Following the sports complex money trail

Dave Brooks

A court hearing in Oregon on Tuesday may provide Surf City a chance

to see what happened to the $950,000 it gave to contractor Joe

O’Connor to build the second phase of the Sports Complex.

O’Connor is due in court to disclose how he spent nearly $250,000

of Kalamazoo soccer club owner Chris Keenan’s money. During that

hearing, O’Connor will have to disclose any money he’s earned in

recent years, including money from Huntington Beach. City Atty.

Jennifer McGrath said she’s interested to see what O’Connor

discloses.

The city hired O’Connor and his company, Community Parks

Foundation, in June 2003 to build phase two of the sprawling

$19-million Sports Complex to meet financing requirements that

mandate a nonprofit entity be hired to complete a portion.

But after receiving nearly $1 million, O’Connor abandoned the

project.

Keenan hired O’Connor in 2001 to build a soccer pavilion similar

to the one he was slated to build for Huntington Beach. In both

instances, O’Connor abandoned the projects after receiving

substantial payment without performing work.

Keenan has won an $850,000 judgment against O’Connor, and plans to

force him to reveal what he did with the money and what assets he

controls.

“I’m going to ask for every single personal and business record

and see where the heck the money went,” he said. “Not just my money,

but also the money that belongs to Huntington Beach.”

Whatever money Keenan finds, he’ll have first stab at since he’s

already won a judgment against the Salem, Ore. contractor. Huntington

Beach is still in the first phases of its lawsuit against O’Connor,

filing a civil complaint for abandoning plans to build soccer

pavilions, roller rinks and concession stands to help the project pay

for itself.

City Administrator Penny Culbreth-Graft will conduct an

investigation into how the city approved O’Connor’s contract, she

said.

“I plan to first make my findings available to the City Council,

and then release them to the public,” she said. “I’m looking at the

process and what did the process need, what did it have and what

didn’t it have.”

The report should be available soon.

In the proposal O’Connor presented to the city in May 2003, he

stated that he planned to open a satellite office in Costa Mesa,

listing a business address at the Metro Center in Costa Mesa.

Brian Harnetinux manages the Anton Boulevard offices where

O’Connor claimed to have set up, and said O’Connor never rented a

space in the building.

“I have never heard of him, and no one under that name has ever

rented an office here,” he said.

The faulty address is the latest in a string of revelations about

O’Connor, who is believed to have misrepresented his tax-exempt

status to do business with the city.

O’Connor recently renewed the articles of incorporation for his

Community Park Foundation after it had been dissolved by the state of

Oregon, but business records show that he has overseen at least six

other corporations that were eventually dismantled by the state.