There is talk that Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach is planning to run for the state’s governor seat.
Such a move might be embraced by people on both sides of the political spectrum; especially if they are concerned about the possibilities of Moorlach continuing his push to have Seal Beach, Rossmor and Los Alamitos rolled into a “super city.”
For the past few years, Moorlach has touted the idea of merging the two cities and the unincorporated area of Rossmoor as a way of saving the taxpayers money by reducing the costs for providing services in the West Orange County area.
When Moorlach first mentioned the idea, the reaction from Seal Beach in particular was swift and negative.
It seemed that most of the city’s leaders wanted to burst that balloon nearly as soon as it was floated.
The Seal Beach City Council quickly drafted a letter stating its position opposing the plan.
There was at least one man from Rossmoor who saw the merger as something potentially good for his neighborhood.
Rossmoor resident Kenneth Brown argued that combining the three into a super city would at least have the effect of giving Rossmoor residents more power over the decisions that affect its residents.
Brown agreed the merger would save taxpayers money and eliminate the influence of special interest groups.
He also noted that decisions by Seal Beach and Los Alamitos have an effect on Rossmoor and that by merging the three, Rossmoor would have more of a voice in its future.
While its not known how many people in Rossmoor feel the same way, it seems that Seal Beach is less concerned about the financial aspects of the proposed super city than the cultural ones.
It is true that two of the three areas, Seal Beach and Los Alamitos, already share a lot in common when it comes to services provided.
They share law enforcement communications, and all three including Rossmoor fall within the Los Alamitos Unified School District. It has been a cooperative and easy relationship.
The areas have shared like good neighbors, despite some grumbling that still exists over Seal Beach reaping the tax benefits of the Shops at Rossmoor.
Many years ago, Seal Beach secured the influence over the lucrative shopping areas next to Rossmoor.
It seems to have been accomplished more by the fact that being an independent city is more substantive than being under the cover of the county’s financial umbrella. Without cityhood, and relying on the kindness of Orange County, Rossmoor has always seemed to be politically little more than a squeaky mouse.
Without a major sales tax base, it is doubtful Rossmoor could even sustain itself as a city.
Seal Beach and Los Alamitos have little to gain financially by merging with Rossmoor.
Meanwhile, Seal Beach has made it clear it does not want to complicate things by expanding its boundaries.
If it did, it might have grasped the opportunity to annex Sunset Beach, which sits right next to the Seal Beach neighborhood of Surfside Colony.
In fact, without Surfside’s gates, it would be hard to distinguish the two.
So now Sunset has been gobbled by the super city to the south of Seal Beach—Huntington Beach.
Had Seal Beach wanted to annex Sunset, there were many in that neighborhood who preferred to join it than to be merged into Huntington Beach.
However, Seal Beach wanted no part of it, despite the fact that it could have had a field day finding ways to expand its hotel bed taxes with some leadership in Sunset Beach.
No, it seems that Seal Beach’s leaders like the city just as it is.
Los Alamitos also seems to want to avoid merging with Rossmoor, considering it might lose some of its financial clout.
Rossmoor in general has rejected becoming its own city and would probably have to come to the other two area with hat in hand to be considered for annexation or a merger.
Meanwhile, the county still wants to continue divesting itself of unincorporated areas such as Rossmoor and Sunset Beach.
However, without Moorlach’s pushing the issue onto the front burner for its financial savings aspect the issue will probably fizzle for some time to come.
It seems the matters of saving some money on services are trumped once again by what some see as quality of life issues.
The message seems clear enough at this point—its not all about money. If Orange County would like to see Seal Beach, Los Alamitos and Rossmoor become one super city, it’s going to have to make the proposal a lot more attractive to the people of all three entities on a cultural level, more than financial one.
Dennis Kaiser is the editor of the Sun Newspapers.
