Posted: Thursday, January 17, 2013 7:00 am | Updated: 12:18 pm, Thu Jan 17, 2013.
BY NORBERTO SANTANA JR.
A committee set up by the Orange County Fair Board is recommending that the board urge Gov. Jerry Brown to investigate a shadowy statewide organization, the California Construction Authority, in connection with the failed effort during the Schwarzenegger administration to privatize the fairgrounds.
The CCA, a joint powers authority set up to speed fair construction projects across the state, imploded just as Brown took office. Several high-ranking officers of the OC Fair & Events Center, such as former CEO Becky Bailey Findley and current CEO Jerome Hobin, were top officials at CCA.
During the summer of 2009, the CCA provided a convenient mechanism for payments to lobbyists and other real estate consultants in connection with a scheme by a majority faction of Fair Board members to privatize fairgrounds.
While an Orange County district attorney review cleared Fair Board members, a Voice of OC investigative report in 2010 found that the DA probe missed key documents, such as legal billing records, that raised questions about potential violations of state lobbying regulations by Fair Board members and former state Sen. Dick Ackerman.
The report also highlights the role of the company LSA & Associates, which used to launder the political spending to Ackerman’s law firm, Nossaman and county lobbyists Platinum Advisors.
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Why, Isn’t this the group with that slimeball David Ellis on it?
How shocking, the OCDA “missed” key documents, NOT! Chief of Staff Susan Schroeder and other members of the OCDA had documents where Taryn Stout(the woman being investigated and later found at fault in the accident that resulted in the death of my husband SBCSD Detective Duane Parkison) states that she had lunch with then Sheriff Rod Hoops and that he gave her investigation details during the investigation. When my sister asked Ms.Schroeder why they were not investigating this possible corruption, she told my sister if we have more evidence then we need to bring it to her. We found it ridiculous that an investigating agency would ask the public to investigate for them. But, we did, and we brought the OCDA evidence from depositions of Taryn Stout and Rod Hoops where they both admit they went to lunch during the investigation. I have written another complaint asking for an investigation and have followed up but so far they are ignoring it.
I will be watching with great interest to see what the board does, and what Governor Brown does. Please Administrator, keep us informed. I truly wonder at what point in the government process is corruption and it’s participants exposed and held accountable.
Sounds like David Ellis playing in BROKEN COUNTY.
Does Ellis’ client DA Mikey like Life (not cereal) now??