Medical Fund
By a 5-0 vote the Board of Supervisors has approved a two-year contract for the Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs.
The 1,800-member group represents sworn officers who patrol 12 contract cities, the unincorporated communities and staff the jails. They will receive an 8% hike over two years.
Last year’s contentious contract vote ended in a 3-2 board split, with Supervisor Charles Smith and I opposed. We were concerned about the lack of accountability for the association’s medical trust fund. The board turned over $13.3 million in tax dollars to the association to provide health coverage for its members. That fund lacked any oversight or controls by the Board of Supervisors.
Since 1988, the contract with the sheriff’s deputies had required an annual report accounting for the activities of the medical trust fund. Yet, this requirement was ignored. For 16 years, no one from county staff or the board requested any of the required reports. None was ever submitted.
Last year, this requirement was rediscovered by my chief of staff as he read the contract. Last year’s contract approval did require a financial review, but it lacked detail and proved of little value. The entire document was confidential. For Smith and I, this was insufficient.
Health coverage for public safety employees typically is lower than for other county workers, since most ailments are presumed to be work related and are covered by the state workers’ comp system, rather than by private insurers. There was no way of knowing whether the taxpayers,or the deputies themselves,were getting their money’s worth. Overhead expenses of the fund could not be tracked.
This year proved to be different. Spurred by last year’s debate, the entire board held out for a higher standard of accountability.
The certified financial report now required will be prepared by an independent CPA firm. It will be a public document that will be released to the board, the Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs and the press each Oct. 1. Expenses will be scrutinized and records verified.
Public trust funds are not the private playgrounds of those who administer them. They involve public money that demands public accountability.
These new reporting requirements will help union officials administer the fund more efficiently. They will help the deputy sheriffs better understand how the money is being used on their behalf.
And they will help the public know how their tax dollars are being spent.
Chris Norby
Orange County Supervisor
Fourth District
$3 a Gallon?
The combination of foul winter weather, questions about OPEC production and a weaker-than-normal dollar are fueling the current run-up in oil and gas prices. This past week the price of crude hit an all-time high of $56 a barrel.
Experts are beginning to ask: Is $60 a barrel for oil on the horizon? If so, is $3 a gallon or more for premium next?
All the tea leaves are pointing in this direction. If it happens in the next several weeks, I predict fewer tourists will visit Orange County this summer, families will have to rethink their European vacations and surf outings to San Onofre may need to be moved to a beach closer to home.
Regardless of which way the economic and political winds blow, oil and gas prices are going to remain high until the worldwide production of liquid fuels is stabilized and/or we devise other ways to power large vehicles.
Amory Lovins runs the Rocky Mountain Institute think-tank in Snowmass, Colo. His latest book, “Winning the Oil Endgame,” offers a technology-driven blueprint to wean the U.S. off petroleum within a few decades: First, by doubling the fuel efficiency of cars, trucks and airplanes; and then, by replacing gasoline with alternative fuels such as ethanol and hydrogen.
According to Arnold Klann, president of Irvine’s Arkenol Fuels, “Business models developed in the U. S. and commercialized around the world produce ethanol from wood waste, paper and much of what ends up in sanitary landfills.”
“It is estimated that the annual production of home-grown ethanol from waste can create more than 20 billion gallons of new fuel domestically,” he added.
If true, this means there will be an extended life of landfills, a reliable source of energy and a welcome price reduction at the pump.
These are outcomes that the White House and Congress should all be able to get their arms around.
Denny Freidenrich
First Strategies LLC
Laguna Beach
