I started to worry about Agran when I heard that he was working with notorious OC GOP kingpin Tom Fuentes on the opposition to the El Toro Airport. That was maybe 15 years ago.
Long story short, Agran became a good pal of longtime Fuentes crony Arnold Forde, the man who helped bring hardball ugliness into the world of political campaigning and financing in Orange County—and then beyond.
Here’s the latest chapter in the story from R. Scott Moxley:
Independent Audit Proves Massive Larry Agran Corruption At The Orange County Great Park (R. Scott Moxley, NavelGazing)
Previously posted:…That gross situation—reporters uncovering government malfeasance and Agran nonetheless perfecting the art of political thievery—existed for 12 years until 2013, when Republicans finally took control of Irvine.
Early model Forde
Over the high-pitched squeals of Agran and his robotic council sidekick, Beth Krom, the new majority ordered an independent audit to answer a question the Democratic political machine didn't want answered: How did Agran spend more than $200 million in Great Park funds, but yet after more than eight years of alleged planning there was (and is) no park?
Late yesterday, the well-respected financial forensics team at Hagen, Streiff, Newton & Oshiro Accountants (HSNO) issued a scathing, 50-page audit report that should be Agran's political obituary.
. . .
Page after page of the audit reveals how Agran, Krom and their bureaucrats shamelessly treated hundreds of millions of dollars in public funds as their own money. They repeatedly botched park planning, hid spending from other elected officials, hired cronies, doctored public records, concocted shell games, inflated sweetheart deals, lied to the public about the success of park planning and wasted tens of millions of dollars through sheer incompetence. Perhaps most troubling, they essentially used the park piggy bank as their re-election treasuries.
We previously knew Agran handed Arnold Forde—his private political adviser and, by the way, a Rackauckas pal—a $100,000 a month, no bid contract to perform public relations for a park that didn't exist.
Thanks to the audit we now also know that Agran funneled another $50,000 a month deal as well as a third lucrative contract to Forde.
. . .
Let's do the shocking math: When in control of the city and the Great Park, Agran was giving at least $174,500 a month in taxpayer funds to his own political operatives….
OC's "win at any cost" political ethic: Butcher-Forde, Tom Fuentes, & James Lacy (July 15, 2012):
“Some of these consultants regard a campaign as the equivalent of warfare, in which anything goes, short of overt violations of the law. Deceptions and misrepresentations, especially unleashed at the last minute through computerized mailings, seem to have become, for some, a standard campaign technique.”
—Orange County Citizens' Direction
...You’ll recall that, in the past, I have noted that OC has been on the cutting edge of political methods, including sleazy and dishonest campaign tactics. One entity that figures importantly in that story is the consulting firm “Butcher-Forde,” which early on (c. 1970) exploited computer-assisted campaigning and direct-mail approaches. Butcher-Forde definitely wasn’t into the “truth” or "honesty" thing; they plainly adopted an “end justifies means,” win-at-any-cost approach.
Such language has been used to describe Tom Fuentes' approach as chairman of the OC GOP. Tom, of course, worked with Butcher-Forde and people close to the firm during its beginning….
. . .
Finding Commission report, 1978 "When Butcher and Forde brought professional management and a fierce competitive drive to Orange County campaigning, they were challenging decades of friendly, folksy clannishness. They have been called amoral and their campaign tactics deceptive. And the accusations have not been hurled exclusively by their candidates’ opponents."
— "Butcher and Forde, wizards of the computer letter," California Journal, May 1979.
Writing OC history: the Bold and the Ruthless (July 19, 2012):
IT'S BECOMING CLEAR…that, at least in our benighted county, the phenomenon, in politics, of brazenly deceptive but highly effective “smear” campaign tactics—including last minute … attack mailers—was seized upon and perfected by the one-time consulting firm of Butcher-Forde—and by Butcher and Forde considered independently, both before and after that firm. That is, insofar as one dons one’s historian’s cap and approaches the last half-century of OC political campaigning, asking: How did we get here?—well, that answer, more or less, is these guys, William Butcher (now William Lord-Butcher) and Arnold Forde.No-bidsville: same old same old (Dec. 31, 2012)
. . .
But this kind of campaigning, to be effective in transforming the landscape, takes sustained money. Starting around 1970, developers provided that key ingredient. The combo of big developer money and no-holds-barred campaigning was the new animal that metamorphosed Orange County into the hyper-developed and politically nasty place that it is.
…[I]t appears that one will not go too far wrong in starting with the 1969-1970 campaign of Ron Caspers to challenge and replace 5th District Supervisor and Republican Alton Allen. At least as far as the Republican establishment was concerned, Caspers seemed to come from out of nowhere. But he had money. More specifically, he had “Dick and Doc” money. And he had the talents (the ruthless and clever methods) of Arnold Forde (and later Butcher-Forde) plus the uncommon energy and ambition of young Tom Fuentes. Most importantly—and here, I believe, Fred Harber is the crucial figure—Caspers had a vision of how county government should operate. That vision was actualized after his 1970 election, when “Caspers made the contacts and set the ground rules for developer participation in the grand scheme of patronage carried to an exponential degree” (Tom Rogers).
You’ll recall that the “Forde” of F&M is the dirty trickster and Super Crony so intimately involved in the rise of Ron Caspers to political office (Board of Supervisors) in 1970. A young Tom Fuentes ran Caspers’ ugly campaign and soon became Caspers’ chief assistant at the county and even an employee at his S&L. In 1974, Caspers perished in a mysterious boating accident off the coast of Baja. Fuentes was slated for Caspers’ replacement until a residency requirement nixed the deal.A Day of Reckoning for Critics of Great Park PR Contract (Voice of OC) (January 7, 2013):
Fuentes was supposed to be on that ill-fated boat trip but ultimately declined the invitation, though he did provide a cooler full of goodies for his boss.
A new Republican Irvine City Council-majority is poised to terminate the Forde & Mollrich and Townsend Public Affairs government lobbying contracts. The council will also consider a forensic audit of the park’s contracts.Irvine council OKs Great Park audit, ends contracts, cuts board (OC Reg) (January 9, 2013):
Those challenging the park’s leadership often ask – what exactly was Forde & Mollrich accomplishing as it collected $100,000 per month?
On a night when there was little if any consensus among two factions of Irvine's City Council, the last vote at 1:34 a.m. Wednesday was unanimous –all five council members voted in favor of seeking proposals from auditors to take a closer look at the Great Park's books since 2005, a motion made by returning Councilwoman Christina Shea.Rutan & Tucker are out (in Irvine) (March 24, 2013):
These [Irvine City Council] Repubs, like most of the rest of us, think that Agran and Co were up to no good. You'll recall that, during the battle over the fate of the El Toro Marine Base (which ended in 2002), Agran formed an alliance with Tom Fuentes, who died in May. Oddly, when Agran presided over the Great Park board, he hired a public relations firm headed by Fuentes' old pal Arnold Forde, a fellow as crafty and unprincipled as you'll ever find. Forde's firm made millions on that contract, but nobody seems able to explain what that big money bought.
