Dem who cooperated in FBI Angel Stadium probe resigns from O.C. Fair Board
Melahat Rafiei, a Democratic Party leader who announced Sunday she’d resigned from party offices following news of her cooperation with an FBI investigation into the proposed sale of Angel Stadium, also vacated her seat on the Orange County Fair Board.
OC Fair & Event Center spokeswoman Terry Moore said officials received news Friday from the Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office that Rafiei had vacated her position with California’s 32nd District Agricultural Assn. effective immediately.
It will be up to the governor’s office to make a new appointment upon receiving applications from interested candidates, Moore said Monday.
Rafiei was appointed by the governor to serve on the nine-member panel in September for a four-year term that still had more than three years left when the Anaheim resident made what she described as a preemptive decision to resign.
“The rush to judgment that is all too prevalent in politics these days has made clear to me that, for now, the best course of action for me and for the party is to resign from my positions,” she wrote in a letter to Democratic Party leaders and posted to social media on Sunday.
“Although I am taking a step away, I devotedly encourage Democrats to keep up the fight.”
Rafiei has served since 2009 as principal at Progressive Solutions Consulting, a firm that specializes in fundraising and political campaign management in Orange and Los Angeles counties and in 2020 helped clients raise a collective $1.2 million.
Melahat Rafiei announced she has been a cooperating witness in the FBI investigation involving the Anaheim mayor and city power brokers.
In 2017, she founded WeCann, a full-service cannabis consulting firm that supported cannabis businesses and helped them secure properties, permits and licenses to do legal business, according to the company’s website.
Upon her appointment to the OCFEC Board, Rafiei was a secretary for the California Democratic Party and served as executive director at the Democratic Party of Orange County from 2007 to 2009.
A delegate for the California Democratic Party and a member of the Democratic National Committee, Rafiei was appointed to Anaheim’s Cultural and Heritage Commission.
She resigned from all party positions, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday. Her letter described how her role as a confidential witness in the FBI probe of the proposed $320-million sale of Angel Stadium land.
Records from an FBI probe show how business interests run the Orange County city home to Disneyland and the Angels.
Rafiei maintained in the letter she was not compelled to cooperate with the FBI and did so out of a sense of duty.
“If those individuals now named by federal prosecutors are, in fact, guilty of corruption and are brought to justice, I will be proud of the role I was willing to play, despite what that role has now cost me,” she wrote.
Rafiei did not respond Monday to a request for comment, while OCFEC Executive Director and Board Chair Doug LaBelle referred all questions to the governor’s office.
The O.C. Fair Board vacancy will be filled by appointment. Moore said Monday interested candidates may apply online at gov.ca.gov/application-for-appointment.
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