{"id":390778,"date":"2026-07-08T16:33:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T16:33:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/390778\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T16:33:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T16:33:20","slug":"less-than-a-quarter-of-o-c-residents-feel-local-gov-works-for-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/390778\/","title":{"rendered":"Less than a quarter of O.C. residents feel local gov works for them"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Do Orange County officials actually work for you? Only 23% of the 1,200 people who participated in \u201cTrust Divided<\/a>,\u201d a UC Irvine School of Ecology survey released last week trust their city governments. County government overall fared better, with 42% giving it the thumbs up.<\/p>\n

The UCI poll offers a really nuanced angle that is less about raw corruption such as the Andrew Do bribery scandal that sent the former county supervisor to jail in 2025<\/a>, and more about the feeling that average citizens are being left behind in favor of big interests.<\/p>\n

All of this is explained in the TimesOC article \u201cWho does local government work for? O.C. residents polled say not the people,\u201d<\/a> published over the weekend and written by Gabriel San Rom\u00e1n.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re grading on a curve, then Orange County officials can feel pretty good about the county, especially against other forms of government,\u201d said Jon Gould, the School of Social Ecology\u2019s dean, \u201cbut if we\u2019re just doing an absolute grading scale, then they\u2019re not getting a passing grade yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

The poll drilled down to how Democrats and Republicans, although sharing the same general leeriness of government, would address the problem, according to the article.<\/p>\n

\u201cNearly 60% of Democrats surveyed favor expanding the number of seats on the Orange County Board of Supervisors and making the county\u2019s chief executive an elected position, while less than half of Republicans and independents support such reforms,\u201d the reporter writes.<\/p>\n

It was interesting to me to learn that members of younger generations who participated in the poll \u201cdisplayed a higher trust in community organizations, meaning cynicism isn\u2019t divorcing them from civic life,\u201d according to the story.<\/p>\n

If they continue living in O.C., and their attitudes don\u2019t change, \u201cthis place will look blue very quickly,\u201d Gould told the reporter. <\/p>\n

MORE NEWS \"Newport <\/p>\n

Newport Beach police Saturday look on as revelers light illegal fireworks. City leaders this week are debriefing after more than 400 people were arrested over the weekend.<\/p>\n

(City of Newport Beach)<\/p>\n

\u2022 Despite its best-laid plans<\/a> well in advance of the summer influx of visitors to make sure everything ran smoothly, Newport Beach was in the headlines<\/a>, and not in a good way, over Independence Day weekend. Massive, rowdy crowds led to mayhem, vandalism and more than 400 arrests. Was the influx due to TikTok takeover<\/a>, as alleged by the Newport Beach Police Assn.? Wherever the blame lies, the mayor has said the matter will be taken up with the City Council so the 2027 Fourth of July is a tamer affair.<\/p>\n

\u2022 In other dismaying local news as the nation\u2019s 250th birthday was being celebrated, Laguna Beach had to shut down one of its beaches throughout the weekend because of a 2,000-gallon sewage spill<\/a>.<\/p>\n

BUSINESS \"Tiffany <\/p>\n

Tiffany & Co. unveils its newly redesigned South Coast Plaza store in Costa Mesa. <\/p>\n

(Courtesy of South Coast Plaza)<\/p>\n

\u2022 Tiffany & Co. on June 30 unveiled its redesigned store in South Coast Plaza<\/a> ahead of its planned opening of the Blue Box Cafe from noted French chef and restaurateur Daniel Boulud, expected to take place later this month.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Disneyland, for a limited time, is offering $71 tickets exclusively for Anaheim residents<\/a>. In May, Disney executives said its U.S. theme parks had a 1% drop in attendance compared with the previous year<\/p>\n

CRIME & COURTS<\/p>\n

\u2022 Orange County real estate investor Mahender Makhijani, 44, of Corona del Mar, accused of criminally defrauding an Arizona bank of nearly $100 million pleaded not guilty Monday<\/a> in a Santa Ana federal courtroom and remains in custody. A trial date was set for Aug. 11.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Ernesto Jose Frias Ybarra, 46, pleaded not guilty Monday<\/a> to embezzling about $325,000 from Cliff Restaurant in Laguna Beach. Ybarra was arrested in March of last year on suspicion of embezzling more than $300,000 from the Mojave Desert Land Trust in Joshua Tree.<\/p>\n

\u2022 A Garden Grove police officer, 32-year-old Roberto Machuca has been accused of an \u201cinappropriate interaction\u201d<\/a> involving a member of the Explorer program for young people interested in learning about law enforcement.<\/p>\n

\u2022 More alleged victims of a former State Parks superintendent, all lifeguards, have engaged attorney Gloria Allred to file suit against their former boss<\/a>, who is accused of filming them when they were undressed in a locker room.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Another civil lawsuit making its way through the courts is one in which the Nellie Gail Ranch Owners Assn. filed a claim against a couple who modified the fencing<\/a> around the back of their property to protect their goats from coyote attacks.<\/p>\n

SPORTS \"Angels <\/p>\n

Angels pitcher Ryan Johnson delivers during the first inning of a baseball game against the Boston Red Sox, Sunday, July 5, in Anaheim, .<\/p>\n

(William Liang \/ AP)<\/p>\n

\u2022 With a 7-5 loss Sunday to the Red Sox in Anaheim<\/a>, the Angels had lost six straight games and 12 of 19 since June 14, putting them fifth in the American League West. After newsletter deadline last night, they were in Texas playing the Rangers, who are second in the league.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The U.S. Men\u2019s Youth National water polo team, featuring Newport Harbor High graduates Kai Kaneko and Tyler Anderson and Sailors coach Ross Sinclair as its head coach, made history on the Fourth of July at the World Aquatics Youth World Championships, when it won a silver medal. It was the best-ever finish for Team USA at the Youth Worlds, according to this report<\/a> by the Daily Pilot\u2019s Matt Szabo.<\/p>\n

LIFE & LEISURE \"Olivia <\/p>\n

Founded by pop\/rock singer-songwriter Olivia Rodrigo and produced by C3 Presents, Daisy Chain Fields will debut at the Great Park in Irvine on Aug. 29.<\/p>\n

(Brian van der Brug \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

\u2022 Daisy Chain Fields, a music festival founded by pop\/rock singer-songwriter Olivia Rodrigo and produced by C3 Presents is debuting at the Great Park in Irvine on Aug. 29<\/a>, and it\u2019s considered quite a catch for O.C. Tickets sold out immediately, although we did learn via an announcement yesterday from Verizon it will release a limited number of them to Verizon customers<\/a> at 10 a.m. tomorrow (Thursday). <\/p>\n

\u2022 Owen Logan, a budding Newport Beach filmmaker who had reservations about the use of artificial intelligence in his field, created a short film using AI<\/a> at the suggestion of his professor at Boston University. The result was \u201cMother of Exiles<\/a>,\u201d which last month was awarded best student film at the New Media Film Festival.<\/a> <\/p>\n

\u2022 When Costa Mesa High School opened in 1958, it was at first serving freshmen only. Today, a group of women who were members of that class still regularly get together 68 years later. \u201cWe\u2019ve been friends since third or fourth grade, most of us, and most of us are still here,\u201d one of the members of the \u201cYa-Yas\u201d told Daily Pilot assistant editor Sara Cardine for this feature story<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s just a treasure that we\u2019re all still very close.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Oro, <\/p>\n

Oro, a 55-pound Aussiedoodle, has joined the Laguna Beach Fire Department as its first peer support dog.<\/p>\n

(Andrew Turner)<\/p>\n

\u2022 Sometimes only a wet, sloppy kiss can soothe one\u2019s beleaguered soul: Oro, a 55-pound Aussiedoodle, has joined the Laguna Beach Fire Department<\/a> as its first peer support dog. <\/p>\n

\u2022 The Waymakers Huntington Beach Youth Shelter, a short-term intervention shelter<\/a> for runaway, homeless and at-risk youth, which is located adjacent to Central Park recently celebrated its 20th anniversary<\/a>. Over the past two decades the shelter has helped more than 2,660 youths, provided more than 70,000 hours of therapy, 120,000 hours of tutoring and 167,000 meals, according to officials.<\/p>\n

FOOD \"The <\/p>\n

The pho station at AnQi Bistro\u2019s Bia Hoi Marketplace serves hot pho soup. <\/p>\n

(Carl Larsen)<\/p>\n

\u2022 AnQi Bistro in South Coast Plaza is presenting brunches inspired by street food culture of Vietnam<\/a>. The Bia Hoi Marketplace Brunch is available the first Sunday of the month from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and priced at $65 + per person. For details and reservations, go to anqibistro.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2022 OCVibe has announced an impressive list of new eateries<\/a> that will be coming to Katella Commons food hall and is expected to open in 2027. <\/p>\n

\u2022 The Ecology Center<\/a> in San Juan Capistrano is offering monthly dinners with acclaimed chefs at Hearth, a 36-seat live fire pavilion near the farmland toward the back of the property. You can read all about it in this Daily Pilot & TimesOC feature story<\/a>.<\/p>\n

CALENDAR \"Oso <\/p>\n

Oso Viejo Community Park in Mission Viejo is the venue for BBQ Music Fest, which is taking place this weekend.<\/p>\n

(Matt Pawlik)<\/p>\n

\u2022 BBQ Music Fest is taking place in Mission Viejo this Friday through Sunday at Oso Viejo Community Park, 24932 Veterans Way. In addition to barbecue meals, there will be a full schedule of live entertainment by area bands, carnival rides and games. For tickets and more information, visit the festival\u2019s website here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"People <\/p>\n

The Orange County Fair opens on July 17 and runs through Aug. 16 this year.<\/p>\n

(Jason Armond \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

\u2022 Are you ready for the Orange County Fair? It opens Friday, July 17 and runs through Sunday, Aug. 16. To purchase tickets and learn about all of the offerings at this year\u2019s extravaganza, go to this site<\/a>.<\/p>\n

KEEP IN TOUCH
We appreciate your help in making this the best newsletter it can be. Please send news tips, your memory of life in O.C. (photos welcome!) or comments to carol.cormaci@latimes.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Do Orange County officials actually work for you? Only 23% of the 1,200 people who participated in \u201cTrust…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,9350,58123,6946,1583,588,58120,4840,58121,58122,35412,3226,12382,58124,8074],"class_list":["post-390778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-coast","tag-costa-mesa-angler","tag-course","tag-hospital","tag-huntington-beach","tag-large-all-electric-hospital","tag-power","tag-single-life","tag-surf-city","tag-uc-irvine","tag-unit","tag-visitor","tag-wildlife-sanctuary","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}