Assemblyman Bill Brough's Trouble

Bill Brough is the California Assemblyman for the 73rd district which covers a big chunk of South Orange County, including Rancho Santa Margarita. On June 10 the news broke on a local blog about long-rumored inappropriate behavior by Bill with regard to drinking and women, the details are on that link. The story got picked up and further elaborated by mainstream media, including the LA Times. I can’t personally speak to the drinking or womanizing, I never saw it or talked to anyone with knowledge, in general, I thought Bill was doing a good job in the Assembly and I voted for him in the last few elections as he was the best choice. This story is just the public face of what I see as a much more complex behind the scenes machinations which actually has largely to do with the Transportation Corridor Agency (TCA), better known as The Toll Roads.

First, let’s talk about the OC GOP which has allegedly been covering for Bill for years, which was convenient until Bill suddenly was at cross purposes on the TCA with some other players that I’ll talk about shortly. The head of OC GOP is Fred Whitaker who is so utterly incompetent that I’m wondering if he is a long-range plant by the DNC. Fred is only interested in mutual back-scratching and keeping the status quo. Once you are in, then you keep getting the OC GOP endorsement forever, and this goes hand in hand with another money funnel, the South OC Economic Coalition and Orange County Business Council. You will see lots of money going back and forth with them and the TCA for example, that will be the topic of another article. Now that the stage is partially set, let’s talk about the dynamic that is going on right now in the county and state.

Supervisor Lisa Bartlett is the one that brought the allegations against Bill to a head. Lisa is also termed out of her position in 2020. Lisa also is a major supporter of the TCA and the various organizations that the TCA money flows through. Lisa is looking to stay in politics and work her way up the ladder. One rumor is that she wants State Senator Pat Bates job, who is term limited out at the same time. Helping derail Bill in a re-election or getting him to resign early would open up that position for her to try and step in and with the OC GOP behind her, and with the TCA helping to fund it, that should be simple, so let’s jump to the complex part that involves Rancho Santa Margarita.

RSM city councilman Tony Beall has been at city hall since the founding in 2000, he also sits on the board for the TCA and is an active proponent of the TCA, going so far as to actively discourage outside auditing of the very questionable finances that were exposed in March 2019 by the Los Angeles Times, which really underscored the financial chicanery going on, I suggest you read these two articles here and here. Tony's wife Jennifer Beall is quite the mover and shaker behind the scenes in local politics around here, I have personal knowledge of this fact. You can see from these social media posts from 2014 that Jennifer worked very hard for 18 months to get Bill elected, after which Bill swore in the RSM city council and then Jennifer took a job with Bill. The following series of screenshots from Facebook are meant to underscore the very close and long running relationship between Bill and the Bealls. The allegations from Lisa are from 2011 and are said to be in the official record, so these were known at the time of the work on the election in 2013/2014.

Here is where things get interesting, because Bill took some very brave action and put forward AB1273 to work on reigning in the TCA, but remember, Tony really supports the TCA, a lot, and Tony's wife Jennifer works for Bill. The next thing you know, we see Jennifer posting on Facebook articles that are against AB1273, as you can see here:

Just a couple days after Jennifer expressed her public displeasure in what Bill was doing, the scope of what Bill wanted to do suddenly changed, as shown in this Facebook post.

Now a sideshow to all this is the Dove Canyon Plaza rezone question that is coming up. It is my belief that Tony Beall supports this idea and is going to push it through as one of his last big initiatives in RSM. Keep in mind the development fees that the TCA gets from any new construction, this is the only way the TCA will get more money from our city, and the fees are where they make most of their money. I believe there is a vested interest of some sort because it doesn’t make any sense for our city and all of his words and actions so far lead me to believe he will vote for it. This will likely make it either impossible for him to win again in 2020 or initiate a recall effort, and who wants a 20-year political career capped off by being recalled. I also believe that Tony has long thought about seeking higher office but needed an opportunity that would nearly guarantee the seat and that is what we have right now. It is also my belief that Tony would prefer the Supervisor position currently occupied by Lisa as that allows him to stay where he currently lives and continue to influence TCA policy, while being in the minority in Sacramento is pretty much a political dead end. Lisa seems to be seeking higher office, either to replace Bill or Pat. It could be that Tony wants to replace Bill, but my prediction is that what I’ve described are the likely scenarios and Bills alleged past is now conveniently being used as a means to an end because he bucked the OC power brokers that have (what I believe to be) vested interests in the continuation of the TCA among other things.

Yes, there is some speculation in this piece, and perhaps by publishing this piece, it will influence events, almost like a version of Schrodinger's cat, the act of exposing this will alter it. My fervent desire is that all these people that are seeking power would actually stop worrying about the perpetuation of their own power at the expense of the everyday person, and worry about the real and overall good of the people they represent. I'd also suggest that very few good decisions were made when drunk while many very bad ones have been.