Under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), an agency such as the OC Fairgrounds (Orange County Fair and Event Center aka OCFEC aka 32nd District Agricultural Association) is supposed to propose more than one project to be considered. Bringing forth one version of a project and declaring that the project brought forth is the only way to satisfy the need for the project is not supposed to be the way things are done under CEQA. This is referred to as consideration of alternatives where a reasonable range of feasible alternatives must be considered. 

If you have been noodling around with ideas about how the OCFEC can better serve the community and fit into the residential neighborhoods around the property, now is the time to start putting your ideas on paper to get them ready to submit to the OC Fair Board (Ashleigh Aitken, Barbara Bagneris, Nick Berardino, Sandra Cervantes, Doug La Belle, Newton Pham, Robert Ruiz, Stan Tkaczyk.)

A map of the OCFEC is is available here and on Google maps. Use of the OCFEC is governed by legal settlements limiting noise levels in the neighborhoods to approximately the noise limits in the Costa Mesa municipal code (and again in 2012) and limiting the total number of people on the property outside of the annual OC Fair to a little over 25,000 persons, which is the number of persons accommodated by the onsite parking without resorting to offsite or neighborhood parking.

Creating overlays of your proposal and the existing facilities can be the easiest way of communicating your vision. You may also want to include a description of what the purpose is of your proposal including the community need your proposal serves. Start thinking and sketching because the community served by the OCFEC, which is all of Orange County, needs ideas to better serve the community.

Start sketching out your ideas and we will publish information about how to submit your ideas when the information is available.  

During May 2017, a group of residents met with OC Fairgrounds (Orange County Fair and Event Center aka OCFEC) staff and presented their ideas for how to improve the OCFEC during the Master Site Plan process. The complete presentation is available here  Download Community Master Plan Executive May 17

 Highlights from the presentation are follow.

Proposals center on the Community, Agricultural, Recreational, Educational Space and Programming (CARES Space and Programming). This is a community-centered series of alternatives. These are reasonable and feasible alternatives which maintain current programming while allowing for increased use by both the community and revenue generating groups.

Alternative 1 is to remodel and improve existing structures which are currently in use. 

The next 4 alternatives create green space by relocating parking to a parking structure behind the billboard at the corner of Newport Blvd and Fair Drive. A legal settlement with the City of Costa Mesa limits occupancy outside of the annual OC Fair to about 25,000 persons, which is about the number served by the current number of parking places. No new parking spaces need to be added because of the cap on occupancy. However, parking can be relocated to create open space and make the OC Fairgrounds feel more like a fairground and less like a huddle of buildings hiding in the back of a huge parking lot. 

Alternatives include moving the main entrance to Newport Blvd and making the needed changes to make traffic move quickly off the 55 Fwy and into the parking lots. Stacking traffic waiting to park or making cars turn onto Fair Drive and then onto Fairview Road or even onto Arlington Drive to park should be eliminated because OCFEC has more than enough space to stack cars waiting to park on their property and not on City streets. 

Walking paths are included in the Alternatives to connect the Arlington Drive trail with the interior of the property to provide recreation the the community and to aid in pedestrian flow inside the property.

Unlike the Master Site Plan proposals brought forward by Johnson Consulting, the open space was supposed to be open space with grass or plants and not trees in a parking lot as proposed in the proposals from Chicago based Johnson Consulting. The alternatives also maintain the current footprint of the annual OC Fair. 

What are your ideas for a new Master Site Plan for the OCFEC?

OC Fair Board Directors will have new email addresses for the public who own the OC Fairgrounds (Orange County Fair and Event Center) to contact the Directors. This is a move in the right direction to allow Directors appointed by the Governor to hear from their constituents, who are all of Orange County. 

The new email addresses will be posted on this website and prior posts will be updated with the contact information.

Your OC Fair Board Directors are Ashleigh Aitken, Barbara Bagneris, Nick Berardino, Sandra Cervantes, Doug La Belle, Gerardo Mouet, Newton Pham, Robert Ruiz, and Stan Tkaczyk.

During the March 22, 2018 OC Fair Board meeting at the Orange County Fair and Event Center, the following updated information regarding the Master Site Plan process was provided:

• A workshop will be held during the Thursday, April 26, 2018, Board meeting. The meeting starts at 9 AM with the workshop scheduled to begin around 10:30 AM.  If you want to speak during the workshop, your card to speak must be handed in before the meeting begins at 9 AM. 
• More than one site plan concept will be brought forward to the Board Directors.
• Work product from Johnson Consulting hired to manage the Master Site Plan process will be posted on the OC Fair website on or around April 2, 2018. The work product posted is promised to be the same as the information given to the Board. 
• A second workshop to be held in the evening during early May has been promised but not scheduled as of this time.
• A request for proposal (RFP) for services related to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) has been released.
• The Board Directors will review draft concepts at the May 24, 2018, Fair Board meeting. The formal CEQA process will start after the draft concepts are reviewed.
• No final selection of a plan will take place until after the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) is certified.
• The CEQA process is expected to take 6 to 8 months.

OC Fair Board Director Contact Info Added May 3, 2018

Chair Barbara Bagneris [email protected]
Vice Chair Robert Ruiz [email protected]
Ashleigh Aitken [email protected]
Nick Berardino [email protected]
Sandra Cervantes [email protected]
Doug La Belle [email protected]
Gerardo Mouet [email protected]
Newton Pham [email protected]
Stan Tkaczyk [email protected]

Questions to Executive Management can be sent to CEP Kathy Kramer [email protected] and VP of Operations Ken Karns [email protected].  

The Orange County Fair and Event Center (OCFEC) also known as the OC Fairgrounds is owned and operated by the state of California (called the 32nd District Agricultural Association or 32nd DAA) and has recently started a "No Cost Rental" program for non-profits, community groups and government agencies.  This is a good move, but more information is needed about how to apply for the program, what is included, what is excluded, and how the program will be administered in a content and values neutral way which does not discriminate or display favoritism.

 A list of a dozen questions to start to clarify how the No Cost Rental program works were sent to CEO Kathy Kramer and the Board of Directors. If we hear back on this, we will post the information.

Contact CEO Kathy Kramer [email protected]

Contact VP of Business Development Michele Richards who approves facility bookings  [email protected]

Contact the OCFEC Board Added May 3, 2018

Chair Barbara Bagneris [email protected]
Vice Chair Robert Ruiz [email protected]
Ashleigh Aitken [email protected]
Nick Berardino [email protected]
Sandra Cervantes [email protected]
Doug La Belle [email protected]
Gerardo Mouet [email protected]
Newton Pham [email protected]
Stan Tkaczyk [email protected]

Public Records Requests [email protected]

Current OC Fairgrounds Directors and Executive Management pay lip service to claims of openness, transparency, and supporting the rights of the public, who own the OC Fairgrounds, to ask questions about what is going on. Obstructions to obtaining information including selective disclosure of information  have been used along with bullying and intimidation tactics by the Directors on members of the public. At times, members of the public who have connections to Directors have been asked to join in the bullying and intimidation tactics.

Directors claim that the public should "informally" ask CEO Kathy Kramer for information before submitting a public records request.  There is no requirement under the law that an "informal" request be made for information before a request is made under the California Public Records Act. Informal requests for information with CEO Kathy Kramer have not produced information and are met with stonewalling. Directors and Executive Management of the OC Fairgrounds act as if they are above the law.

A letter was sent to the Directors regarding the rights of the public to ask for and receive information about how business is conducted by the state employees and state officers managing the publicly owned OC Fairgrounds.  This is the letter: 

Statements have been made that the 20,000 sq ft  ballroom and 50,000 sq ft to 150,000 Ag-Expo Center shown in the Master Site Plan proposals are for "community use".  It's not clear what is driving the perceived need for a massive amount of "community use" space at the OC Fairgrounds, and a letter was sent to the Directors asking for more information about "community use" claims. The letter is as follows: 

Yes. Fairs are held from Crescent City on the Oregon border to Imperial County near the border with Mexico. According to the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) which manages State owned and operated fairgrounds and coordinates with other fairgrounds in the State, there are:

54 District Agricultural Associations (DAA's) owned and operated by the State.

2 DAA's were deactivated during fiscal year 1997/98, leaving 52 active DAA's.

23 County Fairs owned and operated by County government or not-for-profit organizations.

2 Citrus Fruit Fairs operated by not-for-profit organizations. A Citrus Fruit Fair is a specific type of fair focussed on citrus fruit.

The California Exposition and State Fair (Cal Expo) in Sacramento is a State agency.

A map of California fairs is available. 

Students are walking out of school on March 14, 2018, to protest the deaths of students and others from gun violence. While Los Angeles County bans gun shows, Orange County allows gun shows. The Crossroads of the West gun show takes place at the Orange County Fair and Event Center (OCFEC), also known as the OC Fairgrounds, several times a year and is a steady source of over $300,000 in annual facility use revenue in addition to parking and concessions revenues.  About a year ago, OCFEC closed for the weekend because the Make America Great Again rally announced that they would hold their unpermitted rally near Fair Drive and Fairview Road on the same weekend as the Crossroads of the West gun show, which caused the cancellation of the gun show for that weekend. The irony is the gun show caused their own cancellation because they agreed to host the Make America Great Again rally without permission to do so.  The gun show was allowed to reschedule the date of the show which was cancelled due to their own actions. 

A recent trip to the gun show raises questions about the conduct of the show including:

• Photography and video recording are prohibited.
• A list of of sellers is not available.
• A "pentagon AR-15 coupler" which attaches five ten-round magazines to an AR-15 was for sale. This apparently legal workaround allows up to fifty rounds to be fired in quick succession. The video linked to is for illustrative purposes only.
• Several gun show sellers specialize in AR-15 weaponry and accessories.
• It is not clear if a person is able to obtain the parts needed to assembly an AR-15 from the sellers at the gun show. 
• Booths do not have signs with the name of the business at each and every booth and not all booths had marketing materials or business cards with the business name and contact information.
• A number of sellers do not match to a list of Costa Mesa business licenses although a Costa Mesa business license is required to conduct business at OCFEC.  See Costa Mesa Municipal Code Title 9, Chapter I to learn more about business license requirements. A Costa Mesa business license allows sales tax generated at OCFEC to be paid to the City of Costa Mesa, Orange County, and Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA), among other agencies. OCTA uses the M1 and M2 OC Go sales tax increments to fund transportation improvements.  
• Pawn shops which are called "second hand dealers" in statute are among the sellers.  Pawn shops/ second hand dealers need permission from the Costa Mesa Police Department to operate in Costa Mesa. See Costa Mesa Municipal Code Title 9, Chapter II, Article 12 to learn more about business license requirements for pawn shops/ second hand dealers. 
• A man was observed pushing a hand truck with a box of ammunition for sale throughout the show for several hours. He was holding a handwritten cardboard sign asking people to purchase items from his box. There was less product in the box later in the day than at the beginning of the day.

Reform of gun laws is outside the jurisdiction of the OCFEC Board but the Board can require changes to be made in the way all public events are conducted on the property. Shows open to the public, with free or paid admission, should publish a list of all sellers and exhibitors at the event. The list should state the business name, mailing address, phone number, and email to allow sellers and exhibitors to be contacted outside of the show. Show promoters should be required to have the list available at the show and the information should be kept on file by the OCFEC staff to be provided to the public. One simple change to enhance transparency and accountability which is within the grasp of the OC Fair Board is a step in the right direction. 

Contact CEO Kathy Kramer [email protected]

Contact VP of Operations Ken Karns [email protected]

Contact VP of Business Development Michele Richards [email protected]

Contact the OCFEC Board Added May 3, 2018

Chair Barbara Bagneris [email protected]
Vice Chair Robert Ruiz [email protected]
Ashleigh Aitken [email protected]
Nick Berardino [email protected]
Sandra Cervantes [email protected]
Doug La Belle [email protected]
Gerardo Mouet [email protected]
Newton Pham [email protected]
Stan Tkaczyk [email protected]

Public Records Requests [email protected]

In October 2017, the contract with C. H. Johnson Consulting, Inc.  was amended by $58,239.00 which raised the contract total to $252,369.00. CEO Kathy Kramer, VP Ken Karns,  and the Directors (Ashleigh Aitken, Barbara Bagneris, Nick Berardino, Sandra Cervantes, Doug La Belle, Gerardo Mouet, Newton Pham, Robert Ruiz, Stan Tkaczyk) were asked what the additional money would be used for and refused to answer the questions.    This post discusses a section of the C. H. Johnson Consulting, Inc. RFP which is listed as an optional task and could be the work being performed but CEO Kathy Kramer, VP Ken Karns and the Directors refuse to let the public know what they are doing with public money.  Directors and Executive Management of the OC Fairgrounds choose to act as if they are above the law and do not have to answer for their expenditures of public money or use of public property. 

The Master Site Plan process is a revenue centered process, not a community, education, agriculture, or recreation centered process.  This is the section from the winning proposal for the Master Site Plan process which discusses financial plans and projections. It should be noted that multiple requests have been made for documents regarding this work and no documents have been produced. [A] This section is from pgs. 25-26 of the C. H. Johnson Consulting, Inc. proposal: