Orange County fairgrounds officials have sparked robust debate online about parking rates at the summer fair amid aggressive pricing during hard economic times.
The controversy puts a focus on Gov. Gavin Newsom and his fair board appointees, most of whom are serving under four-year terms that expired years ago.
That kind of lax management from Newsom leaves the public sector executives in charge.
The results speak for themselves.
Alongside the spike in pricing for residents are bulging reserves, a shiny new headquarters – initially approved at $24 million but now hovering at a cost of nearly $30 million – and a culture of perks for insiders.
Last month, officials at the state-run OC Fair and Event Center dispatched their mascot Olivia Orange riding in a golf cart to Instagram, playfully pointing out that the current $15 parking fee at the public fairgrounds is still way below other venues charging twice as much to park.
The marketing blitz came right after Voice of OC published a sober look at pricing at the fair, which notes the rises in prices alongside growing reserves for the agency, now hovering at $52 million.
[Read: Orange County Fair Opens This Week As Prices Remain High]
Fairgrounds officials focused on defending the spike in parking rates.
But Instagram followers saw right through the defensive action.
“‘We’re only ripping you off, kind of…’ is not a strong business plan,” wrote one commenter.
“This is one of the reasons why I don’t go to the fair,” another Instagram user commented. “Thanks for the reminder OC Fair.”
“This doesn’t make anyone feel better,” another wrote.
Some users called out that the high prices don’t stop after parking and admission.
“Everything inside is already overpriced too,” another Instagram user wrote. “Parking should be free or $5 at most for a county fair.”
The Instagram comment section was eventually removed by fairgrounds officials after mounting criticism. There were over 100 comments before they were removed.
After Voice of OC asked questions, the comments went back up.
It’s questionable for a public agency to delete comments from official social media pages.
Yet what really struck me as tone deaf was officials’ comparison to other more expensive venues without naming them – leaving me to wonder whether they are comparing themselves to private sector outlets.
The OC Fairgrounds are a public property, fully owned by taxpayers.
The 150-acre tract was donated to the State of California after serving as a U.S. Army base during WWII.
And just a decade ago, a host of activists, lawyers, equestrians, vendors and elected officials from across Orange County fought intensely against a host of special interests to keep Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s administration from privatizing the facility.
[Read: Fair Board Calls for Audits of Failed Bid to Privatize]
I vividly remember that battle, which I covered across several years, right to the last moments of Schwarzenegger’s term – even working around the New Year’s Day holiday to cover the last-ditch effort to privatize the fairgrounds.
[Read: Schwarzenegger Retreats From Controversial Fairgrounds Meeting]
Yet all these years later, I really question what was saved, in terms of the public focus of the facility.
Fair board members have never really changed how the fairgrounds are run.
Listening to the most recent plans to build an expensive headquarters is disheartening, and hearing executives talk about their vision sounds like a corporate venture, not a public facility aimed at celebrating the county’s agricultural heritage and bringing the community together.
Gov. Newsom’s Weak Commitment to Diversity
None of the fairgrounds’ five CEOs since 2010 have come from diverse backgrounds.
While Newsom doesn’t directly select a CEO, he picks the board members who do.
His fair board members have provided quite the statement for a governor like Newsom, who has championed the concept of diversity in hiring, even recently enacting legislation requiring venture capital firms operating in California to disclose demographic data about the founders of the companies they invest in.
In his signing statement, he noted, “this bill resonates deeply with my commitment to advance equity and provide for greater economic empowerment of historically underrepresented communities.”
Yet on the very same day he signed that legislation, he vetoed a similar requirement detailing how his own gubernatorial appointments stack up for the third time.
Despite that contradiction, in his letter rejecting that kind of reporting, Newsom again declared, “I continue to be deeply committed to making appointments at every level of government that reflect California’s diversity.”
“My office makes an intentional, transparent effort to continuously engage with the Legislature, community partners, nonprofits, and other stakeholders to build a diverse and qualified pool of candidates for these positions. I am deeply proud of the diverse group of Californians who now serve our state in senior, appointed leadership positions.”
Yet there doesn’t seem to be that kind of commitment to diversity when it comes to leading Orange County’s fairgrounds.
Even more questionable is that two recent fairground CEOs – including the current head of the agency – were picked from outside the state.
Sad for a community like Orange County, which is very diverse and boasts a host of residents with unique experience in areas like tourism, resorts and parks.
Public Givebacks
With all the money made from the fair, there’s supposed to be a series of public givebacks to the local community from the state agency.
Yet historically, there’s been lots of tension at one of the biggest, the fairgrounds equestrian center.
A decade ago, equestrian activists found themselves in the center of heated battles against fairgrounds administrators who wanted them out in their bid to privatize the property.
Equestrians won that battle, helping keep the agency in public hands. But recently, fairgrounds administrators went right back at them, eventually evicting many and rebranding the facility as The Ranch Community Center.
[Read: OC Equestrian Center Rent Hikes Start This Week as Tension Mounts]
In addition to the equestrian center, the only additional public givebacks I’ve seen have been the expansion of Heroes Hall – a former Army base barracks that was saved from destruction – again largely by the leadership of community veterans leaders, not the fairgrounds officials.
To their credit, after the facility was saved, fair board members did invest in the hall, helping create a unique place honoring the county’s veteran community.
Centennial Farms still operates as it historically has, as a working farm with educational agriculture-based programs for kids and families. The three-acre farm is currently closed for the 2025 fair but slated for improvements and scheduled to reopen Aug. 25.
Alongside a lack of expanding public givebacks, admission and parking prices historically keep going up, which officials argue is to keep pace with expenses.
Compare Expensive Parking To Private Perks For Governor’s Pals
Yet what doesn’t get touched are the special perks for Gov. Newsom’s fair board members – like free tickets to concerts and free gourmet food inside an exclusive dining area hidden away from the public on the fairgrounds during the fair.
[Read: Who Gets a Free Ticket to the Orange County Fair?]
The freebie tradition for fair board members goes back a long way in Orange County – a big reason the fair board seat is so valued by elites across the region.
Those treats also go a long way toward encouraging local fair board members against making waves and questioning the status quo.
The California Governor nominates people to sit on the board for four-year slots.
But thanks to a sloppy tradition, many members are left on the board long after their terms expire.
Orange County has six of the current eight fair board members serving on expired terms, according to a review of the governor’s appointments and the directors’ bio page.
A spokesperson for the fair couldn’t answer who was serving under expired terms, kicking the question to the governor’s office, which confirmed the gap.
A Newsom spokesperson stated in an email response that fair directors Barbara Bagneris, Douglas La Belle, Newton Pham and Robert Ruiz were officially reappointed to the Fair Board in 2018.
No such reappointment has taken place for current board president, Nick Kovacevich (appointed in 2020) or Director Natalie Rubalcava (appointed in 2018), according to the directors’ bio page.
Two new directors – Demetria Jackson and Tanya Bilezikjian – were appointed in 2023.
“Although the four-year appointments have expired,” said Marissa Saldivar, a Newsom Communications Assistant, in referring to the 2018 reappointments, she noted, “Board members are permitted to serve in expired terms at the pleasure of the Governor.”
If Gov. Newsom values their leadership so much, they should be reappointed.
Leaving them on expired terms is lazy governance.
It also prevents any new members from serving, introducing new perspectives or offering leadership opportunities for other community members.
It certainly doesn’t produce better public fairgrounds.
It just continues the tradition of handing the property over to a series of public executives and special interests that run local fairs all over the country.
Fueling perks for insiders.
And higher prices for everyone else on things like parking.
Noah Biesiada and Angelina Hicks contributed to this column.