IRVINE – The Great Park Corp., launched in
2003 to oversee the park project, narrowly avoided dissolution Tuesday.
The five City Council members also serve as
the corporation’s board of directors. They each get $10,560 annually for their
Great Park Corp. work.
Mayor Steven Choi, Councilwoman Beth Krom and
Councilwoman Christina Shea voted to keep the corporation.
Originally, a nine-member group consisting of
the five council members and four community members oversaw the park’s
construction and planning. But in 2013, the four community positions were cut.
“I think the time has come for us to stop
pretending we are something we are not, and that is an independent body,” Mayor
Pro Tem Lynn Schott said.
She said she will no longer take the yearly
stipend for overseeing the corporation. That money doubles the base pay the
council members take home yearly for their part-time positions.
Since the board was reduced to five members,
the council has voted frequently on its own recommendations, made as the Great
Park Corp. board.
However, Councilwoman Christina Shea said the
corporation is needed to shield the city from liability during the park
project.
She disagreed with Schott’s interpretation of
a confidential memo issued by Jeff Melching, the assistant city attorney, about
the legal pros and cons of the corporation’s end, saying that it showed the
corporation is needed.
Melching said the corporation owns no
property, few assets and has minimal involvement in major contracts concerning
the Great Park.
To be a useful shield for the city, the
council would have to add members to the board, he said. But Measure V, passed
by voters in 2014, bars the city from doing so.
The council voted unanimously to make
Melching’s memo public.
Mayor Steven Choi said streamlining the board
had made it more efficient. He said he needed more time to consider the
implications of dissolving the corporation.
Councilman Jeff Lalloway, however, said that
maintaining the board’s current iteration is “absurd.”
An Orange County
grand jury last year called the entity a “shell corporation” and recommended
its closure.
January 12, 2016
The
Orange County Register
By
Sarah de Crescenzo
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