The (lack of) accomplishments of RSM Councilman Tony Beall
Tony and Jennifer Beall are a blight on California politics. Find out why!
Introduction
Lawrence Anthony Beall, known to friends and foes as Tony Beall and his wife Jennifer, has been a blight on California politics generally, and Orange County politics specifically, for a few decades. Tony got his start as the planning commissioner for Rancho Santa Margarita founder Carol Gamble, who suddenly left the council in 2004. Tony was then appointed to the council and has been there ever since. It would be hard to find as questionable a politician on a local level who claims to be a Republican. The sheer volume of nasty things Tony and Jennifer Beall have been involved with is quite large.
Accomplishments?
When Tony was appointed Mayor for the FIFTH time in 2016 (he’s been mayor again multiple times since then), the OC Register ran this piece, where Tony talks about some items, including the “Chiquita Ridge” boondoggle. Tony was primarily responsible for this millstone around the neck of the city back in 2009 after four years of legal fees. He promised a sports park. Since then, the city has done five studies at a cost of approximately $1m, and the outlook is worse and worse. The last one, in 2017, found that it was all a losing proposition. The city spends millions and millions on this property as part of the agreement. They are only holding on to it now as an asset they can sell to a housing developer when the city runs out of money in 2030.
Speaking of crime and safety. Tony likes to take credit for the crime level in RSM when it is low. However, he has absolutely zero to do with the level of crime, good or bad. The city is required to maintain a minimum level of law enforcement as part of being a city, and RSM does just that: it maintains the minimum. When the opportunity to have preventative crime was available, Tony and Carol voted against it.
Something to stop the suicides on the local bridge? Yeah, forget about that, too; he wouldn’t even approve funding to put up signs with suicide prevention hotline numbers on the bridge. The OC Register ran this story in 2012, and nothing was done, but there were several more suicides.
Term limits? Forget it. Two councilmen tried to push them through in 2011, but Tony and Carol voted against it. Can’t have the plebs getting uppity.
What about the car dealership that has sat empty since 2008? There was an initiative to change the zoning, but Tony and Carol fought against it and won. Unfortunately, no new dealership came as he promised, and consequently, the city is slowly running out of money. This is no surprise, as you’ll see in the next section. Tony isn’t even good with his own wallet, so why would he be good at managing yours?
Financials
Tony got himself a nice six-figure settlement in 2009 from the local school district, which we’re sure went to responsible things, and as a lawyer for a big firm, he has a nice paycheck in addition to his income from all the property rentals. Jennifer pulled in a tidy six-figure salary as the chief of staff of Assemblywoman Laurie Davies in 2020, and now Kate Sanchez since redistricting. That makes you wonder how he defaulted on his federal taxes in 2020 and 2021 so severely that they put a nearly $200,000 lien on his home.
Could that all be related to the two of them being found guilty of campaign finance violations in 2019? It’s hard to say; it’s hard to keep up with all their hustles.
That’s not to say that Tony isn’t getting things done; he was able to push through an auto-renewing, no-bid contract for recycling services for the city in exchange for that vendor running hit pieces on a challenger in the race. You can read about it here.
He also likes to spend time at the Toll Road Agency, earning tens of thousands of dollars by attending their meetings. He’s also the only person in the entire state of California to call into a Senate hearing that was forcing the agency to memorialize their public statements of how their finances would be handled and argued against it. He seems to have a vested interest in the toll roads, a seemingly corrupt organization.
How about when he got his buddy who ran the local Chamber of Commerce hired as a part-time consultant for $80k a year to bring business to town? She didn’t bring any, but after arguing to keep her contract going, her legal problems got some sunshine, and she suddenly disappeared. You can review the 2013 meeting where Tony and Carol made her case. We won’t name her here; she had the good sense to skip town. There are also allegations that she had an affair with Tony and Jennifer fabricated fraud allegations against her and ran her out of town.
What about Jennifer Beall?
She isn’t some homemaker as she likes to claim in political donations. You know that saying about behind every good man? Well, Tony is not a good man, and neither is Jennifer. She’s been the power behind the scenes in OC for decades now. She pushed Tony on us; she is running the OCGOP central committee with Fred Whitaker as her willing puppet. In addition to being found guilty of campaign finance violations, she has also been investigated for payroll fraud while acting as the chief of staff for Assemblywoman Laurie Davies. When Laurie ended up in a new district, she found a new pawn to maneuver into state government: a woman named Kate Sanchez. The Right on Daily blog has a lot of information about Laurie, Kate, and Jennifer, but a couple of highlights are here and here. If you haven’t seen her racist performance on the Chelsea Handler special on Netflix, it’s worth a watch.
Summary
The Bealls are only interested in what benefits them personally; they love power and money. They keep running out of money, so they keep grabbing more and more power. As they move to consolidate their own power and position, the GOP loses more and more ground in OC. They are directly involved in losing major races by pushing their own agenda ahead of what is good for the general public. If you are ever having a conversation with one of them, keep your back to the wall so you don’t end up with a surprise in it.