Corky: These guys are getting their kudos for helping shape surfing

• October 6, 2023

The 24th annual International Surfboard Builders Hall of Fame induction ceremony, party, festival and Polynesian luau will take place this year on Oct. 14.

It will be held at the Pier Plaza in Huntington Beach and entertainment begins at 8 a.m., with the induction ceremony at 10 a.m.  It is free to the public and a super fun event to go to.  All kinds of fun stuff and cool people hangin’ out.

The founders of the ISBHOF, Bob “The Greek” Bolen and Mike “Mickey the Ratt” Ester, are stoked to have one of their greatest lineups of surfboard building talent for this year’s induction.  Here is a brief rundown.

The Campbell Brothers, Malcolm and Duncan. I love these guys. Totally original and unique surfboard designers who are responsible for one of the best and most functional board designs to date: the Bonzer.

In 1970, when some of us were working on “twin-fin” shapes, these two brothers from Oxnard were thinking a bit ahead.  They could see the pluses and minuses of the two fins and were taking it farther.  What they came up with was so much more than just a three-fin board, it was a totally new bottom design that went along with the very different fin shapes and set up.

And it really worked great.

The first time I tried one, I refused to give it back to the owner, Mike Eaton.  Three months later, he snuck into my backyard in the middle of the night to get it back.  And today, I am riding a Bonzer SUP.

These dudes rock, stoked to see them get some love.

Wayne Brown, local boy makes good.  I really liked Wayne, he was one of those “stoked” kinda guys that you just felt good being around.  He did a lot of stuff.  Started out in 1967 making surfboards, which led to him also manufacturing skateboards and a shop on Main Street in Huntington Beach.

Then he began importing Piping Hot wetsuits from Australia, which led to him making a deal with Aleeda Wetsuits to manufacture here in the U.S.  He had a place in the back of his shop where he could make you a custom wetsuit and deliver it in 24 hours.

Wayne sadly passed away in 2018.

Craig Sugihara, founder and owner of Town and Country Surfboards.  Craig is one of those totally cool hard-core surfers who came up through the ranks.  He started riding a Piapo board in 1957, started surfing in 1959 under the guidance of the beach boys at Waikiki, started learning how to shape and laminate boards in 1965, built his first board in 1967, got his first surf industy job in 1968 working for George Downing at Greg Noll Surfboards doing fiberglass work, started building complete boards in 1970 for Mystic Surfboards out in Waianae and finally opening his own Town and Country surf shop in 1971 in Pearl City.

Today he has six stores, licensees all over the world and is still building surfboards.  And, the dude is a great surfer and very cool dude on top of all that.

John Kies, a San Diego surfer who began shaping boards in 1965.  Four years later he had a growing market for his shapes and began building boards in his parents’ garage – this was right at the beginning of the “underground” garage board era.

In 1972 he began shaping for Hansen’s Surfboards and then became factory manager and shaper for Koast Surfboards.  Putting himself through college on his earnings, he found that he couldn’t keep up with the demand and so he hired up-and-coming shapers Rusty Preisendorfer, Bill Shrosbree and Mike Slingerland to help him.  All became world class shapers on their own.

Related links

Corky: The Golden Era of California surfing
Corky: Swapping wipeout stories for a laugh
Corky: Debate over the style of scoring
Corky: Power surfers are a style on their own
Corky: Remembering a pioneer big-wave rider

After Koast closed, John seized the chance to open his own business, Encinitas Surfboards. And, 35 years and 24,000 boards, later John is still going and stoked that he can “actually do this for a living.”

Also on the slate to get inducted this year are Mitchell Rae of Outer Island Surfboards in Australia and Bernie Crouch from the infamous East Coast brand, Mad Dog Surfboards.

If you are free on the 14th, this will be the place to be. Super cool and groovy all the way.

ASK THE EXPERT

Q.  I understand that there are both longboards and shortboards.  What I am not sure is, at what length do they change from long to short.  Can you give me a clue on how to tell the difference?  Thank you for enlightening me.

A.  Yes, that is true … basically.  But there is more to it than that.  There are also “mid-size” and “mega models.”

The numbers I am going to give you are more-or-less a generalization.  Different people have different opinions on this, depending on their own situation and interpretation.

In my opinion it goes like this, starting at the biggest.  Mega models are 11 feet and longer.  This goes for all standard surfboard shapes, as well as “gliders” and “big wave guns.”  Traditional longboards would run in the 9-foot to 11-foot range, but would also include “mini-logs” and all other longboard type shapes that run in the 8-foot to 9-foot range.

Mid-size boards would fit into the 6-foot-6 to 8-foot range.  This would include all boards in that size.

Anything under 6-foot-6 would be a short board.  There are a wide range of shapes in that category.

On top of that, you also have SUPs.  I hope that helps you get a general understanding.

​ Orange County Register 

Santa Ana City Council moves to protect city’s rent control and eviction ordinances

• October 6, 2023

The City Council is set to make it harder in Santa Ana for future councilmembers to undo rent control and eviction protections that were put in place last year.

If ratified by a second vote of the council, it will take a supermajority, meaning five votes, of the council to make changes.

The council has also asked for a ballot measure to be written for the November 2024 election to have voters affirm the need for a supermajority threshold, which would further protect rent stabilization efforts from future council divisions.

Effective last November, the council adopted a suite of rent stabilization and “just cause” eviction ordinances that cap rent increases at 3% annually or 80% of inflation, whichever is less, as well as limits in which circumstances landlords can evict tenants. For example, the rent cap for the next 12 months was set in September at 2.54%.

Councilmember Thai Viet Phan has fought for the supermajority threshold over multiple meetings, saying it was important to keep the ordinances from being changed or removed based on changes in the city’s political tides.

A ballot measure, she said, “is the only way to make sure that whether the political winds change or the dynamics in 10, 20 years … our residents can be assured that they’re not going to be facing a $300, $400 rent increase next month when they’re income is not going to be able to afford it.”

“This matters to the people who are looking down the barrel of potentially not being able to afford the next rent increase,” she said, pointing to her own experience of needing to borrow money to afford rent. “In talking to residents, I learned more about the fact that folks don’t buy food, they don’t buy their medications because they’re trying to afford rent.”

City Attorney Sonia Carvalho said if the council were to approve a supermajority vote amendment, a future City Council could repeal it with four votes – a simple majority of its members. However, if voters decide to make the change, then only the voters could repeal it in the future.

Councilmembers Phil Bacerra and David Penaloza said having the council set a supermajority was “symbolic” and a “waste of our time” since it could be reversed by a future council. Mayor Valerie Amezcua joined them in their opposition Tuesday night.

“This is standing up and saying it is important for us to do everything that we can to support a policy that is keeping thousands of families in the city of Santa Ana from being on the precipice of homelessness,” Phan said. “This is saying we will stand up and make sure that a law that is seeking to protect tenants and residents in the city of Santa Ana is going to be as protected as possible.”

City staff estimated that a measure would cost between $279,085 and $327,742 to place on the ballot next year.

Related Articles

​ Orange County Register 

San Clemente set to ban tents, closed structures on its beaches

• October 6, 2023

Tents or any structure with more than two closed sides will likely be prohibited on city beaches in San Clemente.

The City Council gave the plan unanimous support on Tuesday, Oct. 3, after months of complaints from residents and enforcement officials about a growing number of tents and other structures on the city’s beaches.

The new law, which will come back before the council on Oct. 17 for a finalizing vote, mimics rules already in place for the city’s parks, where closed-up structures are already prohibited. The purpose of the enforcement is to give the city’s code enforcement officers, park rangers and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department visibility into the tents from the exterior, officials said.

The ordinance aligns with the city’s intent of maintaining the aesthetic and recreational value of the city’s parks and beaches and makes sure the code is consistently enforced across all the public spaces, said Danielle Sorahan, the city’s code compliance manager.

Initial contacts, she said, will be educational with the intent of giving people a heads-up on the new law.

“Violations of the code can be pursued as a misdemeanor, but we will give two or three warnings before we issue a fine,” she said.

Similar rules are in place in other South County beach towns, including Laguna Beach and Newport Beach. However, Newport Beach goes even further, requiring three sides of the structure, which also can’t exceed 100 square feet or 6 feet in height, to be open. Additionally, the city requires that clustering of tents or shade structures be spaced 5 feet apart.

In Dana Point, the city does not allow tents on the beach overnight, but has no rules related to the number of sides being open or closed. This applies to all city property, including parks and the city’s beach, which is behind the Ocean Institute in Dana Point Harbor.

San Clemente Mayor Chris Duncan emphasized that families often use tents or shade structures to keep children and family members out of the sun and said he appreciated that fines in the city would only be given after efforts to educate the public on the new law.

The council’s unanimous vote to move forward follows public outcry in the last few months about more tents appearing on the beach in North Beach and near the Pier Bowl.

“It’s a good ordinance,” Councilman Rick Loeffler said. “You have discretion and make it educational. There have been people setting up camps at North Beach and we didn’t have an ordinance to address this.

“At night, our beaches close at 10 p.m. This gives us a little more bite,” he added. “If code enforcement and deputies see tents, they can address it.”

Related links

With complaints about growing homeless presence, San Clemente council looks at enforcement options
Private security patrols start in San Clemente
San Clemente pens letter to state asking for Costa Mesa property to be housing for OC’s homeless

Earlier this year, the council approved closing beaches earlier and hired a private security firm to enhance patrols around North Beach, the Pier Bowl and the downtown following the assault of three Marines in the Pier Bowl by a group of teens and in response to ongoing nuisance and public safety concerns raised by the community, including from an increase homeless presence. The council has also asked for more sheriff’s deputies to patrol in those areas.

So far, Loeffler said, presence of the private security has had a positive effect.

Related Articles

​ Orange County Register 

HOA Homefront: Guidelines for all-virtual board meetings

• October 6, 2023

In 2024, Civil Code 4926 will permit 100% virtual meetings along with the current in-person and hybrid meeting formats.

Readers have submitted numerous questions since the pandemic (and explosion of virtual meetings) began regarding what is allowable for virtual meetings. Here are some ideas your board may wish to consider to modify the HOA’s meeting policies.

Who’s there: Require that participants rename themselves in the meeting to list their name and HOA address, so everyone knows who is attending the meeting.

Members only: Only HOA members (i.e. owners of homes) have the legal right to attend meetings. The rules should reiterate that to prevent someone from giving the meeting link to a tenant, Realtor®, or someone else not entitled to attend HOA board meetings.

We see you: Participants should be required to have their cameras on, which helps confirm their identity and right to attend. Also, consider banning visual displays by an attendee of anything other than the participant’s location – visual message displays, inappropriate background material, or inappropriate attire should not be permitted.

We hear you (and don’t want to): Participants should be required to mute their microphones unless they are called upon to speak. Better yet, set up the virtual meeting so that all participants are automatically muted and only the administrator/host of the meeting has the power to unmute attendees.

What you say won’t be used against you: Make it clear that virtual meetings will not be recorded and that the HOA does not consent to making recordings from the virtual broadcast. Members should not be subjected to the pressure that their comments might be recorded and potentially shared with others.

The bottom line, recordings should be not permitted. Remember, the HOA is a neighborhood, not a public agency, and the board members are not politicians but unpaid neighborhood volunteers. They shouldn’t have to be trained to choose every word deliberately – that’s what lawyers are trained to do.

No chat please: In three years of virtual or hybrid meetings I have seen some amazingly offensive statements made in the chat box of virtual platforms. I don’t know why homeowners are willing to write things in a chat box they would never say openly in a live meeting, but they do.

At the same time, homeowners in a live meeting are not allowed to just banter back and forth – so why allow it in the chat box? Consider a policy that the chat box will be disabled. Open forum should be verbal, not through chat notes.

Pardon the interruption: A policy should make it clear that, just as with a live meeting, someone violating the rules will be warned and then will be removed from the meeting.

Who you gonna call: The new statute requires that all members be notified of the person to contact with connection problems. Consider including that in the virtual meeting rules.

When the roll is called: Civil Code 4926 requires that in purely virtual meetings all board votes be by roll call vote, meaning each director verbally states their vote on each matter decided (yes, no, or abstain).

I am sure there are policies I haven’t considered – Let me know!

If your HOA pursues purely virtual board meetings, make them an asset for your community, not just a convenience.

Kelly G. Richardson, Esq. is a Fellow of the College of Community Association Lawyers and Partner of Richardson Ober LLP, a California law firm known for community association advice. Submit column questions to [email protected].

Related Articles

​ Orange County Register 

Cruisin’ the OC Auto Show in Anaheim

• October 6, 2023

Car enthusiasts and those in the market for a new ride were at the OC Auto Show Thursday looking at all the models that will be available in 2024.

Also at the show Thursday morning were high school and college students learning about the variety of careers available in the auto industry. The career day is part of a statewide program of the California New Car Dealers Association Foundation.

The auto show, which is presented by the Orange County Automobile Dealers Association and continues through Sunday at the Anaheim Convention Center, is a place to check out the newest features on vehicles and even the concepts of the future with no one worried about closing a sale.

As electric vehicles join the market, the auto show has added the SoCal Electrified Ride Experience in recent years. It offers a massive indoor electric vehicle test track and EV learning center.

Exotics, hybrids, traditional gas models are all on display and there are driving simulators to try out and the always popular Camp Jeep, an off-road test tracks.

General admission to the auto show is $15 – there are discounts for children, seniors and military – and you can find more information at AutoShowOC.com.

Related Articles

​ Orange County Register 

Michael Rosenbaum’s ‘Inside of You’ podcast goes live in L.A. with Zachary Levi

• October 6, 2023

Michael Rosenbaum is thrilled to finally be doing a live taping of his podcast “Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum” at the Regent Theater in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Oct. 11.

The actor, musician and host says it’s been years in the making; the show had first been expected to make its live debut in Austin with “Shazam!” actor Zachary Levi but the COVID-19 pandemic shut down that in-person Texas gathering.

“I really hadn’t looked into it since, but finally I was like ‘Why not?’” Rosenbaum said during a recent Zoom interview from his home in Los Angeles. “My biggest fear was that no one is going to show up, no one cares and I didn’t want to put myself out there. Then I was like, Let’s just do it. Let’s have fun and who cares who doesn’t show up. I love the podcast and it’s a big part of my life. I know it means a lot to other people too, so I wanted to do this and try it out and Zach Levi is going to be my guest again.”

In 2018, after a couple of television shows he’d been working on had been canceled, Rosenbaum, who is best known for portraying Lex Luthor on seven seasons of the TV superhero drama “Smallville,” decided to start a podcast. He launched “Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum” and brought on some pretty big-name guests, including his “Smallville” co-star Tom Welling, but it wasn’t catching on at first.

“I realized this is hard. No one was listening and I wasn’t making any money, but I was working really hard at it,” he said. “I wanted to quit a million times, but I just stayed with it and I realized the more vulnerable, the more upfront and honest, the more real you are with the questions you ask and you’re genuine and not trying to be like everyone else … that was key. I’m just a dude who is interested in other people and that’s it. I think that’s why it’s become successful.”

Rosenbaum said hosting a podcast didn’t come easy, but he soon figured out that it had to be about more than just two actors sitting around talking about actor stuff. He records the podcast at home for various platforms and YouTube, which he said creates a comfortable setting for guests to have more free-flowing conversations. In recent years, the talk has gravitated toward topics of self-care and mental health.

“I greet them at the door, ‘You want a cup of coffee? Are you hungry? Would you like a sandwich?’ and you have like a five-minute warm-up,” he said. “Then you start and you hope you can get to a place where the audience is listening and goes, ‘Hey, this is a really candid, open conversation and not just two actors talking.’”

“I want to talk about what makes you tick. What do you do when facing adversity? How do you deal with loss and your mental health? What do you do for anxiety? Do you go to a therapist? You work your way into those things if they present themselves.”

Rosenbaum said he’s had surprising moments with just about every guest as they open up and share their real-life experiences with one another. He credits Levi with helping him get into therapy and admits to still being hesitant at times to share too much of himself as deeper topics are explored.

“It’s still hard for me because some things happened to me when I was younger and I was surrounded by a lot of dysfunction,” he said. “I try to be as open as much as I can without hurting the people that I love. I try to speak the truth, I really do, but I can’t always be as forthcoming as I want to be, but I’m pretty damn upfront.”

That sort of vulnerability, coupled with the openness of his guests, like “Arrow” star Stephen Amell, who allowed Rosenbaum to air the panic attack he suffered as the duo were taping an episode three years ago, has really hit home with the listeners.

“The audience has become like a family,” he said, noting that on Patreon fans are able to communicate with one another, with Rosenbaum directly and submit questions they’d like to ask certain guests. “People come up to me on the street now and I’m like, ‘Wait, you’re not coming up to me about ‘Smallville’?’ and they’re like, ‘No, we love the podcast.’ It’s just been incredible, but a very slow roll.”

His guests have ranged from James Gunn and Andrew McCarthy to Paula Abdul and Jim Gaffigan and many more. With each episode, he said he’s taken away something profound. He said actor Crispin Glover was delightful (and Rosenbaum does a pretty spot-on impression of Glover in his role as George McFly in “Back to the Future”); he was thrilled to have Emmy award-winning actor and comedian Bob Odenkirk on – though that booking came about in an unusual way.

“He offered me a role in a movie and then he had to call me and say, ‘Hey, I’m sorry I have to tell you I can’t offer you the movie now because the producer got this other actor to do it, which is Will Arnett,’” he said with a laugh. “So I emailed him and said, ‘Hey, since I didn’t get in your movie, will you do my podcast?’ He laughed and said, ‘Sure.’ I was a little nervous because I loved his performance in ‘Breaking Bad’ and ‘Better Call Saul’ and I just learned so much more information about him that I didn’t know. It was fantastic.”

A few years ago, Rosenbaum said he took a break from acting because he wasn’t enjoying the process. “The No. 1 ingredient for me to do something is the element of fun, and my therapist agreed,” he said.

So he dove into the podcast and wrote music with his band Sun Spin. He’s also written a children’s book that will be out next year and taped a series with his longtime friend Jon Heder (Rosenbaum does another great impression of Heder in his lead role in “Napoleon Dynamite”).

“I wanted to do a reality show because we love horror movies. We’ll go to the scariest places on Earth and call it ‘Scared with Michael Rosenbaum and Jon Heder.’ He and I are just good friends and I could sense that people would want to watch that,” he said. “You have to do things that make you smile and do things that give you energy. Yeah, people have to work hard for a living and work at jobs they don’t like, but if you can do something on the side that you like, whether it makes you money or not, do it. Because it will save your mental health.”

For the live show, he expects that there will be a lot of energy and he’s ready to rip through some ’80s and ’90s tunes and fire T-shirts out into the audience with a T-shirt launcher.

“I just want everyone to have a good time,” he said. “We’re doing a meet and greet with Zach, too. Maybe we’ll belt out a song. I don’t know. We’re still figuring that out, but honestly, if you said ‘We’re going on now’ I could wing it because I think it’s all about being spontaneous and being fun, engaging the audience and everyone just enjoying it. I’m like a kid in a candy store. I enjoy these things.”

Michael Rosenbaum’s “Inside of You” Live Podcast with Zachary Levi

When: 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 11

Where: Regent Theater, 448 S. Main Street, Los Angeles

Tickets: $45-$150 at Ticketmaster.com

Related Articles

​ Orange County Register 

Southern California special district firefighter earns $290,000 … in overtime

• October 6, 2023

So we told you about the city firefighter who made more than $500,000 in overtime.

Then we told you about the county firefighter who made more than $400,000 in overtime.

And today we tell you about the special district firefighter who made more than $290,000 in overtime. (Starts to look cheap in comparison, right?)

The crown for “California’s Most Prolific Overtime Earner Among 164,000+ Special District Employees” for 2022 goes to a captain with the Orange County Fire Authority. His overtime pay ($290,399) was more than twice his regular pay ($127,306), with total wages of $451,010, according to data from the state controller.

That does not include what the Fire Authority pays for his health plan and retirement benefits, which totaled another $75,162 (for total compensation of $526,172).

Next up on the statewide special district “oodles of overtime” list was a Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District captain, whose overtime pay ($277,576) was also more than twice his regular pay ($122,325), with total wages of $435,780.

No. 3 statewide: another Orange County Fire Authority captain ($277,499 overtime, $124,877 regular pay, total wages of $444,110).

Surprise! No. 4 broke the firefighting mold — a staff nurse in Alameda County’s Washington Township Health Care District (overtime of $272,622, regular pay of $224,214, total wages of $499,620) — but firefighting popped right back with No. 5, with Riverside County’s Idyllwild Fire Protection District’s chief (overtime of $264,578, regular pay of $132,525, total wages of $463,680).

If someone had told me all this, I might have had a slightly different career trajectory. And to answer the question that comes up after each overtime series installment: No, overtime does not spike pension pay.

You can see the entire spreadsheet on statewide special district pay here.

What’s so special?

A special district, for those unschooled in California’s crazy patchwork quilt of local governments, is a single-purpose agency that (traditionally) popped up during California’s rural rancho days, when there weren’t city or county governments around to kill rats and mosquitoes, or distribute library books, or pump and deliver water, or treat and dispose of sewage, or, say, fight fires.

Even as major metropolises grew up around them they continue to exist. They exist above, beyond and in addition to the more visible (and perhaps more accountable) city, county and state governments, many of which could arguably do their jobs just fine and save taxpayers/ratepayers money at the same time.

• In Los Angeles County, there are 202 special districts (as well as 88 city governments and the county government), according to controller data.

• In Orange County, there are 77 special districts (as well as 34 city governments and the county government).

• In Riverside County, there are 117 special districts (as well as 28 city governments and the county government).

• In San Bernardino County, there are 99 special districts (as well as 24 city governments and the county government).

Every last one of them is vital to functioning, they’ll tell you. Their focus on a single mission (say, water delivery), rather than a mess of missions (say, like cities), allows them to provide better service. But precisely why, say, O.C. needs 16 different water agencies and a half-dozen sewer agencies — in addition to all those cities and the county government — will forever mystify me.

(OK, actually, not much of a mystery: “Believe it or not,” a droll Bob Braitman, retired LAFCO exec in many California counties told me, “special districts sometimes don’t want to consolidate. If you look it up in your dictionary, it’s something called ‘parochialism.’ Sometimes they pay their board of directors’ members a stipend. Sometimes the directors don’t want to give up that stipend, or the status that goes with it. Sometimes they’re opposed even if it would be logical. Sometimes.”)

Overtime

But we digress. Back to overtime and the firefighters who dominate the special district top-earners list, just like their municipal brethren.

In Orange County, OCFA overwhelms the overtime spending list, dropping $62 million on it last year. Its regular payroll was $141.2 million. Trailing way behind, but next up, was the Orange County Sanitation District, spending $2.3 million on overtime; the Irvine Ranch Water District, $2.2 million; Moulton-Niguel Water District, $1.3 million; and Santa Margarita Water District, $878,329. (See pay detail for all Orange County special districts here.)

In Riverside County, the overtime picture was much tamer. Its biggest overtime spender was the Riverside Transit Agency, at $2.9 million; the Coachella Valley Water District at $1.4 million; the Sunline Transit Agency at $1.2 million; Eastern Municipal Water District at $924,099; and the Western Municipal Water District at $840,324. (See pay detail for all Riverside County special districts here.)

In San Bernardino County, the biggest overtime spenders were the Chino Valley Independent Fire District, at $8.3 million; the Inland Empire Health Plan, $5 million; Big Bear Fire Authority, $2.9 million; Omnitrans, $2.5 million; and the Apple Valley Fire Protection District $1.6 million. (See pay detail for all San Bernardino County special districts here.)

Los Angeles County doesn’t have any independent firefighting special districts to dominate the list. That left the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority as the biggest overtime spender, at $84.4 million. Next up was Antelope Valley Healthcare District, $17.2 million; the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, $12.6 million; L.A. County Sanitation District No. 2, $7.8 million; and the South Coast Air Quality Management District, $2.6 million. (See pay detail for all Los Angeles County special districts here.)

Why?

Well, as far as firefighting goes, there are the demands of crazy fire seasons and the “minimum staffing levels” hammered out between agencies and their elected boards.

OCFA has been wrestling with overtime costs for years. It tracks the spending closely and reports on it annually — it has run close to $70 million a year for the past several years. It will keep wrestling the bear: Staff has been directed to “continue pursuing reductions in overtime by filling vacant positions as quickly as possible after the positions become vacant,” as well as queue up more dispatchers and “use overtime to fill shifts that are temporarily vacant rather than hiring additional personnel, recognizing this as a cost-effective practice for temporary needs.”

The basic situation: “All seven Chino Valley Fire District fire stations are staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year,” said spokesperson Massiel Ladron De Guevara. “Overtime is generated for various reasons, including vacancies resulting from retirements or injuries to personnel. The Fire District has a recruitment schedule in place to find quality candidates to fill vacancies.”

We had a refreshingly frank chat with Jeff Willis, chief of the Big Bear Fire Authority.

“Other departments can adjust staffing depending on the anticipated workload — but that’s not the case with the fire services,” he said. “We don’t have the ability to predict that with reasonable accuracy. That drives minimum staffing levels — the cost of the standing army.”

Well, we know the overwhelming majority of emergency calls are medical in nature. So why does a fire engine show up alongside the ambulance? Do they expect people to spontaneously combust?

“That gets back to workload,” he said. “It’s difficult to accurately predict what a patient’s needs are going to be. In Big Bear, houses are up off the road or down below. Sometimes just two people carrying a gurney up or down the stairs is not appropriate. You might need four people to carry the gurney.

“When people dial 911, they expect an awful lot from us.”

Related Articles

Of course, the folks who run things have the power to expand or contract the “standing army,” though this is often a bitter battle fought with unions seeking to get the most for their members. Like some other fire agencies, Big Bear transitioned firefighters off of ambulances. It now has new non-safety classifications for the likes of ambulance operators, paramedics and emergency medical services workers, and that has saved money.

“Those folks are very qualified, but they are not designated safety personnel,” he said. “They can’t do cut and rescue, firefighting, the safety aspects that are the most dangerous parts of our job. They’re not allowed.”

To make a real dent in overtime, we hear two different things: 1. Give us more money to hire more people; or 2. Change the minimum staffing model, separating fire from paramedic services.

OT can be contained, but only by changing the model, city administrators have told us. Some believe that nobody in the fire service wants to contain OT because it lines their pockets handsomely.

Want to do something about that? Let your city council members, county supervisors and special district boards know.

​ Orange County Register 

California is leading the way in Medicaid abuse

• October 6, 2023

California has just asked for and received a waiver from the federal government that allows the state to skip eligibility verification for Medi-Cal.

According to estimates from the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association, American taxpayers are losing more than $100 billion a year to Medicare and Medicaid fraud. In California – where the Medicaid program is referred to as Medi-Cal – there is little incentive to address waste, fraud and abuse in the handling of billions in federal funding.

With Medi-Cal, it now appears that California’s sloppiness is by design as there are perverse incentives to actually expand abuses. First, some background.

The Social Security Act mandates that Medicaid’s eligibility guidelines include verification of assets, income, and employment status. But, amid the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic, emergency measures were enacted, and Medicaid enrollment was facilitated without the usual verification of eligibility. While understandably designed to provide immediate relief during a crisis, by law it was to be only a temporary measure.

Medicaid’s suspension of eligibility determination protocols like asset verification was similar to the SBA’s fraud-riddled Paycheck Protection Program — pay first, verify later. And while millions of people kept their healthcare, it was at a cost of hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars lost to fraud and waste.

Now that many Medicaid recipients have reentered the workforce, a major beneficiary of lenient Medicaid eligibility standards appear to be the insurance companies because they receive a per-member, per-month fee from the American taxpayers.

Private insurers encouraging lax Medicaid eligibility requirements is fast-becoming a budgetary emergency — not just for California’s Medi-Cal program, but nationally. The Louisiana Department of Health spent $112 million on Medicaid coverage for nearly 14,000 adults who don’t appear to live in Louisiana, according to a state legislative audit. Simply “verifying” someone’s address would have solved that problem. Insurance companies don’t view this as “their” problem.

Now that the pandemic has subsided, Medicaid is under a statutory obligation to enforce eligibility verification again. Without it, taxpayers will be handing thousands of dollars per person to insurance companies for people who have access to other health plans.

Unfortunately, the perception that millions of Americans are about to imminently lose their Medicaid coverage has led California to request that CMS allow them to waive the “asset verification” requirement for Medi-Cal recipients. Foolishly, CMS just approved their request in what appears to be a direct violation of the Social Security Act.

The practical effect of all this is that California has taken a huge step toward what it has wanted for decades; a single payer system known as Medicaid For All.

But the problems with this tactic – both legal and practical – are countless. First, if California is allowed to continue down this path it is likely to embolden other states to follow suit. It’s critical to consider the fiscal implications not only for individual states but also for the federal government, whose coffers are affected by such decisions.

Second, California’s failure to include asset verification is reminiscent of the state’s $31+ billion fraud loss to cybercriminals who exploited similar loopholes in the state’s unemployment insurance program — the largest sum ever lost by a state to organized crime.

Third, once somebody is on the Medicaid rolls, it is assumed by other agencies that they “qualify” for the program. This is called Broad Based Categorical Eligibility, and by being on Medicaid, somebody becomes eligible for TANF, SNAP and a host of other benefits. Has the Congressional Budget Office or the OIG even considered the financial implications of suspending eligibility requirements for all entitlement and welfare programs?

Related Articles

Finally, this pen-stroke policy shift raises moral, ethical, and even Constitutional concerns: can one state, in concert with a single President, violate the law, circumvent Congress, and force the rest of the country to pay for it? California surely has a right to spend $1 trillion a year, or $10 trillion for that matter, on providing free healthcare to its residents — but not using money that is taken from taxpayers of other states.

In approving California’s request to permanently dissolve asset verification for Medi-Cal, CMS is setting a dangerous precedent for the rest of the nation. The situation demands scrutiny and a transparent debate. Rather than allowing this policy shift to unfold in the shadows, a public debate should be robust and inclusive. This is a decision that affects not only those in need of healthcare assistance but also every taxpayer who bears the financial burden of such expansion, including future generations.

Jon Coupal is president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.

​ Orange County Register