Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/orange-county-fair-board/)
OC Fairgrounds board directors today are expected to issue a statement on the future of Kathy Kramer as CEO following revelations about fundraising ties to a nearby college and news Kramer is leaving her post in February.
Fair officials confirmed Kramer’s departure, which comes after Voice of OC revealed Kramer sat on the fundraising board for a private college that the fairgrounds has given state money to.
Orange County Fairgrounds CEO Kathy Kramer joined the fundraising board for Vanguard University, a private Christian college, in 2017. Since then, the fairgrounds has paid the school over $100,000 in contracts and sponsorship deals brought up to the fairgrounds Board of Directors by her staff.
The struggling Orange County Marketplace swap meet, where hundreds of mom-and-pop vendors set up shop on the county fairgrounds on the weekends, wants an annual $600,000 from the Fair Board to cope with a longtime decline in business and attendance.
OC fairgrounds board members will scrutinize contracts and employee separation agreements and ensure all board members receive future audits.
Two members of the Orange County Fairgrounds Board of Directors said they are confident safety concerns raised in two different reports, including a state Fire Marshal report, won’t pose a threat to the O.C. Fair opening July 13 for its annual three-week run.
Smokers attending the Orange County Fair will likely face greater restrictions on where they can light up, after a new policy was approved last week that limits smoking to designated areas.
Plans for an Orange County veterans museum are moving forward, with the approval of an architecture firm to design the facility.
Panel votes unanimously to waive attorney client privilege over Deputy Attorney General who fired the board in 2009 after they engaged in discussions to privatize the Orange County fairgrounds.
Local prosecutors want to have a frank discussion with Deputy Attorney General Helen Arens – seeking information about what prompted her abrupt firing of Orange County’s fair board as a client in December 2009 when the board was trying to sell the fairgrounds.