Greg Winterbottom courtesy of Metro Magazine
We were struck with 2nd District Supervisor and OCTA Director John Moorlach’s candor in his email update Thursday last:
Per MOORLACH UPDATE — OC Register — February 7, 2013 [with our annotations]:
I did not react well to two recent recruitments at the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA). OCTA has had the same public member on its Board since 1993, nearly twenty years. When the end of his term was nearing, OCTA requested that the Board members assist with recruiting candidates for this position, which I did in one or more of my UPDATES (as you know, I don’t do a newsletter but, I will make an occasional announcement). I received several telephone calls from interested parties inquiring if it would be worth the time to submit an application. I strongly encouraged these overly qualified candidates to give it a shot. OCTA’s then Board Chair [Will Kempton] assembled a small committee, reviewed the candidates, determined that not one of them “measured up,” and reappointed the incumbent. I was infuriated because I knew that a number of candidates not only “measured up,” but would have enhanced the quality of the OCTA Board. The full OCTA Board was not even given a choice between the incumbent or candidates A and B. The same sort of cram-down occurred with OCTA’s CEO selection [Darrell Johnson] process. Needless to say, I have not been a happy camper. And I don’t want a similar process here at the Board of Supervisors.
