A couple weeks ago I revealed the names of the politicians and their sycophants who accepted “free” Orange County Fair concert tickets. According to the O.C. Register the value of these tickets was $376,000 over the last two years.
The Register revealed this week that the concert ticket fiasco was just the tip of the iceberg. The O.C. Fair Board also “spent $399,000 during the past five fairs on nightly catered meals for themselves and their invited guests, invoices from the fairgrounds show.”
The same people that took those concert tickets ate high on the hog, on food that cost about $20 a plate. Nice. Guess who got stuck with the tab? That’s right. The taxpayers. You can read the receipts for the meals we paid for at this link.
“State auditors have twice warned that the catered meals, free concert tickets, complimentary fair admissions and other promotions have surpassed the limit imposed by state law and could be viewed as a gift of public funds,” according to the Register.
That these politicians will most likely get away with what they did just makes me sick. No wonder Red County doesn’t list our blog on their web links. Their publisher, Scott Graves, and editor, Matt Cunningham, were on the list, or in the case of Cunningham have admitted that they took the concert tickets. I wonder if they also pigged out at our expense?
UPDATE:
A reader asked us to list the current Orange County Fair Board members. So here they are:
Dale Dykema, President, Orange
Member, Orange County Lincoln Club and Republicans for a New Majority
Dale Dykema started TD Service Company in 1964 with the idea of providing effective foreclosure services to the mortgage industry. Dale’s idea caught on as he grew the company to what today has become one of the nation’s largest and most successful trustee firms. TD Service Financial Corporation is the parent of TD Service Company, TD Service Company of Arizona, TD Service Company of Washington and Trustee’s Assistance Corporation.
Julie Vandermost, Vice President. Laguna Niguel
Owner of Vandermost Consulting Service, Inc., specializing in environmental regulatory permitting related to
Good Work Art. The other blogs are afraid of this story. Please post photos and tell us who these Fair Board members are.
ONE OF THESE “UNJUST” FAIRBOARD MEMBERS IS MY MOTHER AND HOW DARE YOU RIDICULE SOME OF THESE AMAZING PEOPLE THAT MADE THE PRANGE COUNTY FAIR WHAT IT IS! THE POSITIVE MEMBERS I KNOW POURED ALOT MORE MONEY IN THEN HOW MUCH THEY GOT OUT WITH THE TICKETS THEY WERE GIVEN FOR HELPING THE FAIR BECOME SUCH A TOURIST ATTRACTION! NOW THE FAIR IS GOING DOWNHILL THANKS TO YOUR ARTICLE! YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE INSIDE OF THE FAIR BOARD IS LIKE INSTEAD OF BEING AN ASS HOLE AND PUTTING DOWN THE PEOPLE YOU SHOULD TRY BEING A BOARD MEMBER AND SEE WHAT IT’S LIKE AND WHAT IT WILL COST YOU TO SUPPORT SOMETHING FOR OUR COUNTY
Thank you for exposing what’s going on. The Fair Board members claim they are unpaid for their “service,” which isn’t true with all the tickets, meals and probably other things that haven’t been uncovered. Does anyone know what these folks do that isn’t already done by paid Fair employees? After seeing some of the names, I have doubts they do anything useful.
With the exposure the pigs (board members and their political friends) are receiving, it will be interesting to see how many will continue to line up at the trough in 2008. The Fair should be required to list each person who attends the “free” dinners as well as “free” concerts. If the list in 2008 diminishes with public exposure, it is because they know they’re doing something wrong. Those on the take in past years thought no one would find out.
How interesting it is to see the names of all the Republican hypocrites who publicly denounce the cost of social programs and government giveaways. I guess all those principles being espoused apply only to the “little people.”
Just in case it’s not obvious, Vandermost, Carona, Dodge, Tucker, Ellis, and Young are all Republicans.
well your also an idiot because those women are the strongest on the fair board. Your probably a man at home who can’t even comprehend the amount of work they do for everyone else
#3,
Thanks for the clarification. There were plenty of Dems involved in this scandal too. Just go back to my original story about the concert tickets and check out the names.
I also got calls from several Dem friends of mine when the concert ticket story broke. They got tickets too, but were grateful that their names were not on the list.
Clearly the OC political elite, from both parties, enjoyed themselves at the OC Fair, to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars, at our expense. They all ought to be ashamed of themselves.
Curious that both of the other political blogs in town, both red and blue, have IGNORED this story.
Do these people make large campaign contributions?
Is that why the governor hasn’t cleaned house.
I hope the IRS asks these clowns where they reported the FMV of this compensation on their returns.
30 to 50 thousand per year, not bad for an unpaid position.
The upper management needs to be replaced too. This is another example of where the board members who are the trustees of a public trust conspire with upper management to rip-off the public big time.
The OCR report says that the fair makes 3 to 5 million profit per year, but only return $35,000 to the state.
What has the board members done with the difference?
Thanks Art for the update. Can you tell us which party each belongs to and which Gov appointed them? I know the current Reep Gov has made lots of Dem appointments to State boards.
These Political candidates so often during campaigns say, “my family is off limits” and yet they end up on Fair Boards, Central Com., or Running for other offices themselves (can you say Akerman, Clinton, etc)
Since the wife of the future Sheriff may end up on the Fair Board and going to concerts and eating Steak and Lobster on our dime, how about a profile on the wives, girlfriends of the candidates???
Sometimes it’s the sons…Bush, Padilla, etc
A couple weeks ago I revealed the names…
Really, Art? That was you? I thought it was the Register, and you just rifled through the database they posted online.
No wonder Red County doesn’t list our blog on their web links.
Yes, we wouldn’t want our readers to discover the power of the mighty Orange Juice!
Their publisher, Scott Graves, and editor, Matt Cunningham, were on the list, or in the case of Cunningham have admitted that they took the concert tickets.
“Admitted”? Hell, I admitted nothing, you crackpot — I volunteered the information.
I wonder if they also pigged out at our expense?
How would that be? The OC Fair’s budget is self-generated, as the OC Register article points out. Not that I want to confuse your narrative with the facts, Art.
Matt/Jubal,
The Register put up a program that required their readers to click to advance every twenty names. It was a lot of work. I spent several hours taking those names and putting them into an easy to read format. The better to expose you and your greedy friends.
Yes, you did admit to taking the tickets, after I asked you. Prior to that you did NOT offer up that information.
Lastly, the state is investigating all of your friends who ate at our expense and saw concerts at our expense. The proceeds from the Fair are PUBLIC. They are not supposed to be wasted on you and your ilk.
Elected leaders regurlarly attend events free of charge as special invites. Each elected has to make the decision whether or not to attend such events. But it is the duty of the elected’s to report this events as gifts. Concerts, ballgames, amusement parks, meals, banquets, must all be reported.
Art if you can show that officials attended and did not report these gifts as income it is a very serious matter.
Great work keep it up! This is what the Juice is best at!
Yes, you did admit to taking the tickets, after I asked you. Prior to that you did NOT offer up that information.
Again, I hate to bother you with something as petty as being factual, Art — but you try reading your earlier post again rather than relying on your fantasy-prone memory.
The first comment was from me — in which I volunteered that I had been to three concerts.
Care to admit your error? That would be a first.
Matt/Jubal,
Yes you did, but you did NOT volunteer that the tickets were given to you until I asked you.
but you did NOT volunteer that the tickets were given to you until I asked you.
Art:
That is just flat-out, demonstrably untrue — as is obvious to anyone who reads that post.
You didn’t ask me anything. Your post made no reference to me.
Matt/Jubal,
Go back to my original post re the tickets, where I named the names of the greedy politicians who accepted the tixkets, and refer to comment 9, where I asked you if you got “free” tickets.
You give yourself waaaay too much Credit, Art.
I thought it was pretty clear in my first comment where I’d gotten the tickets. How else do you think I could see Janet Nguyen rocking out in the first row?
Sorry you were unable to figure that out.
You guys are pretending to be elite snobs by trying to take down these people? You guys are pathetic