OUTSIDERS VS. CITYHOOD
Why would outsiders, from the Orange County sheriff’s deputies union, step in and oppose efforts to create a City of Rossmoor? Because they aren’t complete outsiders.
In fact, assuming the incorporation campaign succeeds, the new city might have wanted sheriff’s deputies to continue to provide police services, as they do now. But that’s an attitude that could change.
The union, Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs, is pouring money into Rossmoor to see if it can block the incorporation. Often referred to as powerful, a better term for the union would be free-spending. Its reason for the Rossmoor spending, which is to protect dues-paying sheriff’s deputy positions, seems odd, since only about nine positions are involved. But more could be at stake.
If the new city of Rossmoor dumped the deputies and contracted elsewhere for police services, other cities with Sheriff’s Department contracts might get the same idea. Or Rossmoor (population 10,000) could have its own police department, as does neighboring Los Alamitos (population 11,000) or, across the line in L.A. County, Signal Hill (population 11,000).
One advantage would be that the new city wouldn’t have to commit to Orange County’s lavish compensation program, which includes pensions of 90 percent of salary after 30 years of service. (The county doesn’t know how it’s going to pay for those benefits now, and burden will increase unless the stock market turns around.) Another
advantage would be much faster police response times than those of sheriff’s deputies, who also patrol Sunset Beach, several miles away.
Of course Rossmoor first has to incorporate, and there is opposition to Measure U on the Nov. 4 ballot. The argument against cityhood isn’t inspiring, but it is simple: If it’s not broke, don’t fix it.
The community’s Rossmoor Community Services District is efficient, but for some services the community has to depend on the county, whose offices are off in Santa Ana. Its representative on the county’s Board of Supervisors is John Moorlach, who is a responsive public official, but Rossmoor is a very small part of his district.
Also, Rossmoor isn’t paying its share of county expenses by about $600,000, and if incorporation failed, that should be corrected one way or another as a fairness issue. More seriously, response time by sheriff’s deputies on average is several times slower than police response time in Los Al, Seal Beach or Signal Hill.
Do Villa Park and the other small cities envy Rossmoor’s unincorporated status? No sign of that. Each prizes its own identity and its local control.
We know how we’d vote if we lived in Rossmoor. Easy decision. But we don’t, and those of us who live elsewhere are leaving it up to the folks in Rossmoor.
So should the deputies’ union.
Information Source: Long Beach Press Telegram – Article Launched 10-13-08
Sincerely,
Emily S. Knell
Main Street Realtors
562-430-3053 – emilyknell1@yahoo.com
