Stories at Voice of OC here and here as well as a story right here at Calitics continue to reveal the shenanigans at the Orange County Fair Board.

Today we learned that the FPPC has begun an investigation of former Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman for illegal lobbying.

Governor Brown has three choices as to how to unravel the mess that Schwarzenegger and his cronies created in Orange County.

The first choice is to negotiate with representatives from the Orange County Fair Board, who have been contriving some “revenue sharing plan”. Hopefully, the Governor and his staff will have a chance to read  this profile of Fair Board Member Dave Ellis , current Fair Board Chair and shadowy Republican political operative. Given Ellis’ actions and contempt for open government laws, we’re hoping that Jerry Brown just summarily fires Ellis when he arrives in Sacramento as one of the Fair Board’s authorized negotiators.

Dealing with the Orange County Fair Board would be the governmental equivalent of negotiating with terrorists.

The second choice is to eat the fruit of the poisonous tree, and accept the pending offer from a group of local Orange County millionaires to purchase the Fairgrounds.  

After Dave Ellis’ schemes collapsed under the weight of public scrutiny, Schwarzenegger continued the bidding process, this time to the advantage of other Republican insiders, operating under the name FMW.

FMW has made a full press offense trying to justify their deal, with full page advertising in local papers and support from newly elected Assemblyman Allan “Minute” Mansoor.

But there are a lot of question about this group, and about the players.

In the words of Dave Padilla, former Fair Grounds Director, and the only Director who refused to play with Ellis’schemes,

Given that the deal makes no financial sense for the state, and given that the community is overwhelmingly opposed to the sale, many have searched throughout the process to find the governor’s (Schwarzenegger’s)  motivation. The focus of the “why” speculation now seems to be on financial payoff to his political supporters…

And, given all we know now, there certainly is a pattern of events to justify that suspicion. First we find out that Joanne Kozberg, a partner in California Strategies, one of the state’s most powerful lobbying firms, chaired the governor’s study that first raised and legitimized the idea of selling the Fairgrounds. Then we find out that Gary Hunt, a partner of Joanne Kozberg in California Strategies and the governor’s former chief fundraiser has been representing FMW in what is, I am sure, a very lucrative contract throughout the so-called negotiations to buy the Fairgrounds.

There seem to be as many questions surrounding the genesis of the FMW bid as there are surrounding the mysterious midnight Big 5 deal that put the OC Fairgrounds up for sale.

The third choice, and the one that offers great political capital, is to reject both offers outright, and use the opportunity to attack corporate cronyism and wasteful practice of local  government agencies paying hundreds of dollars an hour to overpriced Sacramento lobbyists.

Our new Governor has already launched surprise attacks on two of the great boondoggles in the state – redevelopment and enterprise zones.

Now it’s time to take a stab at the half a billion dollar a year spent on lobbying in Sacramento.  Take a whack at the guys at Capitol Strategies, Platinum Advisors, and the rest of the high dollar consultants who put together deals. Propose a bill that will preclude any local government funding for lobbyists, since it appears that local  government agencies, at 83 million a year, are the number one source of lobbying funds.

If local governments are on the ropes financially, let them cut lobbyists, lawyers and consultants before they start laying off teachers, paramedics, and police officers.