Board Must Make Amends to Needy

* I am delighted that the powers that be, such as the Board of Supervisors and its bankruptcy advisors, are feeling no pain from the bankruptcy (“Bankruptcy Judge Approves Complex O.C. Recovery Plan,” May 16). Neither are most of our more affluent Orange County citizens.

However, those who are still hurting are the weakest among us. As you briefly point out, the programs cut were those that helped the weakest Orange County citizens--the mentally ill and, I can add, especially the mentally ill homeless, abused children and seniors and low-income pregnant women. Their programs have been cut along with the bus services upon which many of them and other poor (especially the working poor) depend.

And, although most of affluent Orange County has not felt any pain, there is pain out there. More people are being served by fewer county workers and in some cases not served at all.

The impact on the general Orange County economy may be small, but it churns--fewer county workers, more on welfare spending less.

Fewer child protective service workers and fewer senior protective workers mean more cases being unresolved or unrecognized until they get bad enough to merit attention of the news media. Homeless mentally ill, now not reached and without beds, congest areas in our cities. It is budget time again in the county, and time for the supervisors to look at their priorities and put people first--that is, all people, not just the bondholders and vendors.

LEE PODOLAK

Orange

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* Shame on you voters of Orange County who voted down Measure R last year. Now we see who’s really going to pay for the county’s bankruptcy.

When asked to approve the half-cent increase in sales tax that would have gotten the county quickly and equitably out of its financial bind, you said: “They got us into this. ‘They’ can get us out of it.” Well, when looking for the “they” that got us into “this” mess, be sure to take a good look in the mirror.

Now that it’s time to pay the piper, guess who the “they” are that will do the paying? Not the financially comfortable that voted down Measure R. It’s the poor, those that can least afford it; the county employees that lost their jobs; those that depend on public transportation to get to work; mental health patients; abused children; low-income pregnant women and others.

Fifty million dollars per year for the next 20 years must now be diverted to debt bond repayment. And you can bet skeptical, unsympathetic Wall Street bond buyers are going to want hefty interest on the bonds issued by a county that refused to face its responsibilities.

Shame on you.

NORM EWERS

Irvine