Everyone should be fighting for fairgrounds

When the Costa Mesa City Council recently adopted a resolution to

keep the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, the city manager

urged everyone to visit the city’s website for a list of county and

state officials to contact, urging them to oppose relocation of the

fairgrounds to Irvine.

Below is the letter that I have sent to the California Performance

Review Commission as well as to Gov. Schwarzenegger, state Sens.

Margett, Ackerman, Dunn, Johnson and Morrow and Assembly members

Bermudez, Pacheco, Harman, Maddox, Correa, Campbell, Spitzer, Daucher

and Bates.

Folks can find the full names and addresses of these public

servants at https://www.ci.costa-mesa.ca.us by clicking on the

“News&Info;” link. This battle is not over, and taking this action is

important. Published reports indicate that official and grass-roots

opposition to this silly idea have already encouraged Campbell to

reverse his position. Good for him and good for those who spoke up.

Dear California Performance Review Commission,

I hope that by now everyone in Sacramento has been enlightened

regarding the baffling notion that the Orange County Fairgrounds is

an “underutilized” facility used one month a year for a county fair.

It’s much, much more than that!

Beyond the fact that the fair is recognized as one of the best in

the nation in terms of attendance, revenue and content, it is a model

of “good government,” of which the state should be proud, serving the

Orange County community and especially the city of Costa Mesa in

myriad ways on a weekly basis.

I won’t take the space in this letter to enumerate the many events

such as the weekly Orange County Marketplace, the Pacific

Amphitheater and the many countywide agencies and nonprofits that

utilize the fairgrounds to educate and motivate young and old alike.

The Orange County Fair Board has, I’m sure, provided staggering

detail to support its resolution to leave the fairgrounds where it

is. I attended their meeting.

The argument to leave the fairgrounds where it is stands on its

own merits, not to mention that the financial analysis supporting

relocation assumes land-use changes the city of Costa Mesa would

never adopt, and the city of Irvine apparently thinks it’s a bad

idea, too.

The California Performance Review was a good idea. I attended the

“Town Hall” meeting in the Orange County Supervisors chambers and

heard many examples of ways we could save money; I even offered a few

of my own. Please don’t taint this good idea by making uninformed

decisions that cast the entire effort in a very bad light.

BRUCE GARLICH

Costa Mesa

* EDITOR’S NOTE: Bruce Garlich is the chairman of the Costa Mesa

Planning Commission and is a candidate for the City Council.