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When the concept of the Great Park was first developed, the vision was a new standard for sustainability and park design, a green space that would not only create a beautiful space for residents of Orange County but would also be recognized worldwide.   It was an ambitious plan that, unfortunately, has not delivered on its promise due to endless stops and starts, political maneuvering, and cost overruns.

And now, just when the Great Park has the opportunity to execute on a project that will give the Park and the county national visibility, the Solar Decathlon, the City Council has decided to make a series of moves that puts the entire project at risk.  When the City Council decided to eliminate the independent members of the Great Park Board and then fire the PR firm which was managing the project they in effect took ownership in executing a successful Solar Decathlon.

To top off their original decision, the Republican-led council then decided to fire the City Attorney this past month, again much too close to the October decathlon.  These decisions are yet another example of the “tit for tat” mentality that has been prevalent all too long in Irvine politics from both sides of the aisle.  Rather than staying the course and allowing the PRM firm to stay on board until after the decathlon, thus ensure the success of the event, the “Team Irvine” of Jeff Lalloway, Steven Choi and Christina Shea decided to make a statement that could potentially cost millions in event profits.  Even taking into account the “changing of the guard,” it still seems that such decisions are made with political retribution in mind, rather than making choices that benefit the greater community.

In case you’re unaware of the Solar Decathlon, it’s a very prestigious event. Our community won an extremely competitive bid to host this year.   Formerly held every two years since 2002 on The Great Mall in Washington DC, the Solar Decathlon challenges collegiate team to design, build, and operate solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy efficient, and attractive (Solar Decathlon website).  The winner of the competition will “blend affordability, consumer appeal, and design excellence with optimal energy production and maximum efficiency.”

In short, it’s a pretty exciting and prestigious event, and exactly what the Great Park was designed to host and feature.  The Great Park competed with several other bidders on the Decathlon and was awarded due to its vision, beautiful sunshine, and space.   Unfortunately, when planning and executing an event like this, timing and preparation is everything and the power play by the GOP-led Irvine City Council has raised some serious question marks about the ability of the council and park management to pull off the decathlon, this appears to be a grave mistake.

After so much mismanaging of the park project for nearly a decade the City Council moved to dismiss the independent park board members and the PR firm contracted by The Great Park, Forde and Mollrich.  As I’ve noted numerous times during my recent mayoral campaign I have real concerns with the no-bid contract awarded the PR firm and have some questions about the effectiveness of the independent board members, so this decision is not necessarily a bad one.   The council arguably made the right decision in moving the remove Forde and Mollrich.   The problem here, in relation to the Solar Decathlon, is timing.   Removing the PR Firm now, in the months leading up to this important event shows a real lack of business insight from the GOP-led council.  As anyone who’s actually run a business or been successful in the private sector can attest, bold moves without a firm business  strategy present a problem.   It’s one thing to remove the current PR firm with a real succession plan in place.   To remove the firm with seemingly no plan in place, without a project management team, is perilous.

Delivering a large-scale event like the Solar Decathlon takes real planning and tactical forecasting, and that takes time.   Beyond the actual logistics of the event is the importance of marketing the event.   For green building and sustainability the event itself is important, but it will lose value if attendance is affected by the event not being marketed from a PR perspective.   The choice to suddenly remove Forde and Mollrich, with no supporting PR firm on the horizon, was done with little or no input from the actual Solar Decathlon or those managing the project.  As a result the incoming council majority has dramatically increased the pressure to deliver a successful event.   At the same time they’ve really put the onus on Great Park CEO Michael Ellzey, who insists he can deliver the project successfully.

The changes made by Jeff Lalloway, Steven Choi and Christina Shea may prove to be the right one in the long run.   Perhaps the independent audit of park proceedings will reveal real mismanagement and waste.  Virtually everyone agrees that the large no-bid contracts awarded Forde and Mollrich were not in the best interest of the project and the local taxpayers.   Still, the PR firm did serve a purpose and was in fact set to meet this week with representatives from the Department of Energy and the Solar Decathlon.   Dismissing Forde and Mollrich without a compelling plan was an error in judgment not because of the importance of Forde and Mollrich but because of the lack of a business plan.

The correct move would have been to continue the Forde and Mollrich relationship while opening up bidding for rival PR firms.   This would have allowed the Solar Decathlon to move forward without these hiccups while still allowing the council to determine the best way to proceed forward from a Public Relations and project management perspective.   If during the next several months the Council decided to change PR Firms, this process would have allowed them to make that change while not impacting the Solar Decathlon.  If they chose to replace Forde and Mollrich, the new PR firm could have watched over the project and may have been able to form new ideas and take over when the time was appropriate.  They could have done so with an interim plan in place, one that would not damage the execution of the Solar Decathlon.

For the future of this important project let’s hope that Michael Ellzey and the Council are able to deliver this project as planned.  If successful, this project could find a permanent place in Orange County and moving forward can help The Great Park achieve the vision it set out to achieve.   Unfortunately, given the ongoing mismanagement by the Irvine City Council, let’s say I have my concerns.

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Please welcome our new Irvine blogger “Irvine Valkyrie,” who – you guessed it! – is really Katherine Daigle, mayoral candidate last year, who was falsely accused by the OC Weekly’s Scott Moxley and other Agran-haters of being an Agran plant, but as you can see is and has always been critical of both sides and wants only what’s best for Irvine and the OC.  (And IS a Republican.)  Welcome Katherine, and we look forward to your future contributions! – VN