Uh-oh. After decades of quietly refusing to apply for available grant funds to boost social programs to serve the homeless and other groups of the needy, it looks like federal Judge Carter has discovered the Board of Supervisors’ little secret. As reported by Voice of OC on April 9 “ Orange County has missed out on millions of state and federal taxpayer dollars to address its growing homelessness by not being assertive enough in preparing for and seeking the funds, according to a federal judge and interviews with people who closely follow county homelessness policy.”
Yes, while we have endured decades of the Supervisors and their staff bemoaning what they call an under-equity situation with regard to the state allocation of revenues to the counties, we now know the rest of the story – that is that a part of the county’s hand-wringing about lack of a “fair share” of state funding is self-inflicted because the county has not pursued all available funds. The reason has mainly been philosophical, but includes (1) the conservative Republican stance of not wanting to grow government, especially in the social programs area, (2) not wanting to add employees to expand or implement new programs, thus claiming the high ground of a low employee count when compared to the county’s total population, lower than most other counties and giving the Supervisors something to brag about, albeit deceptively, and (3) being in denial about the extent of social ills in Orange County.
It appears it has taken a federal judge, David Carter, to uncover this skeleton in the county’s closet. Are there more skeletons? Stay tuned.
Good story. Glad to have you back. Sorry about the administrative snafu.
*Well, kind of interesting that the FEDS pulled the plug on the Jailhouse Snitch issue. Poor Tony is quietly exonerated. Meanwhile, no one is talking about Global Swarming. To be very redundant….in 1970 at the founding of Earth Day there were 2.2 Billion human lifeforms on planet Earth. Two days ago…..we now have 7.7 Billion which is fast approaching the Earth Maximum of 9.5 to 10 Billion….which is scheduled to be reached somewhere between 2030 and 2050 depending on the Actuarial Stats and those counting.
When we hit that maximum, we start to become a Methane Planet, where the Oceans soon turn into Acid beds. It starts out slowly, but accelerates quickly. No more fish, and then of course….the air starts to get a little sticky and people have to have breathing apparatus to survive. Hey, but who cares…..all those guys over 90 think it is all over anyway. The young kids think that living until they are 60 is plenty good for them.
Time to stop worry about the “cheap seats and small fry”. Time to start worrying about where to start buying breathing apparatus…we suppose!