me if our audience isn’t sophisticated enough for DGWB clients, it isn’t sophisticated enough for DGWB self-promotion either.


Matt Coker

OC Weekly


Seeing Red

Re your Oct. 29 “Eyewash” editorial:

When it comes to eyewash, deep sockets and deep pockets, EE RR is right on target. Aided perhaps by his soft lenses (either daily or reusable), his vision is clear that trial lawyers and class actions are destroying business and the economy.

Class action suits are becoming more numerous in number and costs thanks to legal “hellholes” such as specific counties in Illinois, Texas, West Virginia and Alabama where the plaintiff lawyer-loving judges never met a class action they didn’t like. Usually, the thousands of so-called added plaintiffs have no problems and don’t even know they are involved. Lawyers in Bentleys drive to and venue-shop hick towns where the only remaining business is lawsuits.

Reiff is right that he will get a few coupons while the lawyers get their $20 million, or more.


Maryanne Maloney

Michael A. Glueck

Orange County Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse

Santa Ana


OC Forum

Re your Oct. 29 Insider item on the Orange County Forum’s 10th anniversary:

While it is true that the OC Register has been the forum’s largest single funding partner and our founding sponsor, you should know, by now, that I hold far more sway over the forum than does the Register. So next time, with tongue in cheek, refer to the organization as the “Bryan L. Murphy-sponsored OC Forum.”

Seriously, and accurately, you could say that the forum is sponsored by hundreds of Orange County businesses, schools and citizens.


Bryan L. Murphy

(Murphy is president of TriEqua Pension Services in Irvine and chairman of the Orange County Forum.)


El Toro, Cont’d

At the Nov. 6 Board of Supervisors meeting, Supervisor Tom Wilson urged his colleagues to demonstrate fiscal conservatism and curtail all nonessential spending of John Wayne Airport funds.

Wilson reminded fellow supervisors that nationally, airport projects are on hold, airport bond ratings are falling and investors are taking a hard look at airport funding. John Wayne funds have been drained of over $40 million for El Toro related planning and public relations.

On a procedural 3-2 vote, Supervisors Cynthia Coad, Charles Smith and Jim Silva blocked action on the Wilson proposal. They seek to continue spending, at full throttle, on their El Toro project, despite its likely demise after a popular anti-airport ballot measure comes before the voters next March.

In fact, the pro-airport supervisors authorized additional studies to be commissioned as part of an expensive pro-airport campaign to try to discredit the OC Central Park initiative.


Leonard Kranser

Editor

El Toro Airport website

Dana Point

Why do Supervisors Coad, Silva and Smith call the proposed Central Park at El Toro too expensive, and say new taxes would be needed to pay for it, when the county plan calls for a park, too, but with an “LAX-south” airport in the middle, rather than a beautiful lake?

The County knows the Central Park measure, as well as existing state laws, prevent new taxes from being levied to pay for the park without a two-thirds vote of the people; that the measure does not commit the county to building a park, but simply changes El Toro zoning from “airport” to “park and open spaces;” that future Boards of Supervisors would determine the nature, extent ,and timing of development within El Toro, not the measure.

Why doesn’t the county tell us the whole truth about the proposed Central Park?


Michael Smith

Mission Viejo

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