High Execs Pay, Continuing Losses at County Fair Trigger Audit

A state legislative committee has voted to conduct a far-reaching audit of the nonprofit association that runs the Los Angeles County Fair, focusing in part on executive salaries and whether the organization has drifted too far from its tax-exempt mission of promoting local agriculture, it was reported Thursday.

The Joint Legislative Audit Committee action Wednesday came in response to a November Los Angeles Times investigation that found the head of the L.A. County Fair Association had collected nearly $900,000 in total compensation in 2013. That was the fourth straight year the organization had reported financial losses, according to tax filings cited by The Times.

Over the years, the association has received millions of dollars in government grants and other taxpayer support. The pay and benefit packages awarded to CEO James Henwood Jr. and four of his senior managers dwarfed those of other fair executives in California, The Times reported, citing Internal Revenue Service records and state figures.

“The taxpayers deserve a comprehensive review of the Los Angeles County Fair Association’s finances and business practices to find out if public funds have been misused,” Assemblyman Freddie Rodriguez, D-Pomona, who proposed the audit, The Times reported.

Rodriguez’s district includes the roughly 500-acre county-owned fairgrounds known as the Fairplex.

In an email to The Times, an association spokeswoman said the organization “will cooperate with the audit as it does with all such requests.”

--City News Service