Spindrift October 6, 2022

PROGRAM

Was our At Large Member John Moorlach, a valuable member of the club who speaks to us about once a year for more than 20 years! He began by acknowledging some of the friendships among members, such as Dick Freeman, Bill Barrington...including Ed Romeo!

Dick Freeman

John noted that his current career began 28 years ago when the Fed caused a scandal in OC by raising the rates by 75 basis points. John then became Treasurer of Orange County for many years. Later, a senator for six years, he was up for re-election last November, He did not win. He had the privilege of being able to raise 2.4 million, which is a good, but the union (public employees) got 6.4 million, and he got carpet bombed and at the end of the counting he lost by 48.86 vs. 51.14, by 12,000 votes out of 531,000 cast. It was close. Lots of things were going on. Orange County was not so enamored with Donald Trump; he got 45.5% and Biden 55.5%. Koreans were with him that night.

After the loss, within hours John got calls from significant people in OC. “You need to run for Supervisor for your old seat.” The general motivation was to defeat Diane Harkey, and after two polls, and various candidates coming and going, including moving Costa Mesa back into the 5th District, he tentatively decided to run.

“I pulled papers and I had to file, and I said to my wife, “I’ve got to go to file these papers and she said, “You’re not going to file the papers.” I said, “You’ve sacrificed a whole lot my being gone for several nights a weel over the last six years. So I thought everything was dead and buried and I could retire.” And then the phone calls started coming, “You need to run for Mayor of Costa Mesa.” He didn’t react well at all. But they kept coming. It was sort of strange and he was frustrated. He did a ranking of counties, cities, states and had a metric and starting in 2012. He ranked all 58 counties. Orange County was 46/58. Now we’re in 24th place, better. Never took contributions from unions. In OC, out of 34 cities, Costa Mesa is number 34. They haven’t started step one of the 12 step process. Only union shops can do work, but only14% are union. Two other candidates running, one in Dist 3, one in 5. Let’s try to turn our City around. 1$/5$ goes to retirement plan. 600 points down more today. 60% of portfolio is in equities. He’s sorry to be a broken record, We still have a homeless problem. Criminals smack door sat 4am to see if it’s unlocked. Had to change all the mailboxes. Lots of work to be done in CM. Doesn’t matter whether he wins or loses. The incumbent is a good man. But he doesn’t even think there’s a problem. Election is coming up pretty quickly. Mitch, thanks for having Diane ask me to give this talk.

Back: Jan, Jody, Bobbie, Bonnie, Lynda, Lorrie, Paula, Pam

Q&A: Ken: Can you give us some guidance of Propositions 26 and 27 dealing with gambling in Indian Tribes? Answer: haven’t studied them but am opposed to both. Q from George: How many homeless are in the CM shelter? A. 70. A homeless person lived on his driveway for a couple of days. Q from Jerry: When the officials respond to “how many homeless do we have in NB, the number keeps changing, but they always take the money. A: Great question. When I became supervisor, I was the chair or 7 years. Jerry when I was done, the numbers are growing. We’ve got to do something about the mental health issues of the homeless people. You can report a person using Laura’s Law. Mental illness is the family secret of OC, which has adopted Laura’s Law. Worked with Gavin Newsome. He spent the whole time on mental health. Large % are mentally ill. We’ve got great mental health at Hoag. We’re making good progress. Fairview was not a mental hospital. $500/year. We went through all the rules and went to see if we could but I didn’t see it as a homeless center.

RAFFLE WINNERS – were Guest Bonnie Barrington and Editor Dave Schapiro.