Mr. John Moorlach, our District 2 Orange County supervisor, has decided the best way to represent those who elected him is by asking them to give up their communities and become something they aren’t, have never been and don’t want to be: a Super City, combining Seal Beach, Rossmoor and Los Alamitos into one city. (“Time to Re-Draw the Lines?” by John Moorlach, Sun Newspapers, Thursday, April 7. The column may be found online at www.sunnews.org.)
Seal Beach has always been about quality of life. We have each chosen to live here for its character and the quality of the community.
We aren’t interested in becoming bigger, adding staff, merging police forces, taking on other cities’ pension obligations or having the bigger problems that come with more population.
Seal Beach just finished celebrating its 95th birthday and what fun we had.
The 5/10K run was a great community event contributing thousands of dollars to our community. Our businesses support us and we support them. We are small. We know our neighbors. We are safe because we have our own dedicated police force and we are solvent because we provide city service to an appropriately sized population.
Bigger is not better and often not cheaper as bureaucracies tend to grow and bloat. That is the problem the county has and is trying to solve: it’s too big and doesn’t have the money to service the county islands, like Rossmoor, any more. So, its answer is to push their problem onto us without any understanding of what makes Seal Beach the “last little unspoiled beach town in Southern California.”
There is no price on a small, tightly knitted community.
Please come visit us, Mr. Moorlach. Walk along our beach, stroll down Main Street, slow down, have a cup of coffee and talk to the folks. Find out what makes Seal Beach unique and why, while we “get it,” we don’t want any part of your Super City.
Ellery Deaton is the councilwoman for Seal Beach District 1.
