Matt “Jubal” Cunningham, the editor of Red County/OC Blog, has been carrying water for disgraced O.C. Sheriff Mike Carona for a long time. But now he is running cover for Carona’s wife Debbie too.
Here is what the L.A. Times reported about the other criminal Carona:
The wife of indicted Sheriff Michael S. Carona, while serving on the Orange County Fair Board, actively supported a no-bid contract for a longtime swap meet operator who had donated thousands of dollars to her husband’s political campaigns, according to documents and interviews.
Deborah Carona urged fellow directors to grant the contract to TelPhil Enterprises before the company’s bid had been evaluated and even after state officials told the fair board to reconsider a proposal from a firm promising a higher cut of its profits.
Citing tradition at the Costa Mesa-based fairgrounds, the sheriff’s wife said giving the contract to TelPhil was the ethical thing to do.
The state Department of General Services, which oversees county fairs in California, intervened in the swap meet debate after a rival bidder, Delaware North, argued that the fair board had wrongly eliminated it as a contender.
What fair officials didn’t know as Deborah Carona tried to steer the contract to TelPhil was that the father-son owners and one of their wives had donated about $5,000 to the sheriff’s campaign. The son was serving on the Sheriff’s Advisory Council and as one of Carona’s special reserve deputies at the time.
Despite her efforts, Carona’s motion failed and the board reopened the bidding process. But TelPhil ultimately maintained its grip on the swap meet after Delaware North dropped out, complaining that the entire process felt rigged.
And the O.C. Register had similar findings:
But the fair board rejected Delaware North’s bid, saying a piece of paperwork was missing. Delaware North appealed to state officials, who agreed that the company shouldn’t be left out of the running because of an technicality. The board looked for other legal means to award the contract to TelPhil but eventually started the bidding process over.
In February 2004, after state intervention and a suggested repeat of the entire bidding process, Carona cited the importance of “custom, habit and tradition,” and said the board would be making a “moral and ethical mistake” if it went forward with another competitive process, according to meeting minutes.
She made a motion to “sole-source” the swap meet contract and start negotiations with TelPhil. Her motion was seconded by fellow fair board member Peggy Haidl, whose brother, Don Haidl, was an assistant sheriff at the time.
The motion, however, failed. Other board members said that, while they had empathy for TelPhil, the fair property belonged to the state and they had a fiduciary duty to put the contract out to bid.
In the end, however, there wasn’t much of a competitive process left. In a move that mystified Delaware North, the fair board capped the amount of money it could make from the swap meet at 40 percent. Delaware North’s original offer of 50 percent was moot, and, it felt, gave TelPhil an unfair advantage.
That last paragraph is simply stunning. Why would the fair board cap how much it could make from the swap meet? That sounds like a poison pill strategy. Nice. Debbie Carona and her ally, Peggy Haidl, cost the taxpayers of Orange County thousands of dollars, but Cunningham still cannot take his red blinders off:
“That’s not to say Debbie Carona was right or that Delaware North shouldn’t have won the contract. I don’t know Debbie Carona, but most people in politics have a strong tendency to be loyal and protective of those with whom they have friendships, and in this instance my belief is that’s what was driving Debbie Carona’s support to renewing TelPhil’s contract.”
Wow. What a complete pendejada! Cunningham must have been bathing in red Kool Aid when he wrote that. Whatever. The two major newspapers in our area got this one right. By the way, is no one else disgusted by the fact that Mike Carona rigged the fair board by getting his wife and his right hand guy’s wife appointed to it? What a joke!
We are witnessing the death of the OC GOP machine. It is a wonderful thing to watch… But the machine still lives on the Orange County Fair Board. It is a sad collection of machine Republicans. Here is a thought – why not appoint people that actually care about putting on decent fairs? And why is there still only one Latino on the board (a Republican who does not speak Spanish)?
I think by now most rational people realize that Jubel/Red County Bloggers-Mike Corona-Mike Schroeder and John Fleishman are having one big political circle jerk while the rest of us look at them and laugh.
*This is a joke….TelPhil was
the original lease holder on the
Fair Grounds for years and years
and years. Additionally, they
are the biggest supporters of
Democrat candidates around including our favorite Joe Dunn.
You are chasing a rabbit down a
rat hole on this one. Wrong doing
is Antonio Villaraigosa double dealing on his hispanic wife and
throwing it in her face! Wrong
doing is Fabian Nunez buying Cartier jewelry for Marthala Salinas….! What that didn’t
happen either?
Art,
I’ve said it before: you really need to enroll in a reading comprehension course.
You are, of course, free to take issue with things I have never said, while claiming I said them. In that, at least, you would be consistent.
There is another hand rocking the cradle on this issue. Uber Republican consultant Ken Khachigian was the lawyer/lobbyest who was the point person for TelPhil and the OC Fair Board.
If you think Matt has been carrying water for Carona, you should read fellow red kool-aid drinker Adam-I drank the entire pitcher-Probolsky’s opinion/hit-piece on former sheriff deputy Bill Hunt.
Probolsky has the nerve to criticize Hunt for being a private investigator when Probolsky is nothing more than a worthless GOP political hack.
This is all nothing more than a pathetic pattern. Not too long ago, this hack offered a bounty to those who could tarnish OC’s favorite political contribution watchdog Shirley Grindle.
I guess the bounty did not work, given that Probolsky’s boy, Carona, has been indicted for many of the reasons that Shirley has been talking about for awhile.
Matt/Jubal,
Next time just type “waaah!” It will save you time and effort.
Art,
I think you should give Cunningham a break. He just suffered a great loss with the Suncal failure. He may never find mindless work again. Better yet, he may even have to go pretend to work with Probolsky.
Art:
Did you think of that all by yourself?
I think “waaaah!” would be better used as a summary of 90% of your posts, and of your ability as a debater.
In the meantime, you really do need to work on your reading comprehension skills.
Or you can do what you did last time and re-write the post after you realized you had totally mischaracterized my post.
Matt/Jubal,
In case you are interested, here is the translation of “Waaaah” in Spanish: “Aaaaaay!” You can use that instead as you are quite a chillon.
Aren’t the Circle Jerks a band?
# 1, you are right on, my friend. These people make me sick. And as for Jubal, are you still sporting that “tough guy” gottee. I’ve met you and your a skinny little geek!
You can use that instead as you are quite a chillon.
Oooh…a Spanish word. A subtle reminder that Art is the wannabe arbiter of all things Latino.
Don’t ever change, Art.
And as for Jubal, are you still sporting that “tough guy” gottee. I’ve met you and your a skinny little geek!
Insulting my facial hair and calling me names! Looks like we have ourselves another Daniel Webster.
If Khachigian is involved would this not bring this to a differant level? Debbie is a tool buts lets go after the people who held them.
Jubal, it looks like Greenhut is also kicking your butt for being a defender of all that is wrong with the OC GOP.
Face it! Engaging in juvenile banter with Art does not change the fact that you are becoming a prop of the ethic-less part of the OC GOP.
Jubal, it looks like Greenhut is also kicking your butt for being a defender of all that is wrong with the OC GOP.
Yeah. That’s exactly what he’s doing. Keep telling yourself that.
Face it! Engaging in juvenile banter with Art does not change the fact that you are becoming a prop of the ethic-less part of the OC GOP.
So says the anonymous commenter engaging in juvenile banter.
I’ll be sure to ponder your advice.
My take on the alleged corruption is that it is about money, not about partisan politics. History shows that the pursuit of money by elected officials for themselves and their friends knows no party boundaries. Unfortunately, history also seems to show that good people elected to powerful political positions all to often yield to the temptations and sense of entitlement that seem to come with such offices. If a person constantly has people telling them how great they are, how important they are, wanting to be in their company, etc. eventually they begin to believe it and it so often goes down hill from there. It is a sad pattern that has repeated in county government over the last 4 decades at least, not to mention some cities (Huntington Beach comes to mind).
Schroeder’s op-ed piece in the Sunday, Dec. 2 Register that takes on Mr.Greenhut’s reporting credibility is worth reading. Will Greenhut fire back?