Yes! Apparently a group of protesters showed up at the opening of the Orange County Fair, led by a fellow from Brea, Jim Porterfield. He held up a sign that read “No lobster on taxpayers” in full view of hundreds of cars drving by Newport Blvd., right next to the O.C. Fairgrounds.
“Porterfield and about 20 others were protesting the Orange County Fair Board and how it spends its money. “Our goal is to get the volunteers that run the fairgrounds to stop raiding the promotional money,” says Porterfield. “It’s outrageous,” according to the O.C. Register.
“Porterfield and the others were protesting the distribution of free fair concert tickets and catered banquets for fair board members which came to light in stories published earlier this year in The Register.”
Porterfield also has set up a website called Stop Gov Greed, in which he has collected articles about the greedy O.C. Fair Board members, who got busted earlier this year after the O.C. Register discovered that they were taking hundreds of “free” O.C. Fair concert tickets and spending proceeds from the fair to feed themselves at public expense, to meals of lobster and steak.
Porterfield also flew up on Thursday to Sacramento to meet with the State Fair Political Practices Commission.
Kudos to Porterfield and his fellow protesters! If there was an Orange Juice Award for Activism they certainly would deserve it. You can contact Porterfield at this link.
Double Kudos to Poterfield and Group. This is an outrageous abuse of public trust by the board, an illegal gift of public funds and a tax dodge to boot. Somebody should be filing a law suit to recover these funds from these white collar felons on the Fair Board.
Down in San Juan Capistrano, the city manager and other officials are trying to evict an 84 year old guy that has taken care of the orange groves for 40 years in exchange for something like $500 bucks a month. Suddenly its a huge problem to let him stay because he might be benefiting from public coffiers. Contrast it to the huge money the fair board has been stealing from public funds for years. I say: Let the little guy stay put. Put the real piggy feet to the fire – those of the OC Fair Board.
http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/homepage/abox/article_2091869.php?orderby=TimeStampDescending&showRecommendedOnly=0&oncommentsPage=3#slComments
I hope everyone keeps the heat on the (un)Fair Board of self-serving directors. Elected officials and other political types should expect to see their names in newspapers and on blogs if they accept any tickets or dinners.
Please continue letting us know which board members are offering the “free” stuff and who is lining up at the trough. For anyone who is at the fair at the dinner hour, please step inside the Memorial Gardens “back yard” area with a camera. That’s where the dinners were held last year. I haven’t seen a list of those getting a “free” dinner — a picture would be worth a thousand words. I noticed the in-your-face attitude of the Fair board members. They could use an encounter with reality of what the public thinks of them.
Who Photoshopped the picutre?
Yeah, really, this pic is fake.
Why hasn’t the governor fired the fair board?
One joke cost a councilman his state board positions, but the state Fair Board can pilfer hundreds of thousand of dollars, give the taxpayers the middle finger, and the governor does nothing.
Matt/Jubal and anon #5,
Duh! I couldn’t find any pictures of the protesters so I had some fun with a picture of PETA protesters.
I did email Mr. Porterfield and I hope that he can provide actual pictures from the protest.
So Matt, any idea what concerts you will be going to for free this year? Do you expect to have steak and lobster again this time, at public expense?
Duh! I couldn’t find any pictures of the protesters so I had some fun with a picture of PETA protesters.
Sorry. I didn’t know we should assume you’ll doctor photos of events (without identifying as much) when you don’t have real pics.
So Matt, any idea what concerts you will be going to for free this year?
Yes, I do.
Do you expect to have steak and lobster again this time, at public expense?
I never had steak and lobster, but don’t let facts stand in your way, Art. They haven’t so far.
Janet Nguyen’s husband did get me a couple of drinks at the Memorial Gardens last year — at “public expense” as you put it.
Matt/Jubal,
I will be sure to let you know when the color by numbers version of this blog is ready for those of you who can’t figure out simple things for themselves.
I plopped that into Babelfish for an English-to-Artspeak translation:
“I am at loss for an intelligent response, so I’ll hurl an insult, instead.”
OC FAIR BOARD UPDATE!!
So, back in June the fair board voted to reduce the overall amount of tickets they took from 26 to 10. They kept all the free meals and the majority of other freebies. One thing that is not widely known though is that they still reserved the other 16 tickets (26-10=16) so only their friends and family could buy them. You and I still do not have access to those seats.
I had contacted a number of government agencies. The CDFA, the attorney General, and our infamous governor all in their own way were supporting the OC Fair Board’s actions by not taking action on their own to correct the situation. We found a friend in tony Rackauckas’s office (the Orange County District Attorney) though. His offices are making the OC Fair Board rescind their prior vote and do it over again on August 28th.
The FPPC has postponed their ruling until September 11th but I believe this is going to be extremely favorable. I will be flying up to Sacramento again to attend and voice my opinions.
In July, me and a few others got more than 900 letters off to Sacramento too. But we had to refocus on our regular jobs as our work was suffering tremendously. So, the letters have dried up since.
There are two things that you could really help me out with. First, go to http://www.stopgovgreed.com, print out the three form letters and get them in the mail between now and September 5th. Please make sure to write your return address at the bottom of the letter and you will receive a reply. Second, if any of you can show up on August 28th at 10:00 a.m. at the OC Fair Grounds Memorial Garden Building (88 Fair Dr, Costa Mesa, 92626) that would be great. You will have an opportunity to address (or speak) directly to the nine individuals responsible for this whole mess.
If you would like to contact me for any other reasons, please send me an email through the website and I will make sure to get right back to you.
My apologies for the long blog and using this sight on my first visit to ask for your assistance.
Regards,
Jim Porterfield