Bill Fogarty

In a day largely devoid of humor, one county worker darkly joked Tuesday he might soon qualify for the welfare payments he customarily disburses. "I've got to pay my mortgage, I've got car payments," said the social services worker, who like most county workers spoke on the condition of anonymity. "I may have to apply for relief here--but I don't know who would have time to do it."

A consultant hired to salvage Santa Ana Unified School District's overextended construction budget proposes dropping plans for seven new elementary schools as well as five smaller projects that already have cost about $15 million, documents show. Although more than half that money could be recouped by selling land no longer needed for construction, the balance was likely wasted, school board members said.

The political machinery was in motion even before the vote was in. Now that the Orange County Board of Supervisors has dumped its sales tax dilemma on voters, the county will see a multimillion-dollar campaign blitz, pitting conservative against conservative, neighbor against neighbor. In a county that one longtime political insider dubbed "one big anti-tax group," the issue has yanked apart normally tight-knit constituencies.

Throughout Orange County, campaigns stretched their resources and volunteers staffed telephones and pounded the pavement as candidates made last-minute efforts Monday to seek votes in today's primary election. From parking lots to doorsteps, fliers and leaflets--some of them turning negative--rained on the county's 1,178,699 registered voters. Gov. Pete Wilson stumped in the county Monday for Proposition 226, the initiative that would limit the use of union dues in political campaigns.

Tim Carpenter has spent 20 years as the conscience of Orange County's liberal left. He organized concerts, prayer vigils and protests for causes such as nuclear disarmament, helping the homeless and abolishing the death penalty. This time, activists and politicians from Orange County to the Bay Area are rallying around a new cause: Carpenter himself. The 39-year-old nearly died in January of a ruptured colon and faces a second surgery later this month.

The Orange County Board of Supervisors has launched a $450,000 outside audit aimed at overhauling county government and has appointed a committee to oversee it, but the plans are coming under attack from some critics as costly and stacked in favor of county insiders. "We question putting out almost half a million dollars when the county is cutting back on front-line health and welfare services," said Connie Haddad, president of the League of Women Voters of Orange County.

An expected $6.2-million cash infusion from the state Department of Social Services will avert the most dire impacts of budget cuts on Orange County programs for abused children and other human services, officials said Thursday. The state agreed in recent days to provide nearly a third of the $19 million in matching funds the county would have lost by cutting $4.

South Shores Church will have an outdoor family extravaganza at 3:30 p.m. Sunday. There will be a Jerusalem Marketplace depicting crafts, products and dances of biblical times and a concert featuring Jana Alayra and her band. An In-N-Out Burger dinner will be served at 5:30. Tickets are $6 in advance and $7.50 at the door. Children under 2 are admitted free. Guests should bring lawn chairs and blankets. The church is at 32712 Crown Valley Parkway, Monarch Beach. (949) 496-9331.

Their expertise is in crime and health care crises, but now they're crunching numbers. With the largest municipal bankruptcy case in American history swirling around them, these three men--a cop, a lawyer and a health care expert--have been orchestrating massive cutbacks throughout Orange County's sprawling bureaucracy. Thursday, the Board of Supervisors instantly approved the $40.

Struggling to raise cash, Orange County Chief Executive Officer William J. Popejoy announced plans Thursday to privatize a variety of county services and sell as much as $145 million in public assets--including libraries, courts, a drug rehabilitation home and a juvenile detention center. But Popejoy did not recommend the sale of John Wayne Airport or county landfills, the county's big-ticket holdings, saying that legal and financial obstacles would make them too difficult to spin off.