Costa Mesa Asks Rescheduling of Concert to Avoid Fair Dates

COSTA MESA —  Hoping to avert traffic tie-ups that occurred the last time the Pacific Amphitheatre held a major concert during the Orange County Fair, Costa Mesa city officials have asked that the Pacific reschedule a July 19 concert by pop singer Gloria Estefan.

The request, issued by City Manager Allan L. Roeder in a letter to Orange County Fair General Manager Norbert Bartosik, is aimed at avoiding the gridlock that surrounded a 1986 Beach Boys concert, which nearly filled the 18,765-seat amphitheater on a night when tens of thousands of visitors were pouring into the adjacent fairgrounds.

The fair runs July 17-28 this year.

“Our position is clear,” Bartosik said Friday. “We have asked the amphitheater’s operators not to have the concert at the same time as the fair (and) to see if there is a way to move it that is practically and economically feasible. We’ll be meeting with them next week to discuss it.”

Rick Pickering, assistant to the city manager, said that if the two events take place as scheduled, the need for extra police to direct traffic probably would leave the force without sufficient officers to provide additional security at the fair or the amphitheater.

But he denied that the city is retaliating for the concert booking by making off-duty officers unavailable for private contract, a service they have been providing since the Pacific opened in 1983.

“The major concern we have is that if both events take place simultaneously, the majority of our officers will be tied up handling traffic,” Pickering said.

Roeder’s letter asks fair officials to reach agreement with amphitheater operators on rescheduling the concert by May 1, Pickering said.

“There also is a long-term issue of police-service protection or private-security protection for the fair and/or the amphitheater,” Pickering said. “That issue has been under discussion for several months.”

Bartosik confirmed that “the city has been talking for months now about phasing officers out of doing fair events.” But he said the fair gets most of its law officers from the county Sheriff’s Department. The absence of Costa Mesa police would not create a serious problem, Bartosik said. “There are not very many (Costa Mesa officers) here during the fair. . . . In our biggest peak times, there are maybe a dozen.”

Pacific officials could not be reached for comment Friday, but Jorge Pinos, Estefan’s booking agent at the William Morris Agency, said it would create “a problem for me” to reschedule her date.