[Moxley Confidential] Senator Dick Ackerman Does the Right Thing In the Case of James Ochoa

Comments (0) By R. SCOTT MOXLEY Thursday, Aug 14 2008

In an Aug. 4 letter from Senior Assistant DA William J. Feccia to county CEO Thomas Mauk, Feccia confirmed the basics of the Register's reporting.

For example, according to Feccia, Street signed a procurement document that falsely backdated a project by two months and also wrote specifications for a spending project "in such a manner that [a specific company] would likely receive the contract, as opposed to the other two competing vendors."

Republican State Senator from Fullerton, Dick Ackerman

James Ochoa, holding his little brother, before his arrest

More About

Despite these facts, Feccia concluded that no laws were violated, in part because the state legislature protects government officials who lie in memorandums, correspondence and other official records if other government officials (that would be local prosecutors) determine the documents "possess no legal significance."

Chew on that factoid for a minute . . . and then spit.

But Street might not be clean in the eyes of still-probing federal investigators. Before he was elected treasurer, he served as a court-appointed bankruptcy trustee for a company, grabbing an obscene salary of more than $2 million while charging the crumbling firm $477,527 for his vacations, clothes and a plush office overlooking Balboa Island. Street even billed the company for Botox treatments.

IT'S YOUR MONEY, BUT THE GOVERNMENT SPENDS IT
In June, the Costa Mesa City Council, supposedly run by tight-fisted conservatives, voted without a word of discussion to bypass competitive bidding and spend $127,212 for just eight Panasonic Toughbook laptop computers.

That's $15,901 per computer.

Or $12,000 more than the highest, non-discounted price I could find for the same computer by shopping online.

Or, even better, a whopping $13,402 more than the suggested retail price offered by Costa Mesa's vendor, Accela Government Solutions.

rscottmoxley@ocweekly.com