If you’ve ever wondered why the government won’t deal with tough problems, this is the unified field theory.
It alone explains all of U.S. immigration policy, our eternal dependence on foreign oil and our numbness to wealth-bleeding trade deficits.
It is the very reason why, even after 30 years of warnings, California still can’t educate its kids.
It’s the blind-eye theory of government. Why bother solving a problem,especially if it will offend a threatening special interest,when you can turn a blind eye until you leave office?
Learn this, and you can rip 10 chapters out of your college political science textbook and still ace the test.
So, when you see an official stand up, take on an issue,early, rather than late,and willingly tick off the powerful, you wonder, What’s gotten into him?
When I asked Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach, he wasn’t much help. He said only, “Well, when I get mad, I get motivated.”
(Full disclosure: I have done some pro bono legal work for Moorlach.)
Moorlach’s Mad
Moorlach got mad in late 2006 when, as supervisor-elect, he heard that inmates beat to death 41-year-old John Chamberlain in a county jail as guards watched baseball playoffs on TV.
But, by calling for civilian oversight of the Sheriff’s Department early, was Moorlach jumping the gun?
Even before local newspapers started questioning the story, Moorlach sat former sheriff Mike Corona down.
“It hit me personally,” Moorlach said. “I remember bringing up to the sheriff, I think it was, Hebrews 13:3, ‘Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.'”
Then, he heard more: Had a deputy encouraged the attack by letting slip a rumor Chamberlain was a child molester? Why wasn’t the district attorney called to investigate? Moorlach sent his staff into the jail.
“Their report,” he said, “wasn’t pretty.”
Moorlach’s chief of staff, Mario Mainero, was exasperated. He argued for unbiased oversight,not only of the jail, but of abuses alleged anywhere.
Tempers throughout the department flared at the thought of a crew of outsiders poking around company secrets.
“It was an amazing battle behind the scenes,” Moorlach said. “Not only did the sheriff push back, so did others in the county who wanted a good relationship with him.”
But Moorlach’s grip only tightened. The county’s supervisors, each showing guts of their own, backed the plan.
Today they’ve established an independent office to review all violent exchanges between deputies and the public.
Then there is Moorlach running point on unfunded liabilities.
The term unfunded liabilities is a sleep-inducing euphemism for a nasty situation. An unfunded liability, in simple English, is money you owe without a way to pay it.
In a few years, these debts, especially pension and healthcare obligations for government employees and retirees, will force municipalities across the state to cut important services,fire, paramedics, police, roads, you name it,and will usher some into bankruptcy.
San Francisco bears $4.2 billion in unfunded debt. The city of Vallejo already has publicly discussed bankruptcy. California’s cities and counties together have $118 billion in unfunded liabilities, an average of $3,200 per Californian.
Most municipalities play dumb. Orange County, however, which two years ago carried a $3.2 billion load, has cut it to around $2.3 billion, or $700 per resident.
Odd Payments
One of Moorlach’s radical solutions could reduce the unfunded debt still more,and have a sweeping impact across the state.
Ever since he first heard about it, Moorlach thought the county’s 2002 contract with the sheriff’s deputies was odd, not because it gave them generous pensions, but because it promised to pay them retroactively, giving deputies additional benefits without asking for additional work.
The county filed suit to rescind the pensions. Because no one knows how many state and local agencies have similar union contracts, Moorlach can’t say how big the shockwaves could be.
But Moorlach estimates OC will save, on the low side, $187 million.
If the county represents 10% of the state’s population, multiply that number by 10. You can assume this is a $1.87 billion matter statewide.
When Moorlach and Mainero introduced their concerns at a public session, the deputies union presented a slide show showing officers killed in the line of duty and the families they left behind.
These, they said, were the people under Moorlach’s numbers.
Moorlach and Mainero, quiet and somber, outlined their position.
The problem, Mainero said, remains: the retroactive benefits broke the law. They were gifts, gifts of public money, given without work.
In his single year on the job, Moorlach has angered powerful public employee unions,and has been vilified throughout. If it hasn’t been worth it, he isn’t letting on.
“I guess I didn’t run to be a supervisor.” Moorlach says. “I ran to do some supervising.”
Capaldi is a partner in the business law firm of Spach, Capaldi & Waggaman, LLP in Newport Beach and Chairman Emeritus of The Lincoln Club of Orange County.
