Curt Pringle’s eight years as Anaheim mayor are winding down gracefully—a tribute is set for Dec. 13 at the Grove of Anaheim—but he’s having a rough going as chairman of the California High Speed Rail Authority. Activist groups and some state lawmakers contend the post conflicts with Pringle’s mayorship of Anaheim—terminus for the $43 billion first phase of the rail authority’s planned bullet train—and his seat on the Orange County Transportation Authority. (Critics also have targeted rail board member Richard Katz because he sits on the board of L.A.’s Metropolitan Transit Authority.) Pringle says the jobs may “overlap” but there is no illegality. He says the state Legislature, not the rail authority, designated Anaheim for funding. Pringle, who says nobody complained about a conflict during his first three years on the rail board, blames the uproar on entities that favor different train routes and want to slow the project: “We’re getting to the point of making some very critical decisions.” The state attorney general’s office has been called in. But before the legal issues are resolved, at least part of the dispute is likely to be moot—Pringle’s last day as Anaheim mayor and OCTA director is Dec. 7. Still, rather than run out the clock, why not just resign as mayor now? Pringle says “there’s so much to do” on the Platinum Triangle development and other city matters in his final two months. Gov. Arnold tried, but failed, to get language in the recent budget deal that would have resolved Pringle’s and Katz’s conflict questions. Still, the Insider’s guess is that before Schwarzenegger leaves office in January, the guv will reappoint Pringle to another four years on the rail authority …
Foothill Ranch-based Oakley got international press coverage for providing the 33 rescued Chilean miners with sunglasses to protect their light-sensitive eyes. But just how much does a pair of those Radar Range Black Iridium shades cost? Media quotes ranged as high as $450. The Insider found them priced at $260 in online stores and for $180 on eBay …
Newport Beach-based technologist Fairborz Maseeh has made another gift, $1 million to endow an entrepreneurship prize in his name at USC’s Viterbi School of Engineering …
In town: Delaware Supreme Court Chief Justice Myron Steele, to keynote the Forum for Corporate Directors’ annual Governance Outlook dinner Oct. 26 at the Island Hotel …
Anniversaries: 75th for UCLA’s Anderson B-school; 50th for the Mesa Consolidated Water District; 20th for Steve Churm’s OC Metro and David Anast’s Irvine-based Biomedical Market Newsletter …
UCI’s law school has begun its second academic year with all 60 students from its first class, 84 new freshmen, several additional profs and a guest speaker lineup that includes prominent civil rights lawyer Connie Rice. But controversial former trial lawyer Bill Lerach “is not scheduled to teach for us this year,” Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says.
