Tuesday's Primary Election Day was the first time the County used its new electronic voting machines, the eSlate system. I was pleased that the equipment worked as advertised and there were no equipment failures. We are learning that the training provided by our Registrar of Voters to poll workers who operated the machines could have been more thorough. The Board of Supervisors will hear a report on how we fared and what we learned when it certifies election results on March 30.

I can not say enough about the thousands of Orange County residents who volunteer their time as poll workers on Election Day. These selfless individuals showed up for at least 15 hours of work on Election Day and were met with a tremendous challenge in helping the County implement its new electronic voting system. I think we should all thank them for their service. I look forward to working with them as the County implements the lessons learned from this first eSlate election.

To view pictures from the Registrar's office taken as ballots were being counted, click here. To view countywide election results, click here. To view statewide election results, click here.

On Tuesday I attended the Election Day lunch that is organized by Christine Diemer Iger and a committee of local public affairs professionals to celebrate Election Day and have some fun at the expense of the candidates. At the lunch participants also had the opportunity to predict the winners for many of the competitive primary races in Orange County. To see the predictions compared to the actual, click here.

The Ad Hoc Committee of the Transportation Corridor System Board heard presentations on six alternative ideas for solving the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor's future debt payment problems. Supervisor Chris Norby, Orange County Treasurer John Moorlach, a private tollway operator and two investment banking firms presented these alternatives.

I thought several of the ideas presented better, lower cost, less risky solutions than the one developed by TCS staff. However at the end of the presentation a representative of MBIA, a company which specializes in insuring lower credit rated entities like the TCA, announced he had no confidence that MBIA would insure any of the proposals except the staff proposal. As a result of this development the Ad Hoc committee will only evaluate the staff proposal using all fixed rate debt or a mix of fixed rate and hedged variable rate debt. At this moment I have no confidence that I can support the staff proposal.

Hurrah! Good news it works! The opening of the one-half mile westbound auxiliary lane on State Route 91 has saved drivers as much as 15 to 20 minutes on their commutes into Orange County during peak periods. Given the dramatic improvement the $6.7 million project provided for westbound traffic, I have proposed that an eastbound auxiliary lane be added to the SR-91 between the State Route 241 and 71 interchanges.

I also received a letter this past week from Cofiroute Global Mobility who handles the daily operation of 91 Express Lanes for OCTA. The company informed me that they have hired two new senior managers to provide additional depth and expertise to the 91 Express Lane team. Herve LeCaignec was appointed to serve as the President of Cofiroute Global Mobility and Jan Mittermeier, former CEO for the County of Orange, was hired as Vice President of Operations.

On Monday, I also received a briefing on the Imperial Highway Grade Separation Project. This project will widen and grade-separate Imperial Highway at the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railroad crossing and Esperanza Road/Orangethorpe Avenue. For more information on the project, click here.

Caltrans has announced the emergency closure of the road connecting the northbound SR-55 to the westbound SR-22. The recent rain damaged a portion of the road and repairs must be completed in order to prevent the loss of the road payment. The connector will be closed from Friday, March 5 at 10:00 pm through Monday, March 8 at 5:00 am. For more information, please contact the Transportation Helpline at 1-800-724-0353.

At the request of the Orange Park Acres Board of Directors, I hosted a meeting between OPA and the City of Orange to discuss the service issues which would be raised if OPA were to seek annexation into the city. The OPA representatives raised concerns regarding the preservation of the rural atmosphere of their community and concerns regarding sewage service. The City of Orange agreed that the rural atmosphere of the community should be preserved. OPA and the city agreed to collect more information regarding the current water system serving the community and agreed to work with the Orange County Sanitation District to study the cost of placing sewer service in OPA.

All of the parties acknowledge the issues of concern to the community and agreed to evaluate the possibility of annexation if, and only if, the OPA community is supportive of annexation. I have committed to work on the sewage issues facing OPA and have offered to host another meeting between the interested parties if the OPA community wishes to consider the possibility of annexation.

Last Saturday morning I spoke to the OPA annual meeting at Salem Lutheran Church. I updated the group on my efforts to address the problem of commercial horse boarding in their residential neighborhood. The County Planning Department is writing an ordinance at my request to limit the number of horses that can reside on residential property. When it is complete I make it available to the community to get feedback before moving forward. I also demonstrated our new voting machines and brought demonstration units for people to test.

Congratulations to Mike Forkert, Zeke Duge, and John Cox, who are newly elected to the OPA Board of Directors. I would also like to thank Chuck McNees and Dick Christman for their service on the Board.

On Monday night I attended the Foothill Communities Association (FCA) annual meeting. The FCA acts as a homeowners association for the North Tustin and foothill communities. I provided a demonstration of the County's new voting machines and updated the members on County activities in the North Tustin area over the past year. Many of the attendees expressed interest in converting from septic systems to sewer systems. I have asked the Orange County Sanitation District to make a presentation to the FCA Board and to a North Tustin Advisory Committee public meeting on their plans for upgrading the sewers in North Tustin.

The association also recognized Anita Bennyhoff of the Foothill Sentry newspaper for her years of dedicated service to the community. To view pictures, click here.

The Orangewood Children's Foundation hosted its 6^th Annual "Independent City" for 170 foster youth this past Saturday at Hope University in Fullerton. "Independent City" is an interactive, hands-on experience which helps the youth understand how to make life decisions and teaches them how to handle emancipation once they turn 18.

Each participant received a "career card" indicating his/her profession, gross and net salary, and expenses for rent, utilities and groceries. With checkbooks and maps in hand, the youth visited the various stations of the "city." They first needed to find affordable housing, to sign up and pay for utilities, and to buy groceries. Further enhancing the reality of "city life," some participants were handed "life event" cards such as getting a speeding ticket, sick baby, job layoff, or winning the lottery.

At each station, the Foundation's staff provided instructions on how to write a check and work with a budget worksheet, how to use credit wisely, how to apply for a higher paying job and how to evaluate the cost of furthering their education. The workshop also provided additional information on nutrition, diet and exercise, mental health, and financial aid for college.

I think this is an outstanding program, and the participants learned so much from it. What a great experience for so many who will soon to be out on their own, and are now better prepared for what lies ahead.

My scheduler Marcie Culver recently accepted an offer to join the County's Human Resources Department. My staff and I wish Marcie all the best. I appreciated her service to former Supervisor Todd Spitzer and me. Renee Chinchilla has been hired to replace Marcie on the Third District staff. Renee joins us from the Health Care Agency, where she was responsible for coordination of all of their agenda items for the Board of Supervisors. Please join me in welcoming Renee to my staff.

With the many changes in staff, I would like to announce that the staff assigned to each community within the Third District has changed. Heather Baird will now be handling the cities of Yorba Linda and Brea. Robert Zemel will be handling the canyons. Mark Denny is responsible for Tustin and North Tustin; Patti Gorczyca will continue to support Anaheim Hills, and Christine Joens will cover the cities of Irvine, Orange and Villa Park. If you are a resident of these communities and have concerns regarding county services, I would urge you to contact the staff member assigned to your community for assistance.

CONGRATULATONS- Congratulations to Analucia Lopezrevoredo of Tustin for earning the Gold Award, the highest achievement in Girl Scouting, and for being recognized nationally as a Young Woman of Distinction.

CERTIFICATES OF RECOGNITION- Certificates of recognition were awarded to the Yorba Linda-based JUSA Select Boys club soccer team for winning back to back weekend soccer tournaments at the Canyon Hills Holiday Cup and the Desert United Classic in Palm Desert. The team members include Michael Aranda, Kevin Dunn, Kevin Martinez, Auston Caudillo, Abdu Jama, Dennis Holt, John Moon, Fernando Ramos, Alex Lopez, Marco Espinoza, Stephen Donnelly, Tim Shaw, Brian Montenegro and Matt Parker. The team is coached by Jorge Rodriguez.

DISTRICT CONTACTS- I met with Public Defender Debbie Kwast regarding her first six months on the job. I also met with representatives of the Irvine Westpark Maintenance District regarding San Mateo Park.

I attended the OCTA Executive Committee and the SR-91 Advisory Committee meetings. I was honored to be elected Vice Chairman of the SR-91 Advisory Committee. Riverside Supervisor John Tavaglione was elected Chairman. There was an interesting presentation by representatives of Cofiroute on the building of a ten mile automobile tunnel under the city of Paris, France. Click here to see the presentation.

This past Saturday, I had an opportunity to attend the Orange County Hospital Disaster Support Communications System Annual Orientation and Review Workshop. This group supports the region's hospitals when there is a county emergency and aids the hospitals in communicating through HAM radios. To view pictures, click here.

I also spoke to the Orange County Republican Women Federated and attended the Harvard Business School Association of Orange County networking function at the Bower's Museum to view the Tibet exhibit. If you have not seen the exhibit, I highly recommend it.

I attended the 9th Annual "Walk in My Shoes" event hosted by the Human Relations Commission. To view the Human Relations Commission's report on the event, click here.

It is a pleasure to serve the constituents of the Third District.

Please pray for our armed forces and our foreign services personnel.