August 9, 2001 - Orange County Weekly: Gaddi Vasquez led the county into the 1994 bankruptcy. Now he’s poised to run the Bush-era Peace Corps

Peace Corps Online: Peace Corps News: Headlines: Peace Corps Headlines - 2001: 08 August 2001 Peace Corps Headlines: August 9, 2001 - Orange County Weekly: Gaddi Vasquez led the county into the 1994 bankruptcy. Now he’s poised to run the Bush-era Peace Corps

By Admin1 (admin) on Wednesday, August 08, 2001 - 4:56 pm: Edit Post

Read what the newsweekly in his home country of Orange County California say about Gaddi Vasquez at:

Gaddi Vasquez led the county into the 1994 bankruptcy. Now he’s poised to run the Bush-era Peace Corps

Former Orange County supervisor Guadalupe "Gaddi" Vasquez says he isn’t granting interviews until Congress approves his July 25 presidential nomination to serve as director of the Peace Corps.

That’s probably a wise strategy. Vasquez, you may recall, led the county into the $1.7 billion bankruptcy in 1994 and then refused to accept any responsibility for the largest municipal calamity in modern financial history. Though a self-described fiscal conservative, Vasquez hired (at public expense) a $285-per-hour public-relations guru from Los Angeles to spin favorable post-bankruptcy news stories for himself and the other four supervisors. That plan failed, too, and 10 months after the bankruptcy, Vasquez fled office, claiming he wanted to spend time with his family. He made no mention of the fact that he faced a recall election, a grand jury investigation and an 11 percent approval rating.


Here's another selection from the story:

The man was disgraced—except among the corporate crowd he had served so single-mindedly in office. They helped Vasquez land a cushy, six-figure job in the public-relations department at Southern California Edison—a publicly subsidized company with close ties to the Republican Party. (In addition to Vasquez, company PR employees have included Bob Dornan’s top congressional aide, Brian Bennett; the Irvine Co.’s Mike Stockstill; and Orange County GOP co-chairperson Jo Ellen Allen.) Within four months of his exit from public life, there were two fancy parties ("business attire only") for Vasquez. The people who paid for them—corporate lobbyists and Newport Beach real-estate developers—said they wanted to thank the ex-supe for his "public service."

Local taxpayers will be thanking Vasquez for at least another 27 years. That is how long it will take to pay off a bankruptcy debt he was instrumental in creating. Last year alone, residents shelled out an extra $45 million just for county interest payments on bankruptcy debt. In the not-so-distant future, we will pay more than $80 million per year. None of the money will ever go to improve roads, schools, public safety or health care.


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