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Don Wagner's Money Web
Confession- I don't fully understand the Great Park saga, it’s a shit show. And that’s probably the point, confuse everyone until they stop caring and stop paying attention.
But, I’m going to attempt to scratch the surface, apologies if i mess it up.
Confession- I don't fully understand the Great Park saga, it’s a shit show. And that’s probably the point, confuse everyone until they stop caring and stop paying attention.
But, I’m going to attempt to scratch the surface, apologies if i mess it up.
Don Wagner, while Mayor of Irvine, won the special election for Todd Spitzer's Orange County Board of Supervisor seat in 2019 (Wagner was re-elected in 2020). When he moved to the Supervisor position he appointed Christina Shea to take his spot as Mayor of Irvine.
The majority of the development in The Great Park in Irvine has been done by a company called FivePoint, the developers had previously been tight with the city council but over years that seems to have changed. However, they are still very cozy with Mayor Shea.
Enormous controversy regarding the location for a veterans cemetery has being going on for years. The state has set money aside to help build it. At one point, Irvine made a deal with FivePoint to swap them land- hanger site/ARDA (Irvine) for Strawberry Fields (FivePoint).
Former Irvine Mayor Larry Agran said it was an "attempt to distract from this reality by citing a faulty appraisal that the (Hanger/ARDA site) is worth a mere $4 million, when it is likely worth 100 times that amount, while claiming the freeway site is worth $68 million"
This swap, supported by Wagner, was eventually killed. Fast forward June 2019 the now Mayor Shea &FivePoint sent a letter to the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, FivePoint committed to give $28M if the cemetery construction is done on the golf course land (owned by Irvine).
Irvine city council voted to build the cemetery on the golf course proposed land in July 2019 (so they would get the money from FivePoint & state money). That same month a video was leaked of Mayor Shea telling a group of supporters that the golf course was a “diversion”.
Mayor Shea told this group that voting to move the cemetery to the golf course was going to protect the hanger/ARDA site from being appointed by the state. Allowing them to lease it for 99 yrs to a developer. Then work to switch it from the golf course to strawberry fields. Again
Are you hanging in? I will get to the money part but I think it's important to understand a tiny piece of the Great Park drama (fingers crossed I'm not screwing this story up).
I’m also going to take a moment to say Mayor Shea is up for election in Nov. She needs to go!
I’m also going to take a moment to say Mayor Shea is up for election in Nov. She needs to go!
So, that vote in July 2019 agreeing to build the cemetery on the proposed golf course land was not the end. There were residents still pushing to have it on the hanger site. But I need to be clear- FivePoint seems desperate for that hanger/ARDA land.
Supporters of having the hanger/ARDA site for the cemetery pushed back, they were able to collect enough signatures to get an initiative on the Nov 2020 ballot that would rezone the hangar site/ARDA for only the cemetery, specifically ruling out the golf course site.
Irvine City Council was given the option of voting on the initiative themselves or allowing it be voted on in the Nov 2020 election.The majority of the council voted to pass the initiative (guess who didnt? Yup. Mayor Shea). So now, the hanger/ARDA has been zoned for a cemetery.
Going back to the $,the state approved to keep $24.5M in the current budget for a veterans cemetery, but it's not tied to a location. To build on the hanger site, they’ll need more money. FivePoint's $28M offered previously was if it was built on the golf course, not the hanger.
Plot twist- Irvine is not the only one looking at sites for the veteran's cemetery. In 2014, the Irvine Co. donated 2,500 acres of open space to the county which would include a cemetery. OC Board of Supervisors have discussed turning some of this space into a veterans cemetery.
In 2018, Supervisors approved a veteran cemetery. Supervisor Bartlett said, "If the county takes the lead on a cemetery it could take Irvine off the hook... We're taking on some of the baggage Irvine has been trying to work through." https://patch.com/california/newportbeach/new-veterans-cemetery-approved-oc-supervisors
One major supporter of it being moved to county land is Veterans Alliance Orange County(VALOR), they’ve also previously supported the golf course location (shocker-FivePoint gave them $700k ). In Feb 2020 Supervisor Steel & Wagner toured the proposed site for a veterans cemetery.
Campaign money is insane, and I can spend mths researching everything. But ultimately I’m truly just a mom researching this stuff when my kids sleep. So, from what I can find- Don Wagner received LOTS of money from FivePoint. Funneled through to him many different ways.
FivePoint has donated at least $750k to Great Park PAC, Star Point Ventures (FivePoint lobby)donated at least $50k to Great Park, Great Park donated at least $123k to the Republican Party OC (FivePoint directly donates to them too)& they then donated at least $132k to Don Wagner.
Not enough, lets look at Engage OC, a project supporting Don Wagner of Supervisor. They received at least $49k from the Great Park PAC. I could do this for hours. Wanna jump down the rabbit hole of "Alliance for Jobs and the Economy" PAC? They could easily have their own thread.
Alliance got $550k from Great Park, $48k from Star Point, $200k from RHW Holdings (developed Heritage), $30k from CA Apt Assoc, $25k from Poseidon Resources (remember them from the ReOpen thread?), $30k from VALOR (who supports the county cemetery)-& pay a bunch of Wagners bills.
I need a whiteboard to breakdown this shell game, but understand money is funneled to politicians from developers & special interests every day. But, why would the Great Park need a Supervisor? Prob lots of reasons, but imagine if the veterans cemetery NEVER opens in Irvine.
Maybe that was the whole goal for FivePoint investing in Wagner, to move the cemetery to the county land. So, do I even need to discuss the motives behind Supervisor Wagner appointing Christina Shea to be the Mayor of Irvine? I think all of us are smart enough to figure it out.
One last point about the bug infested bed Sup Don Wagner sleeps in. Wagner and the other Supervisors in Oct 2019 voted to approve $151M in raises to the sheriff's office without public discussion, after transferring $24M to cover their budget shortfalls. https://voiceofoc.org/2020/02/winner-take-all-battle-for-orange-countys-3rd-district/
As of Feb 27, 2020, the Association of Orange County Sheriffs Independent Expenditure Committee reported contributions to Don Wagner totaling $493,441.72. There could easily be more to find.
This might also help to explain some recent events between the sheriff and the county.
This might also help to explain some recent events between the sheriff and the county.
Do you have more details you'd like to share? Let me know. This was obviously just a twitter thread and I'm limited to how much I can share, so let me know what I forgot. Together we need to keep this conversation going and continue to expose whats behind the Orange Curtain.
I researched a lot of this information with the OC Register, LA Times, Voice of OC (amazing coverage on all of this), Irvine Community News and Views, the Patch, and the Orange Juice Blog. Lots of research through various sites for donations.
