The Great Park Audit Gets Ugly

The City of Irvine will subpoena Larry Agran on Tuesday; meanwhile, the OC District Attorney Tony Rackauckas has gotten involved.

Today the Orange County District Attorney’s office publicly released this letter which states

A deputy district attorney has been assigned this matter for criminal prosecution review.

I’m told the backstory for this letter is that Yehudi’s Gaffen‘s Gafcon had been working his extensive Republican contacts in San Diego to have the State Audit Committee investigate Irvine’s Great Park Audit. This letter is push back by the OC Republicans.

Moving from conversations to the documentable, Irvine City Council is holding a special meeting Tuesday with one purpose:

Compel the deposition of Larry Agran and authorize special counsel to seek recovery of legal fees and costs incurred by the City because of Mr. Agran’s refusal to appear at a deposition on February 25, 2015.

At last Tuesday’s city council meeting, Council member Christina Shea outlined the issues:

(1) Larry Agran failed to appear at the February 25th deposition

(2) The attorneys had offered three different dates to accommodate Larry’s schedule. None were accepted.

(3) Larry Agran wants the city to pay all of his attorneys fees and give him and additional three to four weeks to prepare for the deposition

(4) Larry Agran’s attorney has threatened sue the City to achieve (3) above

(5) Larry Agran is demanding that “his views be expressed in the Audit.” Christina Shea said “that opportunity was offered to him over a month ago” but somehow the two sides have not come to terms on this point.

That last point is an odd one. All other deponents, including, Mike Ellzey and Sharon Landers, have submitted written statements along with their testimony.  Is Larry demanding something else?

The audit may just be wrapping up, but the fun is just beginning. Start the popcorn.

UPDATE:  The Voice of OC has a clearer picture of who Gafcon paid to agendize the audit of the audit:

Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego) – who according to campaign finance reports received a $3,900 campaign contribution from Gafcon last December — placed the matter on Wednesday’s joint legislative audit committee meeting agenda.

Update 2:  The OC Register fills in more:

She [Lorena Gonzalez] asked the committee to take on the issue in April instead. Four other San Diego legislators – state Sen. Joel Anderson, R-San Diego, Rep. Brian Maienschein, R-San Diego, state Sen. Marty Block, D-San Diego, state Sen. Ben Hueso, D-San Diego – co-signed her request.

Assemblyman Don Wagner, R-Irvine, said he recently asked Gonzalez to delay the discussion because the investigation into the money spent on the park project is not yet complete.