Did Consultant Charge Political Gift to Great Park?
Countywide
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The lead design consultant for Irvine’s Great Park included a $2,500 payment to the Democratic Party of Orange County on a check register for park costs.
Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/mike-ellzey/)
The lead design consultant for Irvine’s Great Park included a $2,500 payment to the Democratic Party of Orange County on a check register for park costs.
Interviews with the park’s former CEO and chief financial officer are made public.
A deposition of the former CEO of Irvine’s Great Park reveals how the county’s largest public works project was run by Councilman Larry Agran and his cadre of highly paid consultants.
A forensic described double payments, political pressure, shoddy work and tens of millions of dollars in contract change orders.
Sources say Beth Krom, an Irvine councilwoman and chairwoman of the Great Park board of directors, tried to hide from other directors a letter proposing a controversial lease expansion at the park. Krom calls the accusations election-year posturing.
The park’s board approves a fiscal 2012-13 budget that includes significant cuts to no-bid contractors, including public relations firm Forde & Mollrich.
The Great Park Board of Directors will consider a park budget that would slash a $100,000-per-month contract for the public relations firm Forde & Mollrich.
Irvine officials maintain that the park should still get $1.4
billion in property tax funding despite Gov. Jerry Brown’s
elimination of redevelopment. But the decision is now up to a
separate board.
Irvine’s redevelopment agency — the primary means of funding
construction of the Great Park — could disappear because of a state
Supreme Court decision. Great Park leaders have yet to devise solid
alternatives.
The gutting of redevelopment agencies as part of the state
budget balancing act could cost the park hundreds of millions. But
Irvine officials say the park’s status as a former military base
should save it.