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It’s infuriating that, six months after our celebrated and blistering exposé on the dude, with all its baleful warnings of the legal “shitstorms” supposedly “coming down the pike” for him, Dave Ellis is still in charge of the OC Fair Board, and pursuing vendettas against those who dashed his fond dreams of taking over the Fair himself, all while making money plying his rotten smear-job trade in defense of the Fullerton Councilmen that we defenders of Kelly Thomas are trying to recall.
Jeff Teller, decades-long owner of the OC Marketplace (known to you and me as the “swap meet” we’ve gone to since we were kids) was an indispensable part of the successful struggle against the Great Fairgrounds Swindle, with his energy, imagination, surprising political savvy, and money (pretty much the only guy on our side WITH the latter.) He fought the sale of the Fairgrounds both because it was the right thing AND to protect his business interests.
Well, at this morning’s Fair Board meeting, Dave and his Board took their revenge on Teller by, well, just read the press release below (OJ’s emphases.) Governor Brown’s two appointments to the Board so far are worthy, good calls, and yet Dave remains at the helm, for all the world like a throbbing malignant goiter. We mortals speculate, is the Governor just giving him enough rope to finally hang himself? Is the Governor even paying attention to the OC Fair Board? And also, is there a God?
The Orange County Market Place ■ www.ocmarketplace.com
Contact: Brian Lochrie ■ Phone: 949-294-8269 (cell) ■ E-mail: blochrie@faubelpublicaffairs.com
OC Fair Board uses Political Vendetta
to Eliminate Jobs and Kill Small Businesses at OC Market Place
COSTA MESA, Calif. (September 22, 2011) – After a mutually-beneficial 42-year partnership, the Orange County Fair Board, led by Chairman David Ellis, voted 6-3 to give 18-months notice to the Orange County Market Place to cease operating on the fairgrounds in a clear case of retribution and political vendetta.
The OC Fair Board’s claim that the OC Market Place was a failed business model fell flat when the Market Place announced that revenue was up by four percent compared to the same number of open days last year. After the Board’s legal counsel admitted that the OC Market Place had done nothing to default on its lease, it became clear that some on this Fair Board still hold a grudge over the fact that OC Market Place owner and operator Jeff Teller helped community activists expose the scheme of some Board members to snatch the fairgrounds from the public and turn it into their own private playground. Public outrage over political appointees abusing their power in an effort to hijack this public property rightly embarrassed some Board members and resulted in current Governor Brown cancelling the sale prompting some on the Fair Board to enact an elaborate cover up of their scheme. Today’s action is retaliation for the exposure of their scheme.
With the exception of Director Kristina Dodge and recent Brown appointees Nick Berardino and Gerardo Mouet who voted against the action taken, the millionaire political donors appointed to the OC Fair Board under former Governor Schwarzenegger gleefully exacted their vengeance on the OC Market Place this afternoon, with the result that the hundreds of OC Market Place vendors who are small business owners fighting for survival in this economy and their growing customer base looking to stretch their consumer dollar served as little more than cannon fodder…. Ironically, while Governor Brown was developing his jobs plan to support private sector jobs in California earlier this month, some members of one of his own state boards – the Orange County Fair Board – were hatching a plan to kill private sector jobs through this reckless retribution plan.
“It is pathetic that these Schwarzenegger appointees would use their political positions of power to exact a political vendetta and put hundreds of families’ livelihoods at risk in the process,” said Jeff Teller, owner of the Orange County Market Place. “For 42 years the Orange County Market Place has been an incubator of business in Orange County and it’s sad that political appointees can be so callous and have the power to put thousands of hard-working business owners and their families out of work because their effort to take over the fairgrounds failed. In the end, we believe in America and we are confident that justice will prevail.”
– # # #-
*The Tellers have been connected to OC Politics for many years. Nice folks considering all the flaky jake people they have had to deal with through the years…which includes both politicians and Marketplace vendors that had to be rooted out…one by one…until they were able to find truly professional vendors that showed up every week and weren’t just working out of a shoe box. People could actually return goods that failed, were able to report rip-offs and such. Let’s just say, that through the years “The Tellers” have been fairly responsible overseers of one of the biggest week-end swap meets around.
The realities are that the “Swap Meet Business” has gotten competitive. There are a lot of Operators out there that have always eyed the Costa Mesa location with great fervor.
Are “The Tellers” the most cost effective operators for The Great OC Swap Meet? Maybe, maybe not. Who knows what is really going on behind the scenes on this one? History tells us, that backroom deals have always been made and backroom pay-offs are usually the order of the day.
This is one of the fights that will be very interesting to watch…..from afar!
Of course you two miss the point. Anyone who’s followed this story knows that OC Marketplace isn’t being cut loose because their profits have been falling (like the entire economy has) but because they’ve been a thorn in the side of the folks who wanted to sell our Fairgrounds – which includes most of this Board. Focus, you two!
Norberto’s done a great story on this. (He was at the meeting, I wasn’t)
http://www.voiceofoc.org/oc_coast/article_46a3defe-e629-11e0-b9ee-001cc4c03286.html
Most memorably to everyone there, Dave Ellis concluded his defenestration of the OC Marketplace with the comment, “Well, that’s that. Let the lawsuits begin.”
Of course, he means lawsuits where the OC Marketplace will have to defend themselves, while the Fair Board gets its top-dollar Manatt Phelps lawyers paid by us taxpayers. No wonder the pricks don’t mind.
*Track record…is a pretty convincing agrument. If Ellis and Company can find wrong doing….they will have a case. Otherwise, they will have to come up with charges and witnesses that can show deibilatery conduct which is contrary to proper conduct.
In any ever, after all these years without any accusations……the case will be tough to elucidate.
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I’d like to call it petty vengeance, but that is just the gravy on Ellis’s crap pie.
Facts are that Delaware North
( http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2004/apr/29/hot-dogs-beer-and-car-bombs/ ), has been in the wings even when FMW was trying to “piratize” the fairgrounds for themselves.
Delaware North was also the company that most recently lost the BOS contract for the new concession at JWA’s new terminals.
Delaware North as a multi-billion company isn’t in of itself a Bad thing. I mean it’s been decades since they blew up an investigative reporter……
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Bolles
Nowadays, they are more like GodFather III, when the Vatican gives Michael Corleone permanent respectability.
Unfortunately, the jist of their business is Indian casinos, Greyhound race tracks, off track betting parlors, and many respectable sporting arenas, but hardly the type of businesses we want at the Fairgrounds.
Sadly their greatest foray into a public facility ended badly. The walked off the largest State Park contract in history , Old Town in San Diego.
Disturbingly they played the same type of game.
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2004/may/27/will-bazaar-del-mundo-become-squibob-square/
Delaware North lobbied the State and a 33 year old contract was terminated with Diane Powers, who ran a highly successful vendor market called Bazaar Mundo.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/aug/08/no-regrets-for-bazaar-del-mundo-maven/
Then the sales went south http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20081130/news_lz1e30bennett.html
and now they’ve passed the ball to another operator that held if for only a few months before selling it off again………nice way, to launder the property.
The NEW owner…….who knows……..could be Tony Soprano for all anyone knows.
Fact is, the systematic dismantling of the Fairgrounds continues because the same majority of the Fairboard still exists. The same people that were responsible for trying to sell it to themselves using Fairgrounds funds and illegal lobbying. The same majority appointed weeks before Arnold left, and were put into place, to transfer the deed of the property during a special meeting New years day.
http://www.scpr.org/news/2010/12/28/22312/fairgrounds-battle-122810/
Petty vengeance, yes, sociopathic criminals still running the show??????
In my studied opinion , most assuredly.
Why doesn’t Brown just get rid of this fair board? They are dirty crooks. I mean, they got caught red handed rigging the fairgrounds sale in their favor. Brown wouldn’t even need a good reason like that. He could just say, you know what, thanks for your service, I’d like to give some new people a shot. People that will defend the taxpayer asset they are put in charge of protecting, people that won’t hire lobbyists to let it go to the highest bidder, people that think a fairgrounds should be about farm animals, horses, summer fairs, cultural events, arts and crafts, concerts, and community events.
F the current fair board!
From your lips to God’s ears…
According to this article, it might not be all that easy to bounce a board member once they are in:
“Westrup said, “The Governor does not have the authority to unilaterally remove the previous administration’s appointees prior to the expiration of their terms.”
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/board-319784-fair-governor.html
Jerry Brown is in town on Oct. 11. Maybe he can just get rid of the entire Fair Board in one evening. This would be a help.
CJ