Derailment Update: OC’s Mixed Message to Sacramento

The local papers have been filled lately with news of a Joint Powers Agreement (JPA) between the County and the City of Costa Mesa to purchase the OC Fairgrounds. A lot of excited people, and a few of our politicians (particularly state Senators) seem to be forgetting that this should be only a last resort if we utterly fail to stop the Tainted Sale by passing AB 1590 (or persuading Arnold.) But it’s a good question: How does Orange County get the message across to Sacramento that:

1. We don’t want our Fairgrounds to be sold at all; BUT
2. If you insist on selling it, sell it to us!

Here are a few reasons that the JPA purchase by our local governments should ONLY be a last resort:

1. We can’t afford it. What’s with all these allegedly conservative Republicans – Moorlach, Campbell, Harman, Monahan, Righeimer – being so eager to saddle us with more debt? As Reggie points out, “Orange County has laid off hundreds of workers, implemented mandatory furloughs, and has refused to backfill programs, such as aid programs for children and families, that have had funding cut by the State. Costa Mesa has had to furlough staff to balance the budget.” Just last December, Supervisor Moorlach, one of the biggest JPA cheerleaders, commented on the layoff of 210 county employees, “The facts are the facts. We can only afford what we can afford. That means we have to start taking some measures which are unfortunate.” (Hat-tip Brad the Derailer.) But now we can take out a loan or bond for 30 to 40 million, with all the financing that’s going to entail?

2. Why should we have to buy what already belongs to us, that was already paid for by our grandparents’ taxes and belongs to us as California citizens? This goes beyond the issue of affordability, and to the justice of things. Why should we be the only County in California forced to buy its own property from the state, just to add a tiny drop into the bucket of Sacramento’s budgetary black hole? We are already a “Donor County” – meaning, Orange County already pays much more in taxes than it gets back in services from the state. If we are forced to buy our own Fairgrounds in an (alleged) effort to keep it a Fairgrounds, that will be a huge injustice!

3.  If the Fairgrounds are indeed being sold, and our offer is only 30 or 40 million – which is probably the most we could manage – then why should the state sell it to us and not a higher bidder? There are a lot of private entities who could easily pay two or three times that amount, and would jump at the chance to acquire 150 acres of prime real estate in the center of Orange County.  Even the strict zoning won’t stop them from drooling over what they could eventually do with it through one ploy or another – condos, office buildings, a stadium, an entertainment complex?  Word on the street is Trinity Broadcasting Network is interested in the property – maybe they’d like to put up a Creationist Museum or something.  Just allowing the bidding to proceed is to risk everything our Fairgrounds are about, and it seems that bidding is tantamount to accepting the process.

4.  In its current debt-free state, the Fairgrounds comfortably makes a couple million in profit each year, and can still include popular but less-profitable features like the equestrian center and Centennial Farm.  But if we – if anyone – purchased it now, for even as little as 30 million, all of that would have to change, due to all the new debt we would take on.  Here, Gus exhaustively details the costs on top of the actual purchase price – financing costs, bond reserves, operating capital, transition costs – which would bring that up to 45 million.  This would mean the Fair would need to come up with about $3.4 million each year just for debt service.  So big changes would necessarily need to be made to the Fairgrounds we know and love, just to make them more profitable. This could entail higher admission prices, more high-priced special events, selling off less profitable sectors, higher rent to the Marketplace (swap meet), and eventual development of parts of the property as an economic necessity.  In fact once it’s the property of the city or county, it could be argued that it’s only responsible to the taxpayers to make the Fairgrounds much more profitable.

5.  When so much has gone on behind closed doors to push this sale through in the first place, it’s prudent for us citizens to be suspicious when we see many of the same people so enthusiastic about the JPA purchase.  These folks’ constant refrain is to “save the Fair, save the Fair,” but they unmistakably behave as though they have something to gain from the change in ownership.   Remember, the only reason this sale is happening in the first place is the behind-the-scenes lobbying and closed-door meetings of the Fair Board members plotting to buy the property for themselves.   Now, local pols like CM Planning Commissioner Righeimer and our OC Supervisors publicly echo our priorities (stop the sale first / sell to JPA last resort) but when we meet with our state lawmakers it’s obvious that some folks are lobbying very hard for the JPA purchase and saying nothing about stopping the sale.  In short, the stench of secret self-dealing has not dissipated.

Expanding on points 3-5, the phrase “keep the Fair a Fair” is as elastic and useless as any politician’s boilerplate.   Just think of all the ways a new owner could change the place and still call it a “fair.”  In today’s economic climate, only redevelopment of the property for commercial purposes makes any sense;  and a clever and patient developer knows that even if the property is strictly zoned as a Fairgrounds today, a new Council a few years down the road could change that, especially if they see the area neglected and a blight.  With Senator/Lobbyist Dick Ackerman back in the game with Board Chairman/philanthropist Kristina Dodge, we could be witnessing the groundwork being laid for an Ackerman-Dodge Stadium and Casino in our back yard. For as this hepcat monk prophetically sang, “Once this property changes hands, then there’ll be really no way to Save the Fair.”

Summing up, it’s unfortunately true that our local governments need to be ready with a bid if worse comes to worst and we utterly fail to derail the sale.  But we would like to see a lot more emphasis and energy put into the actual derailment before it’s really too late.  Our senators and assemblymen CAN chew gum and walk at the same time if we make them.  I’ll be asking you all for one last push this final week of the year, once Christmas is over, to talk some sense into Senators Harman, Correa, Walters and Wyland, and Assemblymen DeVore, Harkey, Hagman and Mendoza.   Don’t forget – lobbyists for the rich and powerful  don’t make one call or e-mail and walk away with their fingers crossed.  THEY ARE IMPLACABLE BADGERS, AND WE MUST EMULATE THEM.

Day after Christmas:  Some Good News, and Instructions!