Rigonomics:

I attended the Costa Mesa City Council meeting Tuesday, and, as expected, they voted 5 to 0 to provide direction to the city attorney and the Development Services Department to place a ballot initiative on the June ballot to lock in the zoning and land use for the Orange County Fairgrounds.

It was very important for the city to move quickly and put everyone on notice, including the state, that the citizens of Costa Mesa have the ultimate say on what happens at the fairgrounds when it comes to land use.

I find it almost comical that the state sent the city a somewhat strongly worded letter with the concern that the city might “severely restrict the future land uses,” and therefore negatively affect the commercial value by allowing it to be used only as a fairgrounds. Let’s be clear, the city is not lowering the value of the property by locking it in as a fairgrounds use. They are only keeping it from going up in value with another use.

In another twist, a new group was formed called Derail the Sale. Their Facebook fan page asks readers to “Let your state legislator know the ‘For Sale’ sign on our fairgrounds must be taken down NOW!” Their goal is to stop the sale to anyone; whether it be the city, county or a nonprofit. They want the state to continue to own the property.

They also are asking people to show up to the informational hearing regarding the pending sale of the fairgrounds. The hearing is being sponsored by Costa Mesa Assemblyman Van Tran and Santa Ana Assemblyman Jose Solorio. According to the Derail the Sale site, they are asking people to show up and tell their legislators to stop the sale. So I ask myself, who is behind this group?

It did not take too much work to find out who set up the Facebook fan page. His name is Brian Lochrie. Lochrie’s Facebook page says he works for Faubel Public Affairs. If the name Faubel seems familiar, it should. Faubel Public Affairs is owned by Roger Faubel, whose previous firm Waters and Faubel was a main player behind closing down El Toro Airport and bringing us the Great Pork — I mean, Great Park.

According to their website, Faubel Public Affairs is a full-service public relations firm that specializes in “grass-roots organizing.” You gotta love those “grass-roots” organizations set up by professional public relations firms.

Brian Lochrie was quoted in a local paper saying that Derail the Sale had no connection to the Orange County Great Park.

Really? The connection is your firm.

I do not want to seem paranoid, but the fine people behind the Great Park have not exactly been here to help our community. Let’s recount the ways. While we are getting a $543-million upgrade of John Wayne Airport to eventually expand flights over our community, they are getting, well, a park.

For almost 20 years Cirque du Soleil has called Costa Mesa home whenever they came to Orange County. The Great Park reportedly offered them free rent and voila — Cirque du Soleil starts performing at the Great Park this January.

The Great Park Board just now approved $250,000 to start planning a $53-million, 1,500-seat Performing Arts Center, which they say will not compete with ours. I am sure when Broadway Plays come to Orange County, they will play both venues. The board also approved 170-plus acres of “Agricultural Fields.” I am sure that won’t compete with our fairground’s Centennial Farm, either.

We need to wise up and see what is happening here. It is my belief that the Great Park wants to take our fair. Not necessarily right now, but sooner than you think. They have 1,500 acres with nothing happening. The fair would bring them more than 1,000,000 people in five weeks.

It would be easy to take the fair from us. All they would have to do is offer free rent and the carnival operators would move in a minute.

If we want to keep the O.C. Fair here, this community needs to come together and support a local bid to buy it from the state. No state agency can compete with the Great Park. Every legal contract they sign has to be approved by the state attorney general’s office. Everything they buy has to be bought through the California Department of General Services — and because everybody who works there is a state employee, the state required them to take furloughs this year.

If we do not do something now, we will just continue to watch the Great Park pick our bones clean.

JIM RIGHEIMER is a Costa Mesa Planning Commissioner, local business owner and a father of four. He can be reached at jim@rigonomics.com.