STEVE CARLIN of GKN Aerospace.

 Jim Tortolano
Orange County Tribune

The GKN Aerospace hazardous materials incident that led to the evacuation of 50,000 people over Memorial Day weekend continued to dominate the meetings of the Garden Grove City Council.

On Tuesday night, Steve Carlin – representing GKN – spoke to the council. “This is going to be a short update,” he said.

He did speak on some issues related to GKN’s handling of the aftermath of the crisis.
The compensation of those affected? “We expect to open up the application for compensation process in a month,” said Carlin, referring to October. The promised “town hall” meeting would be held in a month, he added.

Carlin noted that he expected skepticism of GKN’s stated intentions to raise safety standards and compensate the affected. “No one is going to trust me,” he said. “We’re going to have to prove it.”

The offer of $100 million to compensate those affected by the loss of wages, hotel bills, lost business, etc. drew some skepticism.

Councilmember Philip Nguyen said, “One hundred million dollars for 50,000 people, that’s $2000 each. That’s not … much.”

In the public comments that followed several speakers touched on the issue of compensation and others – as in previous meetings – called for the closing of the facility.

Still others spoke about alleged Islamic domination of the city and nation, perhaps a response to the remarks made by some Palestinian speakers arguing that GKN and Garden Grove were complicit in what they called “genocide” in the Gaza area.