The supervisor wanted to give significant funding for county employees for new houses.

Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley recently attempted to use public funds to help purchase houses for county employees, noting she was “disappointed” that every other supervisor on the bipartisan board shot down the proposal.

The policy would have given $5 million dollars of county funds from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 for county employees to have down payments on their first homes, amid a number of residents still struggling to purchase their first homes in the expensive market.

“I am disappointed that my colleagues did not support this initial proposal in the budget, but I intend to continue advocating with our coalition,” Foley said in a statement.

No other supervisor supported Foley’s proposal. Supervisor Don Wagner said he received letters from county employee unions supporting the motion, but he was unaware of Foley’s proposal before it appeared on the agenda.

“I had no idea what they were talking about,” Wagner said last month. “This is a strange way of going about making the request. It’s worth considering, but normally agenda items come to us the week before …. But clearly this was something floated out in the community because I got the support letters before I actually got the item.”

Supervisor Lisa Bartlett said the motion was very “last-minute” and said any county pilot program geared toward first-time county homebuyers would need a more extensive look before passing.

In an attempt to save the proposal, Foley said she would consider bringing it back after officials reviewed the plan, but she didn’t receive any support from the board on that notion as well.