Lobbyists Are the Real Culprits

I do not know whether to laugh or cry. Lobbyist Scott Hart is worried about bureaucrats who are not elected usurping the authority of our elected supervisors (“County Contract Process Unfazed by Long Scrutiny,” Jan. 17).

Ninety-five percent of these bureaucrats are ordinary paycheck earners with no civil service commission to protect them from political revenge. The bureaucrats, who are as interested in good government as the taxpayers they serve, are somehow converted into power-mad manipulators in Hart’s mind.

The “useful information” provided by lobbyists to supervisors can only concern the amounts of campaign fund contributions they promise to produce at the next $100 per pancake “power breakfast” they intend to broker on behalf of the supervisors.

If anyone is really interested in the relative strengths or experience of consultants or their performance on previous county contracts (some very poor performers get selected over and over by the supervisors) the county managers and supervisors need only ask the bureaucrats who must work with the consultants who bought their previous selections with campaign contributions.

The politically favored consultants grow increasingly careless in their submittals to county staff, knowing they are immune to criticism from the bureaucrats because their reputation with the supervisors is guaranteed by years of “pay to play” campaign contributions.

Most of the counties and special districts in California have procedures for consultant selection like those recommended by the professional societies of engineers, surveyors and architects. If those agencies can avoid the stench of a selection procedure that reeks of political favoritism, why does Orange County continue to wallow in the “pay to play” swamp?

ALAN NESTLINGER

Santa Ana