El Morro picks up support

Alicia Robinson

When Republican 70th District Assemblyman Chuck DeVore alerts “the

media,” he casts a wide net. The list of recipients on a recent press

release sent by e-mail included comedian Dennis Miller at CNBC, NBC’s

Tonight Show, as well as someone who apparently receives e-mails

under the name “jesuschrist.”

You never know who’s going to take an interest in a legislator’s

bills, and even being joked about gets lawmakers noticed, said DeVore

spokesman Brian O’Neel.

“We look for people who might possibly have an interest in

something that we’re doing,” he said.

*

Undaunted by the controversy surrounding DeVore’s two bills

allowing residents to stay at El Morro Village mobile-home park, his

GOP colleague Van Tran announced this week he’ll cosponsor the bills.

DeVore has touted the bills as a way to help the state’s

multi-billion-dollar deficit. They would halt a state-parks plan to

turn the mobile home community into a public campground and grant

residents leases of up to 30 years in exchange for $50 million up

front or $3.2 million per year paid to the state.

“The impetus is really the fiscal issues that Assemblyman DeVore

laid out,” said Paul Hegyi, a spokesman for Van Tran, who was

unavailable for comment Wednesday. The money from El Morro residents

could either go to the state deficit or toward reducing a nearly

$900-million backlog of park maintenance.

“When I ask myself which is better -- increasing the burden on an

overburdened bureaucracy or helping to pay down the deficit -- the

choice is simple,” Tran said.

*

A very rare thing happened at Tuesday’s Costa Mesa City Council

meeting: When the time came for public comment, there wasn’t any. No

residents lining up at the podium, not even the typical watchdogs who

come to every meeting.

Having very little public comment was once the norm, but it’s been

an anomaly for at least the last five years, City Manager Allan

Roeder said.

Council members could take Tuesday’s silence as a sign that

they’re doing things right, since no one’s complaining -- or it could

just be that since there was a council meeting just last week,

Tuesday’s agenda was a little slim.

*

If you have a complaint or suggestion, you can tell your

legislators the old-fashioned way, by writing them a letter. An event

set for Saturday in Irvine, the Great American Write-In, will include

about 40 local and state organizations offering information on

various issues. Pens, paper and postage will be supplied by Women For

Orange County, which is sponsoring the event.

Environmental group Friends of the Newport Coast will encourage

people to tell legislators how they feel about DeVore’s El Morro

bills, and Costa Mesa-based Earth Resource Foundation will also be at

the event. The Great American Write-In will be held from 9:30 a.m. to

1 p.m. Saturday at the Lakeview Senior Center at Woodbridge Community

Park, 20 Lake Road, Irvine. For information, call (949) 581-3938 or

(949) 262-1001.

*

In an effort to streamline state government, DeVore this week

introduced a bill to amend the state constitution and merge the

Franchise Tax Board and the Board of Equalization. Under the bill,

the merged boards would become a new body called the California Tax

Commission, which would have nine members, seven of them elected.

The measure was introduced on behalf of Bill Leonard, who is on

the Board of Equalization. DeVore said he proposed the change because

the two boards’ responsibilities overlap.