Johnson refutes, challenges Shifflett's claim

By: Contributed | Orange County Review
Published: November 19, 2009

To the editor,
George C. Shifflett Jr. is mistaken when he claims that the taxpayers of Orange County have given the Boosters club only $10,000 over the past five years.
It may come as a surprise to Mr. Shifflett, but the county finance department actually keeps track of such things. Over the past five years, something over $108,000 has moved from the taxpayers of Orange County to the Boosters club. This is over and beyond money passed through for registration fees. That is $108,000 that the taxpayers have had to pay in order to use their own park. This is a fact which anyone can check with the Orange County Finance Department.
Mr. Shifflett is wrong again when he theorizes that the board of supervisors wants to give the park to "another group" along with "$30,000 for start-up costs.” That is pure fantasy. What the current board wants to do is have a group with open membership administer the park. The Boosters club was given the opportunity to keep the park, all they had to do was agree to open the club to all interested Orange County residents and maintain open financial books. This very modest and reasonable request was rejected.
Mr. Shifflett is correct that the Boosters club has been around for many years but what he fails to explain is that for the first 25 years or so of its existence, it was an open membership organization that had broad participation from the community. At some point, without informing the local government or the public who owns Booster Park, the Boosters converted the organization to a closed membership.
Mr. Shifflett closed his letter with a quote he attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson, so in the same spirit I'll remind all that Emerson was once moved to recall, "The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons."
R. Mark Johnson

Johnson refutes, challenges Shifflett's claim

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