OC Board of Supes – Still Out Of Touch

On Thursday, I wrote about Orange County Supervisor Chris Norby’s disconnect from reality for focusing on a surveillance footage that reportedly briefly zoomed in on his personal notes and on Supervisor Nguyen texting during the January 13th Board of Supervisors meeting.

Tonight, Total Buzz is reporting that Sheriff Hutchens is “refusing to hand over the recordings of that footage” to Supervisors Nguyen and Norby. 

“For us being the victims of the snooping, they expect us to believe them?” Nguyen told the Orange County Register’s Norberto Santana, Jr. “It’s concerning that high tech devices have been used to snoop on what we do on the dais. This is the biggest interference in government that you can get. You’re snooping on my thought process,” Nguyen said.

Santana further reports that Supervisor Norby called Hutchens refusal to release the tapes a “rogue activity.”

Earlier this evening Sheriff’s spokesperson Ryan Burris told TheLiberalOC that the Sheriff’s department has security concerns and they “are awaiting a legal opinion regarding the release of the security footage. That being said, we have offered the Board of Supervisors and their staff the opportunity to view the security footage.”

It appears that the issue here is not whether or not the Supervisors and their staff can view the tapes, they appear to want them for the purpose of releasing the tapes themselves.

Supervisor Nguyen has requested a closed session item to discuss the matter at Tuesday’s Board meeting.

On a day when the County was sued for failing the poor and a public hearing revealed that the County spent $26 million in cash from its reserves to build a Social Services facility that they now do not have enough employees to staff; Supervisor Nguyen agendizes discussion of this matter. But apparently there is no room on the agenda of Tuesday’s meeting to discuss any of the more than 30 budget saving suggestions from the Orange County Employees Association, or the more than 1,400 alleged suggestions that the County CEO claims to have received from workers.

Nguyen and Norby are not victims of anything. In fact, a simple look at the definition of spying makes it clear that they are not victims of that either.

spy, noun, plural spies,  verb, spied, spying. 
–noun 1.  a person employed by a government to obtain secret information or intelligence about another, usually hostile, country, esp. with reference to military or naval affairs. 
2.  a person who keeps close and secret watch on the actions and words of another or others.
3.  a person who seeks to obtain confidential information about the activities, plans, methods, etc., of an organization or person, esp. one who is employed for this purpose by a competitor: an industrial spy. 
4.  the act of spying. 
–verb (used without object) 5.  to observe secretively or furtively with hostile intent (often fol. by on  or upon ). 
6.  to act as a spy; engage in espionage. 
7.  to be on the lookout; keep watch. 
8.  to search for or examine something closely or carefully. 
–verb (used with object) 9.  to catch sight of suddenly; espy; descry: to spy a rare bird overhead. 
10.  to discover or find out by observation or scrutiny (often fol. by out ). 
11.  to observe (a person, place, enemy, etc.) secretively or furtively with hostile intent.
12.  to inspect or examine or to search or look for closely or carefully.

Here is a new word for Nguyen and Norby to consider.

Priorities: Defined as something given special attention, highest or higher in importance, rank, privilege, etc.: a priority task.