Fair board discusses ‘strategic plan’

The Orange County Fair Board got a not-so-sweet treat Thursday — an old cake with a message stenciled in the icing: “Let ‘em eat cake.”

But members from the Orange County Preservation Society, who delivered the cake, said they had good intentions. They initially bought the cake about a month ago to give to the board Feb. 2, but that meeting was canceled and rescheduled for Feb. 9. The board, however, canceled that meeting for lack of quorum — and the cake went stale.

Community members wanted the board to eat the cake, even if was close to a month old. After all, that was the whole purpose of the Marie Antoinette-style message for what residents say was betraying the public’s trust and instigating the sale of the state-owned fairgrounds to a private developer.

Save for Trustee David Padilla, who criticized the fair board for a lack of transparency, the five other trustees who showed up at Thursday’s board session did not state their position on the possible sale of the fairgrounds, despite pleas and demands from community members.

Instead, the board voted to direct staff to come up with a “strategic plan” for the fairgrounds.

Steve Beazley, chief executive of the fairgrounds, said a strategic plan would allow the board to come up with alternatives to selling the fairgrounds. The board could discuss the plan at its next meeting then present those ideas to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Beazley told the Daily Pilot that one alternative would be to rent the fairgrounds from the state annually, thereby keeping control of the 150-acre property in Costa Mesa in local hands.

The only way that could be accomplished would be by increasing the fairgrounds’ annual revenues, Beazley said.

During the meeting, Beazley presented the board with some options on how the 150-acre property could maximize revenues.

Beazley said that his and board Chairwoman Kristina Dodge’s idea of a strategic plan would find a way to fulfill the governor’s goal for fairgrounds across the state, which was issued in the California Performance Review. The goal is to increase revenues while also keeping fairgrounds in local control.

The state doesn’t spend anything on operations for the Orange County Fairgrounds, which are financially independent.

A letter from Maloof Money Cup, a company that holds skateboarding events, proposed that the Fair Board build a permanent skate plaza on the grounds.

The Fair Board plans to meet March 11 to approve a strategic plan and present it to the governor.

The fairgrounds were placed on sale as part of a plan to liquidate high-value state-owned properties to help plug a gap in the California budget deficit.

In October, the fairgrounds were auctioned off at $56.5 million to Newport Beach-based Craig Realty Group, an outlet developer. However, the sale is not final.

Officials from the state Department of General Services are reviewing Craig’s offer to determine whether it’s beneficial to the state.

A decision on whether the fairgrounds will be sold is expected in April.