Brown appoints Democrat to Fair Board

A financial analyst has been appointed to serve on the Orange County Fair Board, state officials said Tuesday.

Gov. Jerry Brown appointed Barbara Bagneris, 56, of Orange to serve on the board, which governs the 150-acre, state-owned fairgrounds in Costa Mesa. The position is unpaid.

Bagneris, a Democrat, replaces former Director Dave Ellis, who resigned from the board in January.

Since 2010, Bagneris has been a principal financial analyst at Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems, a division of the Raytheon Co. She worked at the Boeing Co. from 1980 to 2008 in a variety of positions, including business analyst and program financial controls analyst, according to a state news release.

According to her LinkedIn profile, Bagneris earned her bachelor’s degree from Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge, La., and a master’s of business administration from the University of Phoenix.

She has two children and is an usher at her church in Irvine.

Fair Board Chairman Stan Tkaczyk said Tuesday that he is pleased with the governor’s appointment.

Ellis, a political consultant and Republican, had served on the board since 2007. During his tenure, he was chairman for a period of the years-long, hotly contested and ultimately unsuccessful attempt to privatize the fairgrounds property, an effort he supported.

He told the Daily Pilot last month that he resigned because he felt his years of service were enough. He was also dismissive of some activists’ notions that Brown, a Democrat, would not reappoint him to the board.

“I’m just a firm believer in term limits,” Ellis said.