With public agencies cutting back, this might seem a poor time for the OC Sheriff’s Department to be looking at an office expansion. But Assistant Sheriff Jack Anderson thinks the recession could be creating an opportunity for a bargain lease in the softening commercial real estate market. “We want to get all options on the table,” says Capt. Ron White, who describes “severe overcrowding” for the 450 staffers at the Aliso Viejo patrol station that serves South County. He says developer fees have been dedicated for station construction; a consultant has recommended either renovating the 27,000-square-foot station and building a second facility of 49,000 square feet, or selling the existing station and building a 65,000-square-foot facility elsewhere. But the deputies also want to check out empty buildings. Mark Mueller thinks they should,he says it likely would cost $20 million or more to build, but maybe not much more than $1 million a year to lease existing space. White says the department will leave details to the county government’s real estate people, but wants to alert interested landlords: “Everybody in the business community reads your column.” Happy to help …
More milestones for 100-year-young Herb Nootbaar of Laguna Niguel: A “Happy Birthday” serenade from the Lincoln Club (he serenaded back); an honorary degree from Pepperdine U’s law school, whose Institute on Law, Religion and Ethics recently received a $5 million naming gift from Nootbaar and wife Elinor; and distinction as the first centenarian to pass the DMV’s vision exam without wearing glasses …
In town: Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, for the OC Dems’ Harry S. Truman Awards dinner, Jan. 16 at the Irvine Airport Hilton …
You can gauge changes in the financial services industry from Tom Giddings’ business cards. Two years ago he was OC managing partner for U.S. Trust. Then Charles Schwab sold UST to Bank of America and Giddings left to open a Newport Center office for Lehman Brothers. We know what happened to Lehman. Just before the firm’s bankruptcy filing, he got another gig, with Keller Financial Group in Irvine …
The four-ticket package to President-elect Obama’s Jan. 20 inauguration costs $50,000. The Laguna Beach alternative is $125 a person. Denny Freidenrich says the black-tie-optional celebration at seven-degrees will include dancing and video feeds from the actual gala in Washington, D.C. Info at www.atthisdefiningmoment.com …
Gov. Schwarzenegger has appointed Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle to the 12-member Commission on the 21st Century Economy, which will study an overhaul of California’s tax system …
Irvine Company resort division spokeswoman Jennifer Hieger has resigned to spend more time on a family project: new daughter Charlotte. The hubbie and papa is L.A. Times biz reporter William Heisel …
The season’s greeting from Fisher & Phillips employment lawyer Jim McDonald warned about office party-transgressions and concluded, “May your holidays be joyous and of absolutely no interest whatever to the EEOC.”
