The phrase “show me the money,” usually is a good hint of where to seek hidden motivations. But, there’s another equally worthwhile key question – “where’s the data?” So it goes with the Los Alamitos annexation of the Rossmoor shopping Village, now Supervisor Moorlach’s top priority for next year.
There is no denying the key, or at the very least, one of the key, drivers behind the Los Alamitos annexation of the southwest corner of Los Alamitos Boulevard and Katella Avenue, is none other than the very same Orange County Supervisor who represents the area. Not only is John Moorlach the County Supervisor for the area, he is also Chairman of the Local Agency Formation Commission, LAFCO, which will approve the annexation application from Los Alamitos.
One of the fundamental assertions for approving annexation is financial. According to Supervisor Moorlach, the cost to Orange County of providing public services to Rossmoor is more than the tax revenues received from the unincorporated community. Although this assertion is frequently repeated, OC180NEWS has not been able to obtain the data.
We first started asking Moorlach’s office for the analysis back in February 2011. In March 2011 OC180NEWS was told an updated analysis would be ready in “a few weeks.” The analysis is being prepared by a consultant to LAFCPO and Moorlach’s office referred us to that agency.
After several unfruitful follow up contacts with LAFCO and promises that they would send it to us, we stopped asking. But, recently, there has been an upsurge in annexation activity as well as opposition, see related articles below for our coverage of this background, so we decided to see if any progress had been made on LAFCO’s cost analysis.
According to Rick Frances of Supervisor Moorlach’s office, LAFCO has completed this analysis, but we were not able to get a copy before the weekend. OC180NEWS will continue to seek the analysis so we are able to do our own independent review.
In the mean time, any assertions that Rossmoor is a financial drain on Orange County are based on an analysis from 2008. OC180NEWS has not reviewed this dated analysis either, but some who have reviewed it, believed it is flawed.
“The Comprehensive Fiscal Analysis completed in 2008 was the initial source of this information,” Rick Francis told OC180NEWS. “It showed Rossmoor running nearly $600,000 in negative territory. Several people believed the report did not accurately reflect revenues the community may have generated. At that time, we had other verification that these assertions were valid. We continually hear there has never been documentation. The truth is, there was documentation, although it was disputed.”
Good documentation or not, there is no room to doubt Supervisor Moorlach’s opinion on what should be done with Rossmoor and the corner.
“It looks like garnering a positive conclusion on the “fourth corner” will be my top LAFCO priority for 2012,” wrote Moorlach in his Moorlach Update, September 30, 2011.
Although Moorlach has often called Rossmoor a financial drain on Orange County, he cited other reasons for incorporation in a recent television news report.
“It’s not going to harm the residents of Rossmoor. The best arrangement for individuals is to be inside an incorporated city to have local representation, local planning department, local public safety services. That’s the best situation to have,” said Moorlach on a recent Real Orange news show broadcast on PBS. “Los Alamitos has waited fifty years to annex the fourth corner…but now that they’ve spoken [the 2008 rejection of Rossmoor cityhood initiative], and said we don’t want to be incorporated, then, why not give Los Alamitos that fourth corner?”
The reason for not giving the corner to Los Alamitos is that these properties generate sales and property tax revenue which helps fun public services in Rossmoor. These services, many of which are provided by the Rossmoor Community Services District, include park maintenance , street sweeping, tree care, and local recreational activities. If Rossmoor is not a financial drain now, sending the corner’s tax revenues to Los Alamitos certainly would not improve Rossmoor’s financials.
While the money might be a gift for Los Alamitos, the cost of maintaining Rossmoor’s parks, streets, and trees would not go down just because the corner becomes part of Los Alamitos. . Thus, since the RCSD’s charged with providing these services, unless Orange County agrees not to decrease RCSD’s funding, the parks probably will suffer if the corner becomes part of the City of Los Alamitos.
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About Dolores Barr, Publisher
Dolores Barr has lived in Rossmoor since 1992 and has created this site to provide local news for the people of Los Alamitos, Seal Beach, Rossmoor, Leisure World, Sunset Beach, and Surfside, California. My husband and I have had two students graduate from the Los Alamitos Unified School District and currently our Grandson, Ricky Apodaca, grade 3 at Weaver Elementary, is actively involved in youth baseball through LAYB and youth football through FNL.
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