ORANGE COUNTY IN BANKRUPTCY : REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK : Schools Making a Wish List of Items

Attention Santa Claus: The Newport-Mesa Unified School District is hoping that residents and local businesses will help the school system out of its financial crisis.

School principals are now creating a “Wish List” of needed items and services that the public can donate. Those would include computers and assistance in organizing field trips, officials said.

“People have said the community wants to help us out in a tragic time like this,” said board member Edward H. Decker. “We want to see if people can help.”

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Seeking solutions: The public is invited to attend a “Fiscal Recovery Forum” on Friday at the Garden Grove Community Meeting Center.

Sponsored by state Assemblyman Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove), the event will include presentations from community leaders, business representatives and elected officials.

The forum runs from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. at 11300 Stanford Ave.

Pringle, along with Reps. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) and Jay Kim (R-Diamond Bar); and state Senators John R. Lewis (R-Orange) and Rob Hurtt (R-Garden Grove), are scheduled to attend the public forum.

Discussion topics include privatizing of government services, selling county assets, eliminating some services and cutting programs mandated by the federal and state government.

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Ever heard of billable seconds? The Brea Olinda Unified School District has joined with other school systems to hire attorneys that specialize in bankruptcy law.

But don’t expect board members to give their lawyers a blank check.

“We’ve got to control the lawyers’ fees,” said board member Susie Sokol, echoing the opinions of other school officials at a meeting this week.

“I think we really ought to demand that they tell us how much we will have to pay,” added board member Todd Spitzer, himself a lawyer.

“We’ll be here, we’ll talk but we aren’t going to sign any checks until we know what we’re getting.”

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Getting in line: A class-action suit by families whose children have court settlements tied up in the county investment pool may be moved to state court, according to an attorney.

Attorney Wylie A. Aitken originally filed the lawsuit in federal court, but said Tuesday he filed the case in Orange County Superior Court because statutes involved are more appropriate for the state court.

The suit, filed on behalf of the families of Laura Small and other children, accuses Merrill Lynch, broker Michael Stamenson and former county Treasurer-Tax Collector Robert L. Citron of “recklessly using and abusing the pooled funds of Orange County.”

Small, now 13, was 5 when she was attacked by a mountain lion at a county-run wilderness park and left blinded in one eye and partially paralyzed.

Her parents invested about $96,000 of a $1.6-million settlement from the county in the investment pool as part of a 1993 settlement.

The families are seeking their money back from the county, as well as unspecified general and punitive damages and costs of the litigation.