Costa Mesa votes for joint bid on fairgrounds

The Costa Mesa City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night on a memorandum of understanding to place a joint bid with the county for the purchase of the Orange County Fairgrounds.

But before the council took its 5-0 vote, Councilwoman Katrina Foley said that she was reluctantly supporting the county and city’s efforts for the bid.

“I strongly believe that we as taxpayers shouldn’t use our money to buy our own property,” she said.

Foley said the majority of the county’s state delegation members has been silent on the issue.

Only three assemblymen have voiced their opposition to the proposed sale of the fairgrounds, Foley said.

“It is definitely unfair to the county and the city that the state has added these additional costs and work at a time when we are cutting our budgets,” Foley said.

Earlier Tuesday, the county board of supervisors also voted unanimously to present a bid with the city to the state.

The supervisors’ vote authorized the county’s auditor-controller to set aside a required minimum payment of $50,000, which it will send to the state along with the bid. The state looks to fetch between $80 million and $190 million from selling the fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, which it put up for sale in October as part of a plan to reduce California’s budget deficit.

The county will present the bid to the state on behalf of itself and Costa Mesa shortly before Jan. 8, said Supervisor John Moorlach.

Efforts to buy the fairgrounds are secondary to the county and the city as both oppose it and have been lobbying the state to cancel the sale. Presenting a bid on the 150-acre fairgrounds is their back-up plan in case the state goes ahead with the proposed sale.

“So I would just again emphasize that I’d like to see from everyone of the Orange County delegation that they officially oppose it,” Foley said. “It is unconscionable that we haven’t heard from them.”