State Team Meets With Taco Bell to Try to Persuade It to Stay

Taco Bell Inc. said it met Monday with a group of local and state business leaders who urged the company to keep its headquarters in California rather than move out of state.

The fast-food chain said it has met informally with various leaders in the past but that the Monday session was its first formal meeting with the so-called state “red team” headed by Fred Mickelson, who is also the head of the Orange County Consortium for Economic Development.

Taco Bell has said it will decide by March whether to stay in California or move to Texas, North Carolina or Georgia. About 1,000 employees and consultants work from Taco Bell’s headquarters in Irvine.