OC Fairgrounds’ foundation in disarray after four board members resign

A nonprofit foundation formed by a majority of the Orange County Fair & Event Center’s board of directors to look into purchasing the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa could be on the verge of dissolving after half of its members were reported to have resigned in recent weeks, Dale Dykema, one of the members who stepped down, said Wednesday.

Meanwhile, David Ellis, vice chair of the center’s board of directors, which governs the fairgrounds, told The Daily Pilot Wednesday that he resigned on Dec. 2 as a member of the fairground foundation’s board, bringing to four the number of directors who have stepped down from foundation’s six-member board. But he is retaining his seat on the Fair & Event Center’s board.

The other two foundation members who resigned were Joyce Tucker and Gary Hayakawa, Dykema and Ellis said. Both were unavailable for comment Wednesday.

Ellis added that the nonprofit’s leader, Kristina Dodge, who chairs the Fair & Event Center’s board, is expected to come out with a statement Thursday. She did not return calls for comment.

Dykema, who said he resigned from the foundation’s board by e-mail about three weeks ago, said political pressure might have spooked the organization’s supporters and ruined any real chance that the group had at purchasing the land and preserving the Orange County Fairgrounds.

At the behest of the Orange County Board of Supervisors’ attorney, Nicholas Chrisos, the Orange County district attorney’s office is investigating the organization for possible open meeting or conflict of interest violations.

D.A. counsel Susan Schroeder said her office is waiting for Chrisos to turn over documents, which he claims he has as evidence of “corruption” by the foundation. No one from the fairgrounds’ board or the nonprofit foundation has been contacted by the district attorney’s office, said David Ellis.

Dykema says any concerns about broken laws is hogwash, and the organization only wanted to save the fairgrounds.

He and Ellis pointed to the Teller family, which runs the Orange County Marketplace, as the force behind the organization’s fall. The two said the Tellers hired a public relations firm to rally marketplace vendors, fairground employees and the owners of the equestrian center against the foundation’s plans.

The Tellers did not return calls for comment.

Dykema said that supporters of the the nonprofit, such as Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach, dropped their support and he didn’t know why this happened..

Moorlach declined comment.

Editor’s note: This corrects an earlier version.