Orange County Register

If you needed yet another indication of OC’s housing price problems…the Reg’s Jon Lansner has a report on his real estate blog about a dramatic increase in late property tax payments. Treasurer-Tax Collector Chriss Street told the supes this morning that collections are running $60 million over a year ago. That’s up 7.6 percent.

Hearing more today on the ruffle-up that rages on between Supe John Moorlach and his frenemy, Treasurer-Tax Collector Chriss Street…

So you might remember my posting last week. Moorlach was angry that he hadn’t been told about my story that reported the CEO had cleared Street of tampering with a controversial contract.

Street’s now firing back, sending a letter to the supes yesterday that rips Moorlach for that email, calling it “black helicopter musings.” I hear that Street’s mad because he was denied time to speak at yesterday’s supes meeting.

“The old John Moorlach would have picked up the phone and congratulated our office like so many others did Thursday,” Street wrote. “Sadly, he again chose politics over principal. Backed into a corner by his previous belligerence and bellicose statements, he lashed out with a self-aggrandising and factually inaccurate mass email.”

I’m hearing that this is going to play out publicly, too, as Street wants to speak before the board and is seeking support in getting on the agenda. Click below to read Street’s memo.

3:10 p.m. update — Hearing Street will be on Tuesday’s agenda.

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Seems I’ve angered Supe John Moorlach (um, again)…according to his “MOORLACH UPDATE” mass email of this morning, he wasn’t informed about my story. That appears to make him a little cranky because it violated what he calls an “unwritten rule of management” — “no surprises.”

“The CEO has not released the report, so he did not update me on this work product.  The reporter did not contact me for comment.  So we have another case of finding things out in the papers—not a pleasant working condition.”

Then, he asks some very pointed questions of his hand-picked successor, Chriss Street. I would have liked to have asked the same ones — but Street’s PR flack, Keith Rodenhuis, never got back to me yesterday.

Click below to read Moorlach’s mass email.

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Remember last year when we were going through the thick of the many Chriss Street dramas? Well, there’s been a resolution, of sorts, to one of them.

I talked to CEO Tom Mauk today and his internal investigation has resulted in clearing the treasurer of tampering with that Ware Malcomb contract. But “several” county workers (some of whom had been placed on paid leave back in September) have been disciplined for violating purchasing rules, Mauk said.

But whether Street will survive another probe into the contract is still uncertain. The district attorney is still investigating Street’s role in the Ware Malcomb contract as part of a larger investigation, TRack’s office confirmed today.

So what happened?

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Nick Berardino, the general manager of the Orange County Employees Association, just sent a letter to each of the five members of the Board of Supervisors demanding that it strip Treasurer-Tax Collector Chriss Street of his investment powers.

Berardino’s beef? The Register’s reports that the county could lose $80 million on Street’s investment in a controversial and complex security called Whistlejacket Capitol. The Register’s Ron Campbell reported today that a British court order means the county will be one of the last creditors paid by the failing company. 

“The county treasurer made an $80 million bet on an SIV named after a racehorse, and now it appears that Whistlejacket Capital has broken down at the quarter pole,” Berardino’s letter read.

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