Now This is Waste and Inefficency

June 4, 2007 Uncategorized 7

From the LATimes
Christian Berthelsen, Times Staff Writer
June 3, 2007

Pile of BucksO.C. shells out for new officeholders’ digs
In a county known for fiscal conservatism, the $1.1-million tab includes 52-inch flat-screen TVs.😯

Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach bought an $8,990 desk for the reception foyer of his office, and spent $10,300 on shelving in the supply room.

Supervisor Patricia Bates bought a $3,375 conference table, and a $1,200 executive high-back chair.

Supervisor Janet Nguyen installed $1,300 worth of track lighting with a dimmer switch.

County Treasurer Chriss Street spent nearly $50,000 on 90 office chairs from the high-concept Herman Miller design line.

And all four ordered 52-inch wall-mounted flat-screen televisions. The supervisors’ televisions, which will go in their personal offices, cost $4,000 apiece; Street’s, in his conference room, cost $7,800.

You might call it “Extreme Makeover: Orange County Government Edition.” As one of their first orders of business, Orange County’s four newly elected officeholders — the treasurer and the three new members of the Board of Supervisors — are collectively spending just over $1.1 million to spruce up their offices in the months since they were sworn in, according to documents reviewed by The Times.

And Moorlach thinks County Workers waste taxpayer dollars. 

County of OrangeReception desk:        $ 9,000

Storage Shelves:       $10,300

Plazma screen TV’s:  $19,800

Watching Oprah in your office while complaining about over paid County Workers and bloated government pensions…

PRICELESS

Read the rest of Christian’s story HERE

7 Comments

  1. Sorry if I can’t get all worked up about this. To me it’s one more anti-government screed from the Register.

    Government offices should be buying high-end ergonomic chairs for their employees, especially the ones doing repetitive keyboard entries, and the good chairs aren’t cheap, even with volume government pricing. Would you prefer more work-related injuries and more frequent replacement and have them buy $49.00 chairs from Staples?

    Even the TV’s don’t seem like an unreasonable investment. A flat screen TV is a pretty effective way of showing a Powerpoint or video presentation to a small group. They’re becoming very prevalent in the private sector because they are a good space-effective solution to the need to make group presentations.

  2. The projections that connect to laptops start at $500; I agree with you on chairs. But for the desk, I have one word — IKEA

  3. I’ll say this one more time – it’s called embezzlement and it is a prosecutable crime – maybe a felony.

    Problem – the District Attorney Tony Rackauckas is a criminal himself – and so far not one Attorney General has been able to make anything stick on Teflon Tony!

    My name is Dave Harvey and my Anti-spam word was love liberals.

  4. Moorlach could have called any number of “used office furniture” dealers in OC that could provide perfectly fine and nearly new used desks and chairs. Paging A.B.E!!!!!

  5. A $ 7800 flat screen tv in Streets office for what?

    1.1. million to spruce up offices instead of going to fix streets or reduce crime, clean up the district they represent or pay down debt. Pathetic

  7. The TV’s were a rip off.

    I saw Killer Panasonic 42″ flat screens at Costco this week for under two grand.

    Street is notorious for wasting other peoples money. He used to fly private jets to Alabama, althewhile ripping off the retirement accounts of those at the Dorsey factory. This guys a piece of work.

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