"When will this be over???"
Today Costa Mesa City Council members, ONCE AGAIN, are in Sacramento trying to save our Fairgrounds. We OJ readers need to “have their backs” by calling and faxing – now, NOT later – with the simple message “Please work with Costa Mesa to prevent another auction of this priceless property. Orange County has spoken – keep our Fairgrounds for the public, not real estate developers.”
Four calls
- Governor Schwarzenegger, 916-445-2841
- Chief of Staff Fred Aguiar (the mastermind of this) 916-445-6131
- Ron Diedrich, Director of Dept. of General Services (DGS) 916-376-5012
- Ted Park, Director DGS Real Estate Services, 916-376-1900
Three faxes – fax for free at https://faxzero.com/
- Schwarzenegger 916-558-3160
- Ron Diedrich 916-376-5018
- Ted Park 916-376-1895
Katrina sez: As we have seen with this entire deal, time is not a luxury we possess. Thank you!
Getting you up to speed, which is what we do here, from today’s Daily Pilot:
Just in time for the deadline, Costa Mesa City Council members Katrina Foley and Gary Monahan plan to visit Sacramento today to deliver a proposal for buying the Orange County Fairgrounds from the state.
The City Council voted unanimously on the decision during Tuesday’s closed-session meeting; no further details of the offer were given.
City Manager Allan Roeder, who plans to travel with the council members, said he cannot provide details of the proposal before it is presented to the governor’s office.
City officials have said that they plan on paying for the 150-acre fairgrounds through a consortium of interested parties, which could include the property’s tenants, such as the OC Market Place operator.
In March, after rejecting all public bids as too low, the state gave Costa Mesa one month to exclusively negotiate a purchase of the fairgrounds.
The Department of General Services, which is in charge of selling the fairgrounds, estimated the state could earn between $96 million and $180 million from the sale.
The highest bid, $56.5 million, came from Craig Realty Group, a Newport Beach-based luxury-outlet developer…
Just got off the phone with Secretary of State Fred Aguiar, I have a feeling that some staffer is getting yelled at right now.
???
Please elaborate, gericault. You spoke with Fred himself? Why was a staffer getting yelled at?
I got transferred through to Fred Aguilar himself………I told him that The City of Costa Mesa has done everything in it’s power, under an intense timetable, to satisfy the State, keep the Fairgrounds under local public control, and steward this property for our future generations. I told him they need to accept the deal the city is offering.
He kept asking, “who is this”, I kept answering, “My Name”…..then I just kept talking.
I didn’t expect to breach the walls like that,it took ME by surprise, but the Fred Aguiar number listed above isn’t his number, and so I was transferred to a staffer that patched me through.
I think that staffer was supposed to be the firewall…….
This won’t change this guys mind ………it’s already made up, in fact he seemed a little peeved he had to sit and listen to my little song and dance.
But…..we’ve come this far , I’m not about to stop today of all days.