Fair sale receives support

The Orange County Fair Board of Directors unanimously approved a resolution supporting the sale of the fairgrounds Wednesday afternoon.

A rare special meeting was held during the fair, right across the street from the fairgrounds, at Costa Mesa’s City Hall. Board member David Ellis, who along with member Kristina Dodge researched and drafted the resolution, said that it became an urgent matter because he heard the state would likely pass a budget in the next few days.

“We needed to get on the record before the budget was adopted,” Ellis said.

The resolution supports Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposal earlier this year to sell the fairgrounds to help the state pay its bills as it faces its biggest deficit in history.

Dodge and Ellis, along with the other members of the board, are all appointed by the governor.

The two of them compose a subcommittee of the fair board that has been studying surrounding fairs for months.

Among all the fairs they looked at, Ellis said the most efficiently run example was the Los Angeles County Fair, which is operated by the nonprofit L.A. County Fair Assn.

The association is run by an 11-member board of directors and leases its land in Pomona from the county.

“The idea is that a local entity purchase it so that the fair is protected in perpetuity,” said board Chairwoman Julie Vandermost.

The fairgrounds could be worth up to $180 million, according to state estimates, but many say that the land could only generate that much money if used for more lucrative purposes like commercial and residential development, not for a fair.

Ellis said that one potential option would be for a coalition of surrounding cities — like Costa Mesa, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach and others — to purchase the fairgrounds.

He thinks that, following the passage of the resolution, potential buyers will “be coming out of the woodwork.”

Beazley said he doesn’t know yet how the fair’s operations would change under private control and hasn’t yet formed an opinion about which would be preferable.

“Whatever control the fair is under hasn’t hampered the presentation of the fair in the past,” Beazley said.

Costa Mesa passed a resolution at the beginning of June opposing the sale of the fairgrounds.

The city and the fair board say that their interests are aligned in keeping a fair at the site and allowing for local control.