Ruh roh! Another Ackerman scandal is brewing!
Our friends at the OC Progressive blog are going after him on the issue of the sale of the O.C. Fairgrounds. It turns out that former State Senator Dick Ackerman, whose wife Linda is running for the 72nd Assembly District, lobbied the Governor and the State Legislature to sell the Fairgrounds – but he is not registered as a lobbyist! Here are a few excerpts from their post:
There’s an incredible scandal brewing at the Orange County Fairgrounds and Attorney General Jerry Brown better get on top of this before it blows up in his face. The deal to sell the fairgrounds has stunk, and the Attorney General’s office is right in the middle of the muck.
The Fairgrounds is run by an obscure state agency, the 32nd Agricultural District, and their legal representation comes from the Attorney General’s office. Unfortunately, the current functionary has completely failed to protect the interests of the people of the State of California. The Fair Board, political appointeees of the Governator, have gone far beyond violating open meeting laws, and instead have used public funds in a conspiracy that approaches racketeering.
Here’s how the story unfolds:
Click here to read the rest of this post.
Wait, Art. He says he only “wrote the budget language.”
After that the budget language just happened to jump all by itself into the budget! A miracle!
All the smoke is generated by the Equestrian Center, an activity of little relevance or appeal to most OC residents.
The Equestrian supporters would gladly get rid of the rest of the fairgrounds if they could keep their portion.
Perhaps the Fair can triple deck half the parking lot and develop the other half to make some money & keep evrything else.
If the state really needs billions, they could sell a freeway or two to a tollroad company – but I think they prefer to distract us with this circus (or rather fair) while raising taxes (or rather stabilizing revenues).
David,
I think it will take another miracle for Tricky Dick’s wife Linda to beat Norby…
It seems that Dick just keeps stepping on it!
I imagine Linda is going to get her clock cleaned in this election.
From the Melissa Fox campaign:
http://us1.forward-to-friend.com/forward/show?u=0663b68b7b04b004bd60cf49b&id=c92a317930
We desperately need better representation in Sacramento.
The new scandal surrounding the sale of the Orange County Fairgrounds illustrates how badly our representatives in Sacramento are failing us.
When Governor Schwarzenegger proposed selling parts of our heritage across the state – including historic venues like the LA Coliseum and the Cow Palace in San Francisco, as well as state-owned county fairgrounds – the elected representatives in every other District fought to defend these precious assets that belong to the people of the state of California.
But the Orange County Fairgrounds was betrayed by Orange County legislators.
The Daily Pilot has called the Orange County Fairgrounds our “crown jewel.” It is not only home to the annual County Fair – the Fairgrounds also hosts wonderful community assets such as the Centennial Farm, visited by tens of thousands of school children a year, and the only affordable equestrian center remaining in Orange County. It is home to many community organizations, including the All American Boys Chorus. And it is an important economic asset that we can’t afford to lose: the weekly Orange County Marketplace supports more than 1,000 small businesses.
Where was our Assembly representative?
Chuck Devore voted to sell the Orange County Fairgrounds.
Now it appears that the sale of the Fairgrounds was rigged so that insiders can gain control of this property – the same group of rich campaign contributors who gave themselves hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of free front-row concert tickets until they were exposed!
I am urging my supporters to join the coalition to “Derail the Sale” and to demand that Attorney General Jerry Brown and the FBI investigate violations of California’s Open Meeting laws.