The Orange County District Attorney’s office has again cleared insiders who tried to sell the Orange County Fairgrounds during the state of California’s fiscal crisis more than five years ago. This is the second such report the DA’s office has conducted in the past four years and because Michael Lubinski, a senior assistant DA well respected for this thoroughness, was involved, the released letter should put an end to a variety of charges of illegal lobbying.
Here’s a summary from the Daily Pilot:
In an eight-page letter to fairgrounds CEO Doug Lofstrom on Monday, district attorney’s investigators said no evidence could be found that fair board members at the time committed criminal wrongdoing during the state’s ultimately failed effort to sell the 150-acre property in Costa Mesa.
Both investigations looked into allegations of conflict of interest and misuse of public funds stemming from the attempt by certain board members at the time to create a private nonprofit foundation with the goal of buying the fairgrounds.
The funds intended for the creation of the foundation were part of a longstanding fairgrounds contract, though after fair staff saw the problem, the board members paid the cost themselves, the district attorney’s office determined.
The probes also explored accusations of illegal lobbying on behalf of the board by former state Sen. Dick Ackerman (R-Irvine). The district attorney’s office determined that Ackerman did contact legislators, but not with the intent of trying to influence legislation that would enable the sale of the fairgrounds and other public lands.
The move to sell the fairgrounds, which began in 2009 as an attempt by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to unload some state properties to shore up the then-ailing state budget, became subject to legal challenges before effectively getting scrapped in 2011 under a new governor, Jerry Brown.
You can read the full letter here.