‘Public benefit’ board won’t involve public

Sandra Genis

The California Performance Review’s recommendation that the Orange

County Fairgrounds be sold has generated considerable controversy.

Those who are concerned about this should be at least as concerned

about another review’s recommendation regarding fair administration.

Resources Recommendation No. 28 suggests changing the public fair

board, formally the 32nd Agricultural District, into a private

“public benefit” corporation. As explained in the report, this would

save the governor the trouble of having to appoint all those

individual board members, though the review does not identify just

how these “public benefit” boards actually would be appointed.

Still, it sounds pretty benign, doesn’t it? Why would anyone

object to something termed a “public benefit”?

Here’s why: Public agencies cannot just hand out contracts to

cronies of board members but must accept competitive bids. Contracts

must be awarded in public. Public agencies must hold public meetings

with agendas available to the public in advance. The public must be

allowed to attend and comment. The public must be allowed to review

documents. In short, a public agency must be accountable to the

public.

All this is apparently just too much trouble in the eyes of the

California Performance Review team. They propose to streamline

administration of our county fair by streamlining the public right

out of the picture. If you don’t like this, submit your comments to

the California Performance Review webpage at www.cpr.ca.gov.

And, by the way, this recommendation also includes a provision to

transfer control of the local fairgrounds, currently owned by the

local fair district, to the state. The state would hold the land in

trust for its beneficial owner, the district agricultural

associations.

But wait. Aren’t the district agricultural associations, i.e.,

local fair boards, supposed to be eliminated in favor of private

“public benefit” corporations? What would happen to the land then?

Hey, maybe they can sell it.

* SANDRA GENIS is a former mayor of Costa Mesa.