O.C. taxpayers shell out for new officials' digs

Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach bought an $8,990 desk for the reception foyer of his office, and spent $10,300 on shelving in the supply room.

Supervisor Patricia Bates bought a $3,375 conference table, and a $1,200 executive high-back chair.

Supervisor Janet Nguyen installed $1,300 worth of track lighting with a dimmer switch.

County Treasurer Chriss Street spent nearly $50,000 on 90 office chairs from the high-concept Herman Miller design line.

And all four ordered 52-inch wall-mounted flat-screen televisions. The supervisors' televisions, which will go in their personal offices, cost $4,000 apiece; Street's, in his conference room, cost $7,800.

You might call it "Extreme Makeover: Orange County Government Edition." As one of their first orders of business, Orange County's four newly elected officeholders -- the treasurer and the three new members of the Board of Supervisors -- are collectively spending just over $1.1 million to spruce up their offices in the months since they were sworn in, according to documents reviewed by The Times.

The spending is hardly noticeable in a budget totaling more than $5 billion. But the renovations for the four officeholders are occurring in a county known for its anti-tax attitudes, dim view of government spending and Republicans who boast fiscally conservative credentials.

It also comes as officials weigh funding cuts in their coming budget sessions for services such as drug counseling for court defendants and payments to doctors who provide emergency medical services.

But the officials say they needed to update aging and worn-out surroundings that, in some cases, hadn't been spruced up in 30 years.

Moorlach, whose tab was the highest among the supervisors at $198,525.84, said he felt it was unfair to ask office staff to work in the existing environment. "When I got here, I thought I had moved into an old home in Palm Springs in the 1960s," he said. "It even went beyond my conservative pale. I said, 'Wait a minute, this has got to be upgraded.'

"If I'm asking professionals to work for me on a $6-billion budget," Moorlach said, "it doesn't make sense to ask them to sit on an antique furniture that wouldn't even sell at a garage sale."

Roughly half of the total spent -- $578,550.82 -- was for the treasurer-tax collector's office, which is undergoing a massive renovation aimed at changing the working environment for all of its nearly 100 employees.