Each year, Angelenos make a pilgrimage to Pomona for the LA County Fair. In the past, the fair has left us full of fried food, regret and self-loathing. And now there's another reason to feel mixed emotions about the end-of-summer festival, thanks to recent news of a state audit on the nonprofit that runs the extravaganza.
On Wednesday, the state legislation voted to conduct the audit over the company's use of state funding and its compensation policy, including executive salaries.
The company's CEO and president James Henwood Jr. made almost $900,000 in 2013, according to Freddie Rodriguez, a member of the California State Assembly. And that's in spite of the fact that the company reported four straight years of financial losses, according to the LA Times. Between 2010 and 2013, Henwood and four other managers collected $2.8 million worth of bonuses.
Aside from money, the committee will also look into whether the nonprofit has veered of course from its mission of promoting local agriculture, which is the reason it is a tax-exempt entity. If the company is worried, their fear isn't showing—an official spokeswoman told the Times that the nonprofit would "cooperate with the audit."
The committee's vote to proceed with the audit was unanimous.