With a pivotal court hearing on the sale of the Orange County Fairgrounds scheduled for Friday, a host of players in Sacramento are moving into position.
Most notably, state Senator Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana) is calling out to the entire OC legislative delegation, asking them to get on board with a petition formally calling on Gov. Jerry Brown to halt the sale before the hearing.
Following a December court drama that effectively ended the Schwarzenegger Administrations’ dream of selling Fairgrounds for $100 million, a temporary restraining order halting the sale has stayed in place far beyond the original month it was intended for.
While Correa makes his push, Facilities Management West, the private company that has been trying to buy the Fair, is expected to show up at the Capitol this week.
Company officials are expected to testify against Assemblyman Jose Solorio’s bill that would instead seek to give the state a larger share of revenues from the OC Fair.
Correa says Brown should save everyone’s time and end the sale. And its important, he said, that every Orange County legislator to sign a letter letting Brown know the locals don’t want a sale.
“Beyond the 50,000 signatures on petitions, we want to show the governor that the entire (OC legislative) delegation supports reversing the sale of the Orange County fairgrounds,” Correa said.
He added that the message of the letter is simple. “We haven’t forgotten governor, we’re still waiting for you to make the right decision: pull it completely off the market.”
It will interesting to see if Correa can herd up the entire delegation…