All the changes are under the watchful eye of county political activists, partisans and pros looking for the new model’s possible effects on voter turnout and whether those effects could shift the balance of power in the county’s local, state and national elected offices during a crucial election year.
Category: State
Sacramento sets housing law, the state budget and the rules Orange County cities have to follow. We cover the decisions made there so you don’t have to sift through council agendas and meeting minutes.
Posted inNEWS, Outdoors, State, Top Stories
OC Fair Board Criticized for Attempting Ticket Price Hike While Spending $309,000 on Dinners for Themselves
The exclusive nights of short ribs and tri-tip have sparked criticism from local residents who say the burden shouldn’t be on the public to grapple with the agency’s financial concerns, while Fair Board members spend public money on perks and sit on approximately $55 million in financial reserves.
Posted inCountywide, Culture, NEWS, News Briefs, Outdoors, State, Top Stories
OC Fair Board Turns Down Ticket Price Hike For Now
Fair Board directors at their first nighttime meeting on Thursday didn’t vote to approve any ticket price hikes at the fair gates for this summer, following public backlash and uncertainty by some directors that they had enough information to make such a decision.
Posted inCENTRAL COUNTY, Costa Mesa, Countywide, Culture, NEWS, REGIONS, State, Top Stories
OC Fair Officials Consider Hiking Ticket Prices
Potential admission price hikes come as some community members ask: does the OC fair really reflect Orange County? Or is it losing its way as a callback to the county’s farming origins and drifting instead toward a more Disneyland-like business venture focused on vendor contracts, concerts, and being a major event venue?
Posted inCountywide, Housing & Homelessness, NEWS, State, Top Stories
OC Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa Could Be Used To House Local Homeless People
As a local housing and homelessness crisis continues to claim lives, Orange County officials may soon look to the 150-acre county fairgrounds for help by sheltering homeless people on the property.
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 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, 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.
