A number of Orange County cities this year saw heightened levels of political disarray and verbal nastiness among their city councils, and at times the anger boiled over to the public they’re supposed to represent.
Author Archives: Brandon Pho
As a Voice of OC reporter, Brandon Pho covered north/central Orange County, as well as broader regional issues around law enforcement, transportation, the environment, the OC Fair and Little Saigon.
He joined in 2018 as an intern, shedding light on turmoil and corruption claims in Westminster and uncovering a now-fired OC Fair executive’s suspect fundraising relationship with a nearby, private Christian college that the Fair had sponsored with public money.
Later, he published a number of investigative stories on local law enforcement agencies; detailed political jockeying around a controversial seawater desalting plant proposal in Huntington Beach; narrated a racial reckoning inside one of the county’s largest school districts; and tracked various quality of life issues across the region.
Before Voice of OC, Brandon worked as a reporter and editor at Cal State Fullerton’s independent student newspaper, the Daily Titan, and won a number of accolades for his reporting in 2018, including a 1st and 2nd place Los Angeles Press Club award and 1st place national College Media Association award.
While at Voice of OC, Brandon was a member of Report for America, a national network of local reporters committed to bolstering democracy throughout the U.S.
Posted inEconomy, Garden Grove, Government, Housing & Homelessness, NEWS, Outdoors, REGIONS, Santa Ana, State, Top Stories
Garden Grove, Facing Court Injunction, Drops Discussion on Proposed Willowick Deal with Developer For Now
Council members at the beginning of the meeting unanimously agreed to drop discussion on the deal for now, hours after Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Mary Strobel ruled the Council could vote to approve the agreement but couldn’t finalize it before the end of the year.
Posted inEconomy, Garden Grove, Government, Housing & Homelessness, NEWS, News Briefs, Outdoors, REGIONS, Santa Ana, State, Top Stories
Judge Rules Garden Grove Can’t Finalize Willowick Deal with Developer Before Tighter State Land Use Laws Take Effect
The ruling possibly ties Garden Grove’s hands on the golf course, with city officials now prohibited from finalizing any development agreement for the golf course likely until after an expansion of the Surplus Land Act — which goes further in restricting the ways cities can’t find exemptions to the law and circumvent it — takes effect next year.
Posted inGarden Grove
Garden Grove Officials, Local Activists Prepare for Big Decisions on Willowick Tomorrow
Tomorrow, after a week’s delay by city staff who cited a lack of enough information, the Garden Grove City Council will vote on a development deal to hand over the 100-acre Willowick Golf Course, located in west Santa Ana but owned by Garden Grove, to a for-profit development company over five decades.
Posted inNews Briefs, State
OC Fair Aims to Hike Admission Fees Next Year
Staff say increasing minimum wage and looming employee pension costs will make the admission price increases necessary.
Posted inInvestigative, News Briefs, State
OC Fair Board Appoints New CEO
Fair officials appointed Michele Richards, a former executive staffer who’s promising a new era of transparency for the state agency amid years of controversy leading to the October ousting of Richards’ predecessor, Kathy Kramer.
Posted inEconomy, Garden Grove, Government, Housing & Homelessness, NEWS, News Briefs, Outdoors, REGIONS, Santa Ana, Top Stories
Garden Grove City Council Pushes Vote on Willowick Golf Course Land Sale to Next Week
At their next meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 17, Garden Grove council members will decide whether to lease the 100-acre Willowick Golf Course to hotel development company McWhinney over the next five decades, with currently no information from city staff on exactly how much in dollars the developer would be paying annually for the property.
Posted inEconomy, Garden Grove, Government, Housing & Homelessness, NEWS, Outdoors, REGIONS, Santa Ana, State, Top Stories
Garden Grove Today Could Hand Willowick Golf Course Over to Hotel Developer
Garden Grove city officials today will decide whether one of the last remaining open green spaces in a working-class area will be handed to a for-profit developer for decades, despite an ongoing local court battle over whether city officials actually have the legal authority to do so.
Posted inGovernment, Investigative, NEWS, Politics & Elections, REGIONS, Santa Ana
Santa Ana Councilman Publicly Calls Out Dark Money Campaign, Welcomes FBI Interview
Councilman Juan Villegas, who also works as a special officer at the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, is publicly alleging that one the key people behind the controversial 2525 N. Main St. project admitted to him their involvement in a dark money campaign to influence the 2018 Santa Ana city council elections – which involved hiding $320,000 in campaign money through a shell company.
Posted inAnaheim, Economy, News Briefs
Community Leaders Discuss Preventing Closure of Jägerhaus in Anaheim
Community members and patrons of the Jägerhaus — a German restaurant and community mainstay in Anaheim — will meet today to try and find ways of saving the restaurant from shuttering.
