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Great Park contractor Gafcon has filed a formal complaint against the Great Park auditors HSN&O claiming the audit is harming Gafcon’s reputation. As Seekers of Truth, OJ Blog helps Gafcon prove their point.
The City of Irvine hired forensic accountants Hagen, Streiff, Newton & Oshiro (HSN&O) to follow where the Great Park money went. A major destination was Gafcon via the Great Park Design Studio, which in turn was primarily owned by Gafcon CEO Yehudi ‘Gaf’ Gaffen. (Gafcon itself is owned by Gaf’s wife Pam).
HSN&O has raised concerns about Gafcon. In response, Gafcon has filed a complaint against HSN&O with the California Board of Accountancy. Gafcon General Counsel Paul Najar states,”The deceptive allegations and misleading half-truths contained in the preliminary report have damaged our company and our valued employees.”
Gafcon has a point. The City of Irvine’s website distributes extensive testimony gathered by HSN&O that diminishes Gafcon’s reputation. But for some reason Gafcon didn’t include much of this material in the complaint against HSN&O.
So as a public service I have gathered highlights from the sworn depositions clearly showing that Gafcon is right: the HSN&O audit has gathered and released information harmful to Gafcon’s reputation.
Let’s start with Gafcon billing. Construction Manager Brendan McDevitt noted
Gafcon was taking a larger percentage of the overall fee than I thought was typical [BM 162]
The Proposed $7 million allocation was, in my professional opinion, vastly overstated for the services provided [SL 184]
Gafcon was notable for more than just its billing. The most important engineer on the project, Pat Fuscoe, stated that
[Gafcon was] a fish out of water. [PF 236]
Veteran construction executive Keith McDonnell noted that
[Gafcon’s] lower level design managers did not seem to be qualified. [KM 38]
Brendan McDevitt testified similarly:
Q: “ In your experience, had you ever come across a situation where a company had similarly staffed a project without hiring qualified individuals with technical backgrounds like Gafcon did here?”
A “I’d never see that before, no” [BM 116]
Keith McDonnell reported problems that arose from Gafcon’s collective inexperience:
I would say there was definite dysfunction within the design team and how Gafcon operated within that design team. [KM 94]
It was very difficult to get clear, concise information out of the design team and Gafcon. [KM 101]
It [the Great Park Design Studio] was totally dysfunctional [PF 96]
Yehudi Gaffen was pursuing or performing work for which authority did not exist from the Board of Directors. That was a constant concern [SJ 123]
They [Gafcon] certainly had a tendency to operate beyond the scope of what they were authorized to do. And they were admonished on many occasions, in various ways, including in writing. [SL 169]
Beyond Gafcon’s organizational issues, Yehudi himself made on an impact. Irvine City Manager Sean Joyce testified:
Sean: The Great Park Balloon undertaking was fraught with examples where staff was frustrated …
Auditor: Was there a particular root cause of those challenges?
Sean: …the involvement of Yehudi Gaffen [SJ 51]
Gaf is an emotional person. He’s very passionate, and sometimes strong in his opinions. [GU 121]
but Sean was clear about how that “passion” was viewed by the staff:
He [Yehudi] was widely viewed as arrogant. [SJ 89]
Such short quotes obviously don’t fully reflect Gafcon’s contribution to the Great Park. However, Larry Agran’s hand picked CEO, Mike Ellzey, submitted a concise summary of Gafcon’s work:
“Never stand and take a charge… charge them too.”
Yehudi ‘Gaf’ Gaffen lies about the truth! Paul Najar lacks integrity along with Gaf!! They ripped of the tax payer’s of Orange County!!
The truth, Gafcon staffed the project with non-qualified individuals with technical backgrounds. Audit the Gafcon people he staffed on the project and you will find this to be true. They totally over billed the project with these people, because they did not know what they were doing. Definitely dysfunction group Yehudi is very arrogant and the O.C. tax payer’s deserve the real truth, not lies from Yehudi and his silly video.