Pay To Play 101....A Lesson From Tom Daly

When the going gets tough at county hall, the tough create a pay for play scheme for a phantom sports hall of fame.....so say the guys over at Friends For Fullerton Future. 

This one looks like a classic case of political corruption.  The protagonists of this story are former 4th District Supe candidate and current OC Clerk/Recorder Tom Daly and OC Water Board member/political consultant Brett Barbre.  Just to show that political corruption has no partisan bounds....Tom Daly is a Democrat and Mr Barbre is a Republican. 

I will lay out the Cliff Notes version of this story and leave the details to guys over at FFFF.  

- Tom Daly hires and pays Mr Barbre $48k in 2008/09 for consulting work on a "sports hall of fame".

- from public records requests it is proven that there is hardly anything of value to show to us taxpayers of what this $48k bought.

- this money was paid out in a time of a huge budget crisis & massive layoffs of county workers

- Tom Daly gets to add a high profile Republican to his list of supporters and reaped campaign contributions from Mr Barbre to the tune of $1000....how about that.  What a great return on your investment if you're Brett Barbre. He receives $48k and only has to pay out a $1000 bribe contribution.

- I myself noted Brett escorting Daly's hand picked successor at the time, Renee Ramirez, around at a recent Central Committee meeting.

All this begs the question from us working stiffs out here trying to earn an honest living...does this arrangement seem dishonest & corrupt to the average person out there?