Q&A; -- Working on a master plan for the fair

Curt Pringle loves the Orange County Fair and it shows. The former

state assemblyman lights up when he starts talking about his

responsibilities on the Orange County Fair Board, which he was appointed

to in 1998.

This year was a banner one for the 17-day, Costa Mesa-based fair,

which saw a 20,000 increase in attendance despite raising the entry fees

by $1. Pringle, the newly appointed board president, hopes next year’s

water-related theme, “Leap into the Fair,” will continue the upward

trend.

He sat down with Features Editor Jennifer K Mahal to discuss his new

position (a one-year term), the board and the Orange County Fairgrounds

master plan.

How did you get involved with the Orange County Fair Board?

Well, the true story is that as I was leaving the [California]

Legislature in 1998, Gov. Wilson asked if I would like to be appointed to

something as I left. I was considering a variety of things, but one thing

that’s always been of interest is how the fair operates and what happens

here. That had all of the the family votes behind it.

A lot of my time after the Legislature was to focus more on community

and family-related things, and this fits in perfectly. So I asked to be

appointed here, and he was gracious enough to appoint me.

Give me a quick explanation of what the board does for the Orange

County Fairgrounds and Exposition Center.

Well, it’s the board of directors for the overall operation here. A

lot of people see the fair as a two-week event at the summer, but in fact

with the hundreds of employees, many of which operate throughout the year

to keep the facility maintained and operational, to provide weekend

activities, to provide all the different programs and events that take

place here through the year -- the fair is a little city living here all

through the year and not just those two weeks when the whole Orange

County community, if not the Southern California community, maybe really

see it shine in its greatest form. But in fact, there’s activities here

through the year.

Mainly serving the community. The Orange County Fair itself isn’t a

county fair, per se, but it’s a state agricultural district that serves

this area, therefore all of the board members are appointed by the

governor. And they operate here, all nine of us, to serve as a board of

directors basically overseeing the daily operational aspects of the fair.

As the new president of the board, do you have any particular

concerns, or ideas or direction that you would like to see the board take

in the next year?

Right now, we’re in the middle of a master plan which includes

reviewing all of the buildings and operations of the fairgrounds itself

during fair time and outside of fair time, and for the next year that is

certainly going to be something we move forward with to ensure that we’re

looking at how the fair itself is operated and to maximize the use of its

grounds.

And through that process, there’ll be a lot of suggestions for change,

many of which will be adopted and moved forward with. But, part of the

purpose of having a master plan wasn’t just to do something, you know,

uncoordinated. I think it’s important to coordinate all of those

activities and to keep everybody informed, from the local residents to

the city people and all the other people who are invested in the fair

operation itself.

What’s the biggest challenge that the board faces?

The Fair Board itself, I mean there’s no question that the No. 1 focus

is how do you use this piece of property landlocked in Orange County to

maximize the community’s involvement during fair time and outside of fair

time. You know, our mission is really to focus on our core principle,

which is the agricultural foundation of this county, and make sure people

are aware of that.

You know we have Centennial Farm, which operates all through the year,

where you have tens of thousands of school kids come and visit every

single school day throughout the year, as well as the fair itself to make

sure people see the agricultural influence of this county. And sometimes

that’s lost on just bringing in big numbers and having a big show. But,

you want to be able to do that, to be able to grow from a fair that took

one-week period and brought in a couple hundred thousand, to now where we

have 17 days where we had 843,000 people visit our fair this year. You do

want to grow, but you also want to, through that growth, maximize

entertainment value and educational value that is our core principle.

What, if anything, is going to be done with the Pacific

Amphitheatre?

For many years, it’s been tied up in litigation and that is all

basically cleared away. And that’s really what gave us the ability to

move forward with our master plan. We said, OK, let’s look at all of the

aspects of this property and figure out how to utilize them, both to

maximize the value on the fairground, but to be sensitive to the

community around us.

So the ultimate decision will be made down the line. In fact, I think

there’re many way to insure that anything that’s done to the fairgrounds

is done with the greatest sensitivity to the neighborhood.

Personally, what would you like to see done with the amphitheater?

Well I just think it’s a shame that you have the largest outdoor

facility in Orange County deteriorating. I think with a lot of the

aspects it’s too big and can probably be made smaller and quainter, but

usable, and have limited use. But I don’t know when or how to ever get to

that point.

But, those are things that will be discussed over the next year or so

to insure that we’re being responsible in our actions.

What is your favorite event that happens here at the fairgrounds?

It certainly is the fair. My family, for the three years I’ve been on

the board, come every night of the fair. I feel that it’s a board

member’s responsibility to be here and bring guests to see things. And

it’s funny, certainly the kids want to go on rides every night, so we

limit it to a couple of rides every night so we don’t totally get thrown

apart. But every year it seems like we find one thing that we want to

take all our friends to see.

This year it was in Centennial Farm. They had three separate sows

deliver piglets, so we had 28, I think, -- or somewhere around that

number of baby pigs -- and to see them all through the stages. And then

we had the first ever calf that was born at fair time here.

And you know what, every night we went to visit, there were mobs of

people gathered around the babies, and to think that, yes, that really is

the purpose of this fair. To show people and to make people comfortable

with animal husbandry issues and those traditional issues that this

county was founded on. And to make people feel a part of that and enjoy

that and sense that. And this year, that really was our favorite part of

the fair, just looking at the baby pigs.

BIO

Name: Curt Pringle

Age: 42

Residence: Anaheim

Position: President, Orange County Fair Board

Job: Heads Curt Pringle & Associates, a public relations and

consulting firm in Anaheim

Family: Married, two children

Education: Bachelor’s in business administration and master’s in

public administration from Cal State Long Beach

Of note: Pringle served as a state assemblyman representing Garden

Grove and Anaheim from 1988-90 and 1992-98. He served as speaker of the

Assembly in 1996.