Poor Curt Pringle: Termed out as Anaheim's mayor, no longer in demand as a Howdy Doody impersonator and now this: A second state legal authority has found it is a conflict for him to serve on the boards of the Orange County Transportation Authority AND California High-Speed Rail Authority simultaneously.
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The latest conflict finding comes from the state Attorney General's Office, which is headed by governor's office-bound Jerry Brown.
“The law requires only one potential clash for the offices to be
regarded as incompatible,” reads Brown's opinion. “Long ago we noted that, 'when the chances of
each agency dealing with each other are substantial, the two offices are
incompatible.' It does not require laborious investigation to recognize
that the agencies involved here must of necessity deal with each other
on myriad issues, and that non-trivial conflicts between them may
arise.”
The AG investigation came after the secretary of the state Senate in April asked the Legislative Counsel whether Pringle and former Los Angeles-area Assemblyman Richard Katz,
who sits on the LA County Metropolitan Transportation Authority board,
were in conflict by also sitting on the rail commish, which is overseeing a proposed $40 billion (and counting) bullet train between the Bay Area and LA (and possibly Anaheim). Pringle chairs the panel.
“It is our opinion that an individual who
is the Mayor of the City of Anaheim or a voting member of the Los
Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority may not
simultaneously serve as a member of the High-Speed Rail Authority under
the common law doctrine of incompatibility of public offices,” read the Legislative Counsel finding.
That prompted Katz to resign from the rail commission to save his MTA board
seat–and Pringle to lash out at Democrats in the Legislature who he accused of smearing Republicans appointed to state boards by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.Pringle was incommunicado about the finding by another Democrat, Brown, who, ironically will replace Katz and–if he steps down or is forced to–Pringle from the rail authority.
The AG's office has not indicated whether it will seek a legal means to unseat Pringle. The ultimate decision may rest with incoming Attorney General Kamala Harris.
Another Democrat.
Poor Curt Pringle.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.