Author: Roger Bloom

Think of the two most beloved amphitheaters in Los Angeles — the Hollywood Bowl and the Greek Theatre. Essentially, that’s the choice being put before the City Council on February 14th, as they once again consider what kind of music venue to create as a centerpiece of the Great Park.

In the meantime, Live Nation has rejected the Council-approved deal and proposed numerous changes that would shift tens of millions of dollars in costs to the City; eliminate the City’s ability to regulate sound and noise emanating from the amphitheater; and create new income streams for Live Nation — including the ability to sell naming rights to the venue.

It’s been 14 months since the Great Park Board of Directors — comprised of Irvine’s Mayor and four Councilmembers — threw aside the City’s standard “Request for Proposal” (RFP) process and, instead, voted to award a multi-million-dollar contract for vehicle electric charging stations to a company that was not recommended by City staff.

Kim stated that Noodoe should be selected because the company was an Irvine-based business that would bring a boon of manufacturing jobs to the City. In fact, that same month Noodoe was relocating its administrative office to Houston while laying off its Irvine staff … and all manufacturing takes place at Noodoe’s factory in Taiwan.

Orange County Power Authority (OCPA) general counsel Ryan Baron resigned this week — just ahead of a board meeting called to consider terminating him and his firm, Best Best & Krieger (BBK), as the agency’s legal advisors.

Baron was involved in the formation of the OCPA and was instrumental in the hiring of Probolsky. He has been criticized by present and former board members for acting more as the CEO’s personal attorney than the board’s legal counsel. For example, Baron advised the board that they could ignore the OCPA bylaws and have Orange County Supervisor Don Wagner, a Probolsky ally, included as a voting board member — even though the County was not yet drawing electrical power from the agency. (Orange County has subsequently withdrawn from the agency.)

Irvine City Councilmember and Orange County Power Authority (OCPA) board member Kathleen Treseder has requested a special meeting of the OCPA Board for Friday (February 10th) to consider terminating its legal services contract with the Best Best & Krieger (BBK) law firm, whose partner Ryan Baron currently serves as general counsel for OCPA.

Critics have said that Baron functions more as Probolsky’s personal attorney than as the legal representative for the agency. And, according to Treseder, BBK’s billings are more than double OCPA’s budget for legal services.

The case of former Orange County Democratic Party Executive Director and political consultant Melahat Rafiei continued to roil Irvine politics this past week, as the press and public strained to figure out which former City Councilmembers Rafiei allegedly tried to bribe in 2018 while the current City Council grappled with the issue of starting its own investigation into Rafiei.

Last May, it was revealed by the FBI that Rafiei — who managed the campaigns of Irvine Mayor Farrah Khan and Councilmember Tammy Kim in 2020 — was a “cooperating witness” in its investigation of corruption in Anaheim, secretly recording meetings she had with Anaheim officials. The FBI noted in an affidavit at the time that Rafiei agreed to cooperate after being arrested in 2019 for allegedly attempting to bribe two Irvine Councilmembers on behalf of a client who wanted to establish a cannabis business in the City.