Fair Board Changes Guarantees Entertainment

MEDIA GUSHES ABOUT NEW FAIR BOARD MEMBERS
Over the past twenty-four hours the local media - print and electronic - have boiled over with the report that Governor Jerry Brown has made two new appointments to the 32nd Agricultural Association Board of Directors, commonly known in these parts as the Orange County Fair Board.


BALANCED APPOINTMENTS
The two new members are attorney Ashleigh Aitken, a 36-year-old Democrat from Anaheim and businessman Stan Tkaczyk, a 66-year-old Republican from Newport Beach. Aitken has a solid background in her profession and is the daughter of Uber-attorney Wylie Aitken. Tkaczyk is a retired president of Rainbow Disposal Company and is the husband of the irrepressible Orange County Register columnist, Barbara Venezia. I don't know Ms. Aitken, but Stan and Barbara are friends.

READ OTHER VIEWS
As I mentioned, local media outlets covered this story like a blanket. You can read Lauren Williams' Daily Pilot article HERE and Jon Cassidy's Orange County Register coverage HERE. In addition, you can read Vern Nelson's Orange Juice Blog almost apoplectic coverage HERE and Norberto Santana, Jr.'s coverage in the Voice of OC HERE. A note: Stan Tkaczyk is a member of the Voice of OC Board of Directors.

ANTICIPATING SPARKS
I, perhaps to a lesser extent than Nelson, almost salivate at the idea of Stan Tkaczyk sitting side-by-side with Dave Ellis on the Fair Board. I suspect the sparks between them might resemble some of those high school physics experiments some of us performed that shot sparks several inches and made us jump. Some will recall that Ellis, while the political advisor to current Assembly candidate Leslie Daigle in her Newport Beach City Council campaign against Venezia in the last decade, went beyond propriety and attacked Tkaczyk's business, which had been sold to its employees. Rather than subject those innocent workers to harassment, Venezia dropped out of the race. Memories of that event linger.

GOOD MOVE BY GOVERNOR BROWN
Personally, I think these two appointments will go a long way to producing solid, balanced decisions by this Fair Board. You can read the current roster HERE. The one-sidedness of the previous board led to mischief, much of which has been flogged at length by opponents of the bogus plan to sell-off the Fairgrounds that raised the community blood pressure for a couple years. I hope, however, that as other Fair Board terms expire, the governor will not permit the political pendulum to swing clear to the other side and only appoint liberals. The community is not well-served by a Fair Board that tilts extremely to either side.

THEY JOIN THE BOARD THURSDAY
Congratulations to both Ashleigh Aitken and Stan Tkaczyk on their appointment to the Fair Board. They will be officially welcomed to the Fair Board at its meeting Thursday, February 23rd at 10:00 at the Fair headquarters building. Tkaczyk got the jump today when he was sworn in by Judge Steve Bromberg - a former mayor of Newport Beach - in his court room. Barbara Venezia, in her own special way, was there to record the event as one of her "Barbara's Bits", and has permitted me to share that video clip with you.