Countywide : State to Decide Who Will Run Rides at Fair

Who will run the carnival at this year’s Orange County Fair will be decided by the state.

The Fair Board at its regular monthly meeting last week decided to let the Department of General Services settle the dispute between B & B Amusements of Fountain Valley and Ray Cammack Shows of Laveen, Ariz. The event will run at the fairgrounds in Costa Mesa from July 7 to 23.

Though the Fair Board in January awarded the bid to Ray Cammack Shows, B & B filed a complaint in early February, contending its proposal was better and it should have been awarded the contract, said Jill Lloyd, a spokeswoman for the fairgrounds.

The Department of General Services, based in Sacramento, is in charge of overseeing and reviewing all contracts issued by county fairs in the state.

The state agency should resolve the situation within three months, but if it fails to have an answer within 30 days of the fair, then the Fair Board will have the option of issuing an emergency contract, Lloyd said.

“Right now, everything is up in the air,” she said.

B & B has been the carnival operator for 10 years, but this year Ray Cammack Shows upstaged the company by offering a wide variety of rides, a few of which were made in Europe and are considered technically advanced.