Kathleen Rosenow

Several city officials are questioning a $340,000 consulting contract that was awarded last month to a firm owned by two former city board members who resigned their posts so they could bid on the contract. When Kathleen Rosenow resigned earlier this year from the Community Redevelopment Commission, she explained that her eight-year membership on the board had prevented her consulting firm from doing business with the city.

Several city officials are questioning a $340,000 consulting contract that was awarded last month to a firm owned by two former city board members who resigned their posts so they could bid on the contract. When Kathleen Rosenow resigned earlier this year from the Community Redevelopment Commission, she explained that her eight-year membership on the board had prevented her consulting firm from doing business with the city.

There was nothing illegal about the recent award of a $340,000 redevelopment consulting contract to a firm owned by two former Santa Ana city board members, but what happened left a bad aftertaste. The award points up the city's need to adopt a tougher conflict-of-interest code that would preclude former staff or municipal appointees from lobbying or conducting any other business with the city for a decent interval of time. The contract was awarded to Rosenow Spevacek Group Inc.

Irvine is poised to direct as much as $1 billion in property tax revenue over the next four decades to redevelop the former El Toro Marine Corps base, a move some say would break a longtime promise that public money wouldn't be used for the project. The old base is being auctioned to developers, who are expected to build housing tracts and offices and set aside a swath of land that will be called the Orange County Great Park.