Will Orange County Finally Say No to the Orange County Human Relations Commission/Council?

                                                      Rusty Kennedy in his (hopefully) soon-to-be former office.


For a few years now, the Orange County Board of Supervisors has debated the question of defunding its biggest white elephant,  the Orange County Human Relations Commission and a 6-figure salary for Rusty the Empty Suit Kennedy, a man who has been feeding at the public trough his entire adult life. It was my understanding that the board had decided to phase out funding after a couple of years, but I guess they changed their minds because they are still debating it.

This time they are examining the dual roles of the OCHRC with its private sister bureaucracy, the Orange County Human Rights Council, which is supposed to operate with private funding. When you’ve been in the bureaucracy as long as Kennedy, you learn how to construct these complicated webs at the public’s expense. Now Kennedy wants money to fund new staffing positions for the private Council to place  three of its members on the public Commission.

If you are confused, it’s called entangling.

According to the above link, the Council raises $1.6 million a year but $1.3 million of that goes to salaries and expenses. 

On Tuesday, this question will be debated at the Board of Supervisors meeting in Santa Ana, which is open to the public. True to form, Kennedy is enlisting his pals to come and plead his case.

http://www.ochumanrelations.org/uncategorized/time/

“Orange County staff called us yesterday to inform us that if the Board of Supervisors does not approve our winning bid to provide staff support to the OC Human Relations Commission, our nonprofit (the OC Human Relations Council) will be evicted from our office in a matter of days on July 1, 2017″ 

In contrast, one OC resident has a different take. Here is what Barry Forman ( a friend and colleague) has written to the Board of Supervisors:

“We urge the Orange County Board of Supervisors to defund and separate the non-profit Orange County Human Relations Council (OCHRC) from the government run Orange County Human Relations Commission.  The two groups currently share executive members, web-site and funding.  Even if the The OCHRC were doing a wonderful job it is remains HIGHLY inappropriate for a non-profit group that answers to its leaders and donors to be entangled with the similarly named government Commission.  The Commission must answer to the Board of Supervisors and ultimately to the voters.  The Council has no such mandate and therefore the current relationship and funding of the Council usurps the power of the people.

Dear Supervisors, 

My name is Gary Fouse. I am a resident of Lake Forest, and from 1998-2016 was 
a part-time teacher at UC Irvine. I may not be able to make next Tuesday's 
meeting in which you will discuss the OCHRC, so I would like to send you my thoughts 
in writing. 

While I am not able to address the specific issue in question, I have 
definite thoughts on the value (or lack thereof) of the OCHRC (be it Commission or 
Council). In my view, this organization has for too long been a drain on the 
tax-payers with very little to show for it. I am fully aware that the OC 
Supervisors have been debating the continued funding for this white elephant 
for several years. I have spoken at a few of these meetings. 

During my time at UC Irvine, I became aware of campus anti-semitism happening 
on our campus as part of the pro-Palestinian movement and its sponsored events. 
Though I am not Jewish, I know how dangerous anti-semitism is and where it 
leads. For 10 years now, I have been attending and videotaping these events,

many of which have featured speakers who not only trash Israel, but Jews as 

well. 

In 2008, I wrote a letter to Rusty Kennedy complaining about this problem at 
UCI. I also criticized the university administration for their negligence in 
confronting the problem in spite of numerous complaints of harassment by 
Jewish students. Mr Kennedy's response to me was sharply worded taking me to task 
for criticizing the university itself. Mr Kennedy also told me in general terms 
of all the great work his agency has done on campus in this issue. Yet, I have 
never seen them on campus during the annual anti-Israel week of events. With 
all of the incidents that have happened at UCI involving Jewish and 
pro-Palestinian students, many of which I personally witnessed, the OCHRC to 

my knowledge has never gotten involved-certainly not to defend Jewish students 

under attack on campus. 

Instead, the OCHRC is, in my view, a politically-correct agency that is 
interested in only in certain types of hate incidents. When it comes to 
anti-semitism at UCI, they have been missing in action. 

And what do they produce to justify this huge investment -not to mention Mr 
Kennedy's six- figure salary? They produce a thin pamphlet every year with 
charts and graphs. They hold some feel-good events, and if anything bad 
happens, Mr Kennedy is Johnny-on-the-spot to make a statement. 

Don't get me wrong; I want Orange County to have harmonious relations between 
the various ethnic and religious communities. I myself am married to a 
Mexican immigrant. For the most, I think relations in the county are pretty good. We 
don't need this agency to keep relations on an even keel. If you want to 
argue that the county has serious problems in relations between the various groups, 
then I would counter that the OCHRC has failed to ameliorate the problem. 

Whatever this white elephant agency is asking for now, I hope you will look 
at it with a skeptical eye. 

 Thank you for your attention. 


 Gary Fouse 

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No doubt, Rusty’s cohorts will come out Tuesday to argue that without the OCHRC+C, Orange County will descend into one big race war, but this is not Los Angeles. We can get along just fine without Rusty and his annual charts and graphs (which I don’t believe anyway). If any of you readers live in Orange County, think about writing to the Board of Supervisors.