Yes, the recession has impacted country club memberships, too—bad news if you’re selling, good news if you’re buying. Memberships at Big Canyon in Newport Beach hit a high of $375,000 in late 2006 but now are trading at a little less than $200,000. Shady Canyon in Irvine has cut its price by a third, from $300,000 to $200,000. Yorba Linda CC has lowered its price for a transferable membership from $34,000 to $20,000, while Dove Canyon in South County has dropped from $30,000 to $25,000. Sounds like the market is working—Big Canyon GM David Voorhees says sales have picked up and Yorba Linda membership director Lorraine Harris says the price cut “has made all the difference” …
Good name for a lawyer: Ken Smart, gen-eral counsel for the OC Transportation Authority. He defended the agency in the class action lawsuit contesting steep penalties for toll violations. OCTA and the Transportation Corridor Agencies agreed to waive $41 million in uncollected penalties, refund another $1.4 million and pay $1.5 million to the plaintiffs’ L.A. area lawyers—Schonbrun DeSimone Seplow Harris & Hoffman of Venice, Hadsell Stormer Keeny Richardson & Renick of Pasadena and Anat Levy of Beverly Hills. Smart chuckled when asked if the settlement was “smart” for his client: “Let’s say it was prudent” …
“Orange County business leaders,” including Gary Hunt, Parker Kennedy, Ted Smith and Lucy Dunn host a fundraiser tonight at the Hyatt Regency Irvine for GOP U.S. Senate candidate and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina …
Tustin lawyer Dan Jacobson is the new chairperson of the Democratic Foundation of OC, succeeding Wylie Aitken, who chaired the PAC for 17 years …
John Huffman has retired after 31 years as pastor of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach. He will continue to preach, write and serve with Christian relief organization World Vision. His replacement, from San Antonio, is Richard Kannwischer, who at 36 is one year younger than Huffman was when he became pastor …
EE RR, who rode in the Anaheim Spooktacular Halloween Parade atop a ’57 T-Bird, notes that state Sen. Lou Correa and Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez both walked the two-mile route shaking hands, only Sanchez did it in high heels …
Should see: Noah Haidle’s poignant “Saturn Returns,” through Nov. 22 at South Coast Rep …
Ellen Olivier (nee Appel), former OC society figure and PR person, is now covering L.A.’s elite in the Scene and Heard column of the Sunday L.A. Times (and keeping an eye on big OC events, too) …
It appears advertising beats debating: OC pollster Adam Probolsky says well-funded and closely guarded GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman has dramatically increased her lead among likely Republican voters. She now polls 37%, to 15% for Tom Campbell and 6% for Steve Poizner. On the Dem side, Jerry Brown leads “someone else” 46% to 26%.
