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D.A. asks for Great Park documents

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Citing a “wide range of allegations of misuse of public funds” during Irvine’s effort to turn a retired military base into a grand municipal park, the Orange County district attorney’s office has asked city-hired auditors to pass along any information that could point to criminal wrongdoing.

In a letter to audit attorney Anthony Taylor of Aleshire and Wynder, Senior Assistant Dist. Atty. Michael Lubinski requested “copies of interviews, depositions and any supporting documentation” from the ongoing forensic audit.

“Our intent in reaching out to you ... is in no way, shape or form intended to interfere with your process,” Lubinski wrote.

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In January, the Irvine City Council authorized the use of subpoenas to dig further into how more than $200 million was spent on the Great Park, where critics say little has been built. The information gleaned from those subpoenas wasn’t part of a prosecutorial investigation.

Councilwoman Christina Shea, part of the council majority that pushed hard for the probe, said she’s grateful that the district attorney’s office has decided to add extra firepower.

“They’ve made it clear they want to partner with us,” she said Friday. “That’s a very positive move in regard to all the information we’ve found so far.”

Shea added that she was especially pleased given that Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas had previously expressed that “he doesn’t like to get into supposedly political reviews of impropriety.”

Susan Kang Schroeder, chief of staff for the district attorney’s office, said she couldn’t comment on the investigation beyond what was in the letter.

As the audit has progressed, testimony from prominent figures in the park’s planning has painted a picture of a project beset by inefficiency and cronyism.

Some officials alleged that Councilman Larry Agran — who chaired the Great Park Corp.— commandeered the design process and was inappropriately influenced by powerful consultants whose employees were allowed to essentially ignore city oversight.

In particular, officials alleged that Yehudi Gaffen, owner of the consulting firm Gafcon, and Arnold Forde of political consultant Forde and Mollrich seemed to enjoy close friendships with Agran.

Agran did not immediately return a call seeking comment Friday.

Agran and other park boosters have repeatedly dismissed the allegations, saying they are nothing more than political backbiting. Officials with Gafcon, which helped run the Great Park Design Studio, and Forde and Mollrich have strongly denied that they held any undue sway over the park’s planning. Their firms, they’ve said, did the work the city hired them to do.

As a result, the audit process itself has become the subject of back-and-forth accusations.

Most recently, the City Council opted to ask a judge to compel consultants at Forde and Mollrich — whose $100,000-per-month fixed-fee contract for public relations work on the park has been widely criticized — to turn over more detailed information about the firm’s overhead and payroll.

Several days later, the firm delivered to the city dozens of boxes of paper documents, which officials say will take hours to comb through to determine whether they contain the information.

This week, Forde’s partner, Stu Mollrich, suggested at a City Council meeting that auditor attorneys from Aleshire and Wynder were behaving unethically.

Shea said she expects that now that the district attorney’s office is involved, a final audit report may take longer to be released. Previously, the city said the report was expected to be complete in August.

— Matt Morrison contributed to this report.

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