STT/Luge Access. OC Board of Supervsors meeting results. (UPDATE 10-4-11)

Wow! That was a real turn around by Supervisor Bates. I know that our email & letters helped to turn this around for her. Thanks everyone for all the time and effort that was put into trying to make this happen (whew... huge sigh of relief!)

Now hopefully, we can get the parking lot to be put in at the lower site and take the traffic off of the present access road to the trail.

 

I think it might not be a bad idea to send a couple thank you notes to the supporting supervisors.

 

If you look into the purpose of the "Orange County Development Agency" and how much money they have, 2.3 million is a drop in the bucket to secure this land for the people of Orange County ( and the world, for that matter). An independent auditors report from last year shows the OCDA having a total net asset of over 88 million. The majority of that money is coming from our property taxes. I would encourage those in Nelsons and Moorlachs districts to e-mail them with their concerns for not wanting to use this money to keep the land at the STT open.

And a thanks to the 3 that voted yes has been sent.

 

That was brought up and it appears that the property below is not of Saddleback Vineyards, but belong to the Mills who, through their counsel, had concerns of the increased traffic and trespassing if this were to be purchased and a parking lot/staging area was built next to their property. Mark Denny said it would be built at the top, but that can be discussed at a later time.

 

http://cams.ocgov.com/Web_Publisher/Agenda10_04_2011_files/images/24_2-10042011.PDF

The president of SMPRD sent this to the county. If the county agrees, we will hopefully be able to get involved with the proposed "Staging area". There was some talk with OC Parks and the SMPRD board about getting a bypass trail going from Santiago Canyon Road to the top of the grade. I would love to see this happen ASAP.

We should probably start e-mailing the board expressing our support for the SMPRD's willingness to manage the land.

 

The following link shows the map to find your district based upon where you live:

http://electionmapping.ocgov.com/OCDistrictMap/MapDistrict.aspx

Here's a rundown of Supervisors by District, in case you don't know who your supervisor is:

Voted For:
District 1 - Nguyen
District 3 - Campbell
District 5 - Bates

Voted Against:
District 2 - Moorlach
District 4 - Nelson

I sent a Thank You note to the 3 who voted for it. Not sure what to do about the other 2, if anything. I live in Orange, so Campbell is my Supervisor and Wow is he great--he's the one who pulled together the funding for the Santiago Creek Bike Trail currently being built across the street from my housing tract, helped get a bunch of Oak Trees planted at Santiago Oaks as part of a rehabilitation after the fires and now was the spearhead for this proposal--to save STT / Luge.

Do we have a better champion than Supervisor Campbell? Pretty amazing. I believe he also may have had involvement with the donation of land to OC Parks from the Irvine Co. but I don't know for sure.

 

I'm sooo glad this passed.
I'm not altogether sure that I could have stood another BOS meeting. Kudos to those who endured more than one
I would have had to bring an ice pick to the next meeting so I could commit ritual suicide if the DA started to speak again!!

I will also write a letter of thanks to the three supporters along with a email indicating my supreme disappointment with Moorlach's inability to move off his preconceived "spend no money" mentality.
Personally, Moorlach will NOT be getting my vote next election. Don't really care who is running against him at this point.

I would also encourage everyone to vote against the DA Kelley Thomas as he demonstrated a complete lack of respect for anyone else's time. I was truly afraid this issue would get continued.

Thanks to all you guys who have been out on the front line since the beginning...

Now for the real work... staging area location, management plan, night riding etc... I'd figure it will take 5 years for everyone to come to consensus on the design and management plan.

 

I sent thanks to the supporting supervisors.
Feel like we dodged a bullet here.

This made my month!
Now we need a ride of thanks!

 

Thanks. I do believe that those calls and emails all of you sent out made a huge difference to Supervisor Bates to sway her as I thought she was also on the side of oppose.

I'm really proud of how STR and the rest of the community including those who live in the canyon pulled together and made a difference. So pat yourselves on the back, cause it's a huge win! Thanks ALL!

 

STR Power! Thanks for those who worked tirelessly to keep the trail open. My supervisor (Moorlach) voted against it . I will call his number tomorrow to see what his office to say about his vote. No, I am not going to be rude to him. There will be future cases that impact our interests, so that would be counterproductive.

 

Columbus Day Celebration Ride!!! Let's do it!

Yay!
Thanks to everyone who showed support. So important to the future MTB (and hikers etc etc) of the world!

 

I am in Moorlach district too, I think the tone I will use is to be disappointed and let him know that I understand that he trying to support his district but the open space / access provides benefits to all OC residents in including his.

 

Oh the irony! If you check out Moorlach's page, he states that he is an avid backpacker and his signature is "Happy trails, John M. W. Moorlach, C.P.A., Orange County Supervisor, Second District"
Does anyone know who was out taking a random survey on the STT a while back? I was stopped and asked where I was from, what trails I rode, what I liked about the trails, etc. I want to say it looked like Campbell, but it could have been Jim from Trails4All. You know white guys with grey hair, they all look alike (haha! except for OMR, who's grey hair is so perfectly coifed that everyone wishes they had it).

 

:lol:

My morning needed this

 

CPA seems to be the overriding initials here
There seems to be a couple of the Supervisors (Moorlach & Nelson) who simply refuse to spend any money on anything.
It was really interesting to see the different department heads plea their cases on the budget proposals. Gotta say that both these guys is really watching the pennies.
The county's share of the Vehicle License Fees were reduced by approximately $54 million and the implementation of AB109 has everyone scrambling for dollars.

 

E-mails send to Bates and others thanking them... Whoo Hooo... It's a good feeling that local government can make positive change to our community.

Have a great day everyone.

 

Not all CPA are evil, Just most that put it on their card/title. Are these positions FT paid positions. I don't think the AICPA allows you to use the CPA desgination unless you are doing so in the context of offering public accounting services which he clearly isn't. Might be worth looking into

P.S. I sent tanks to those that voted for it as well.

 

Tanks, eh? More befitting those who voted against, I'd think.

 

Easy on us bean counters, I'm a CPA and I would've voted for it and I know some others that would've as well. Yes, nerdy accountants ride too...

Hard to say why Moorlach went the way he did, although I noticed last night that his district and Nelson's district are the farthest from the trail and have the least amount of trails. Campbell and Bates must've been inundated by pro-trail users. Maybe Moorlach and Nelson weren't. I know I sent them both e-mails, but I'm not in their district so maybe it didn't matter as much. Who knows?

Perhaps Moorlach is more ambitious, politically as well, and there's some politics going on between him and Campbell. Moorlach was the OC Treasurer, I believe right after the bankruptcy. And he's Vice Chairman. Maybe he wants to be Chairman or differentiate himself from Campbell. Or he simply might just have been being too conservative--spend nothing no matter what. All we can do is speculate and ask him why he voted the way he did.

I'm a fiscal conservative and want to see government, and therefore taxes and regulation, shrunk as much as possible because I believe that's in everyone's best interests. But, Government does have some purpose and in this case it did work for the people.

 

Probably Campbell since he was the driving force behind this purchase.

Here ya go Rach :wave:

Campbell


Jim Meyer


and for those who don't know..,
OMR aka James Bond