Great Park board names executive

The Orange County Great Park board appointed Michael D. Ellzey, a Tulare County administrator, as deputy chief executive Thursday, a week after two board members walked out of a closed-door meeting in which the new position was discussed.

Irvine City Council members Christina Shea and Steven Choi left last week’s meeting, saying they believed it was illegal to discuss in secret a position that didn’t yet exist.

Ellzey, a former executive director of the Golden Gate Park Concourse Authority in San Francisco, was one of five finalists in a national chief executive search that came to an abrupt halt in November after two men with ties to Irvine City Hall rose to the top of the field of 150 candidates. Both declined the position.