[Orange County] $1.7 billion and counting: Grand jury asks county, where's the real estate?

Show us the real estate!

That's what the Orange County Grand Jury wants county officials to do.

The county's government buildings in the past have been valued at $1.7 billion, but officials lack a database that accurately reflects all the properties the county owns and leases, says an Orange County Grand Jury report issued Wednesday.


The grand jury found there are some 2,300 real estate properties that must be managed by the county. That includes real estate the county owns, as well as 98 properties it has leased.

While the grand jury could not determine current market values, a report from Alliant Insurance, which insures the county’s buildings, lists the valuation of the county’s insured buildings at $1.7 billion, according to the report.

The panel said the county has only partially complete or partially updated databases of its real estate holdings, and the information is not consistent. The grand jury could not find values for the county’s unimproved or undeveloped land.

“With the potential for future real estate decisions being based on unavailable or inaccurate data that could lead to less-than-desirable stewardship of (the) county’s tax dollars, the grand jury believes that comprehensive and compatible real estate data information is necessary,” the grand jury wrote.

The panel said a chief real estate officer who reports to the county executive officer was hired in June 2013. The Board of Supervisors had also directed the county’s chief executive to examine the real estate “policies, practices, controls,” and to deliver a study and recommendations to the board.

“There was no evidence that the report was ever prepared or delivered,” the grand jury wrote.

The report said grand jurors had read several news stories saying the federal government had “apparent deficiencies” in managing its real estate.

“One article reported that there were nearly 80,000 federally owned properties that are either completely unused or sorely underutilized which could be costing taxpayers upwards of $1.7 billion in annual upkeep costs,” the report stated. “Another article estimated that the federal government had 14,000 ‘excess’ buildings that were no longer needed.

“The grand jury ... wondered if the county was as wasteful as the federal government with regard to real estate management,” the report said.

June 10, 2015

Orange County Register

By Marilyn Kalfus, Staff Writer