Law firm Lackie, Dammeier & McGill, which represents many police unions, has a reputation for aggressive attacks against city halls. One critic described its tactics as ‘litigation terrorism.’

By Christopher Goffard, Los Angeles Times
September 16, 2012

One after another, people stepped before the Costa Mesa City Council to decry the blight and lawlessness on tiny Ford Road — prostitutes, thieves, home invaders. What the city needs, they pleaded, is more cops.

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Ellis

Posted: Friday, September 23, 2011 2:14 pm | Updated: 10:00 pm, Fri Sep 23, 2011.

NORBERTO SANTANA JR.

Friday, Sept. 23, 2011 | Orange County Marketplace swap meet owner Jeff Teller, a driving force behind the two-year fight to stop the sale of the local fairgrounds, has been kicked off the property.

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Orange County Fair Board Chairman David Ellis

NORBERTO SANTANA JR.
Posted: Tuesday, August 23, 2011 6:43 am
Updated: 12:16 pm, Tue Aug 23, 2011.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011 | The Orange County Fair Board’s attempt to privatize the county fairgrounds in Costa Mesa — a two-year saga that prompted multiple investigations and lawsuits — ended last month when Gov. Jerry Brown officially nixed a proposed sale to the Newport Beach-based Facilities Management West.

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Published: June 7, 2011
Updated: June 8, 2011 7:33 a.m.
By JON CASSIDY
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

SANTA ANA – The sale of the Orange County fairgrounds to a private company is dead, unless the state Supreme Court resurrects the deal.

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The bills for enhanced pension benefits in Costa Mesa, San Bernardino and other cities and agencies are coming due. Drastic cuts and legal battles are just some of the consequences.

By Evan Halper and Catherine Saillant, Los Angeles Times
April 8, 2011

Scores of California government agencies continued to sweeten employee pension plans even after the state’s economy began collapsing into recession in 2008, a decision that is now haunting them as they struggle with deficits and deep budget cuts.

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Posted: Tuesday, February 22, 2011 9:58 pm | Updated: 12:59 pm, Tue Feb 22, 2011.
NORBERTO SANTANA, JR. Voice of OC

Wednesday, February 2, 2010 | Last October, when District Attorney Tony Rackauckas cleared former State Senator Dick Ackerman of any illegal lobbying on the proposed sale of the Orange County Fairgrounds, his report stated that Ackerman didn’t violate a state ban on lobbying former colleagues because “his contact was not with state legislators.”

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Posted: Monday, February 21, 2011 6:24 pm | Updated: 8:22 pm, Mon Feb 21, 2011.
NORBERTO SANTANA, JR. Voice of OC

Tuesday, February 22, 2010 | The state’s Fair Political Practices Commission has launched an investigation into whether contacts former State Senator Dick Ackerman made with current legislators on behalf of the Orange County Fair Board constituted illegal lobbying.

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Published: Sept. 17, 2010
Updated: 6:15 p.m.

By JON CASSIDY
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

COSTA MESA – Twice before, the board of the Orange County Fair & Event Center has tried to buy the fairgrounds from the state.

Now it says it already owns the property.

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Posted: Friday, April 23, 2010 6:01 am | Updated: 6:30 am, Fri Apr 23, 2010.

NORBERTO SANTANA, JR

Friday, April 23, 2010 |The call came late Wednesday night to Kristina Dodge, who had to step out of a movie premier. On the other end was a message from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

“They just requested we don’t take action today,” Dodge said Thursday morning after pulling the plug on a proposal by the Orange County fair board that would have left fair board members in charge of the county’s fairgrounds in exchange for sending some vendor revenue to the state.

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