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Again – many things in John Moorlach’s Record Suggest that he is squishy on a variety of issues, or perhaps he spends too much time thinking.

5/18/98 – John Moorlach publicly spoke out against a proposed Bill from Tom McClintock (then of Garden Grove) to abolish the Car Tax.

According to California Public Finance in an article entitled, Opponents Trade Jabs on Car Tax Bill… Moorlach publicly opined on the effects to the County Budget of Replacing or Repealing the Car Tax. When Coupled with his previous comments about the 1/2 Cent Sales Tax… there is a pattern here folks.

Moorlach’s comments were about the negative impacts on county revenue that would occur from repealing this unpopular tax.

The pattern of John Moorlach’s sometimes bizarre public statements continues in 2010 when he just got hammered by Scott Moxley and the OC Weekly for defending convicted felon Mike Corona.

Mike Corona is the disgraced former Sheriff of Orange County who got convicted of Corruption. We even heard about this case in spades even in my neck of the woods.

Lastly – Republican, turned Libertarian Steven Greenhut Unloaded on John Moorlach in 2009.

Moorlach appeared to flip on the Death Penalty – letting his Chief of Staff at the time (who is a liberal) go on a rampage:

“Given Mr. Mainero’s self-proclaimed opposition to the death penalty and your previous admonishment on his injecting it into budget discussions, I considered it inappropriate that this matter was brought forward at this meeting under the guise of a budget issue,” Rackauckas wrote. “In my view, it was not and is not proper that your office attempted to influence the constitutional duties of an elected official in order to obstruct the will of the voters as reflected by California’s very clear laws calling for the death penalty in appropriate circumstances under the cloak of a budget discussion.”

Moorlach Appeared to Squish on the Gun Issue:

Even after Hutchens filled a Board of Supervisors meeting with more than two dozen deputies, including SWAT officers, who questioned and searched peaceful members of a gun-rights group who showed up to speak out against the sheriff’s new policies, Moorlach publicly stood by the sheriff. He stood by her after it was revealed that her deputies used the security cameras to zoom in on the notes and BlackBerry screens of fellow supervisors. He stood by her even after a public records request revealed that sheriff’s officials mocked the people who came to address the board. Moorlach and Mainero told me they agree with my concerns and raised them privately to the sheriff and her command staff, yet the public isn’t privy to such things.

Ironically, Rackauckas and Hutchens both endorsed Don Wagner (over John Moorlach originally) who is A rated by all gun rights groups and is unabashedly a social conservative.

Greenhut did not stop there – he continued to unload on Moorlach, blowing him to bits over hissupport of an absurd and heavy handed campaign finance scheme that I wrote about Previously:

Furthermore, Moorlach and Mainero supported efforts by self-described O.C. campaign-finance watchdog and political activist Shirley Grindle to create a permanent county bureaucracy to monitor campaign violations. It failed, but this put the Moorlach office further at odds with Chris Norby, the libertarian-oriented Republican supervisor who has long taken a principled stand against more government meddling with political speech and financing.

I had previously imagined that Moorlach and Norby would be natural allies, given their political perspectives, and that the key would be peeling away a third vote from among the other supervisors. But as Moorlach has moved in his current direction, the two offices have been at constant odds. In particular, Moorlach and Mainero have resented Norby’s well-known bluntness (Moorlach accuses Norby of being a demagogue).

In activist land – we call this getting vested in your office. I am living with this in my own backyard with a slew of partisan officeholders that have either gone native like Moorlach or they vote no on everything and do nothing for their district, leaving local government undefended to fend for themselves.

John Moorlach raked in$237k in total value in his last few years of office. (In my home county, the total for a supervisor is about $85k).

$16k for 5 years of taxpayer money in to his 401 plan.

A 2.7% at 55 Pension – guaranteed by OC Taxpayers. Opposed efforts to cut said pension.

John Moorlach Supported and even proposed efforts to weaken term limits.

John Moorlach Supported onerous campaign finance laws to make it harder for challengers to take out incumbents.

With all that, John Moorlach did indeed vote to spike his pension.

On 7/31/2007 – Moorlach voted to bump up his Car Allowance, which counts toward his pension, nearly double his comp time from 90 to 170 hours and bump the taxpayer funded part of his 401(k) plan from 6 to 8%.

John Moorloch publicly railed against the free car, opting instead to take the car “allowance”. What a hypocrite!

This is deceptive because if Moorlach took the free car instead, the $765 a month he got from his car allowance would go away and thus, the according bump to his pension would as well.

In addition to this – Moorlach also receives a cash benefit of $4500. Not sure what it is for, but it is there and Moorlach cashed the check(s).

In addition, the county pays for Moorlach’s portion of the Pension Plan Costs… aka both ends.

Moorlach also received $6300+ for serving on the OCTA – the Orange County Transportation Authority. In my home county, the PCTPA is unpaid.

When you inventory all of this, it makes you wonder if fiscal conservatism stops at Moorlach’s own finances.

I bring up once again, Mr. Moorlach’s form 700’s that indicate little or no assets or income outside of the government. When you mix in the unbelievable pay and benefits and the office-shopping, you begin to wonder…

Meantime, a man with a far lower salary donates somewhere in the neighborhood of 300K to other Republicans and amasses a lifetime 93% CRA Score. Which one is more real? Which one is a man of the people?

Perhaps John Moorlach’s hypocricy is comfortable and familiar to those around him in Orange County?

John Moorlach’s massive haul at our expense kind of underlines the absurdity of the Moorlach Campaign Headquarters in his special election run existing on the grounds of an $8.5 Million Dollar spread on the Newport Coast…

Here’s how it works folks – if Wagner is a Conservative, his behavior related to his compensation has been consistent (he gets about half of Moorloch’s total package as an Assemblymember). If Wagner is some sort of RINO hack, then it pours Miracle Grow on the hypocrisy of Moorlach because Wagner’s government haul is a fraction of his while Moorlach raked it all in to the last penny.

Yikes. It looks like Don Wagner was, is and always will be on the right side of history.

Source: Voice of OC Column By NORBERTO SANTANA JR. | Posted: Friday, July 19, 2013 9:13 am + County Records.