Irvine Looks Both Ways on Great Park; Vexed About Vector

There’s plenty to look back upon at Great Park, as recent depositions in the City of Irvine’s forensic audit of operations reveal. It all seems to add up to a key question for DA Tony Rackauckas: Has the history of attempts to develop a public park on the site of the old El Toro Marine base been pockmarked by behavior that is simply unethical or downright illegal? Former Irvine Company exec and Great Park board member Dick Sim’s deposition suggested Irvine City Council careerist Larry Agran gladly accepted the former as good enough when it came to giving his friends no-bid contracts … Emile Haddad was looking forward as his FivePoint Communities continued its Great Park Neighborhoods residential development with an Aug. 8 groundbreaking for Solaira, a senior housing project of 221 affordable apartments in development at Pavilion Park in concert with Riverside Charitable Corp. and Related Cos. … Related’s role on the senior apartments shows an impressive range in OC lately—recall that it’s also in negotiations to buy the Orange County Museum of Art’s nearly 2-acre parcel in Newport Center for high-end condos … Haddad said FivePoint’s next groundbreaking will come next month and feature crews tearing up the runways that were the centerpiece of old El Toro. That will be redolent with symbolism to complement the tangible progress Haddad has made over the past year or so. “To those still speculating” about the future of FivePoint’s plan, Haddad told the groundbreaking crowd, taking jackhammers to the runways will declare undeniably that “this is happening” … Haddad also made an unqualified declaration that chipmaker Broadcom will move its HQ to Great Park, a comment confirmed in remarks by Irvine Mayor Steven Choi … Maybe it’s the Great Park depositions that sent a loyal reader into his memory bank to recall that the OC Vector Control District sponsored and successfully campaigned for a tax increase bill as a way to put in more resources to fight off the West Nile Virus. Special districts can establish such revenue streams, he notes, and Vector Control did just that with a campaign that made big promises and played on the fears conjured up by West Nile, which is particularly dangerous for the elderly and the very young. “Now the virus is back,” the reader notes. “What did we get for our increased taxes?” … Michael Gottfredson impressed plenty around here during his tenure as executive vice chancellor and provost of UCI—even outshining his boss, Chancellor Michael Drake, in the eyes of some. Few of Gottfredson’s fans were surprised when he went from No. 2 at UCI to No. 1 at the University of Oregon, a job he started two years ago. Tear up that old scorecard—Drake has started work as the new boss of Ohio State University, while Gottfredson resigned from U of Oregon this month, giving one day’s notice and leaving with a year to go on his contract. He said he wants to spend more time with family … There’s an old saw that holds you could be a saint or a sonofapup, but the crowd at your funeral service will still likely depend on the weather. Maybe OC-based ice cream shops Farrell’s and Creamistry had that sort of respect for the weather in mind when both announced plans to sell franchises just as an August heat wave made anything that sounded cold appealing (see story, this page).