I saw on the Board of Supervisors Jan. 8 agenda that Sup. Janet Nguyen is appointing her staffer Nick Lecong to the Orange County Airport Commission.

Which reminded me of that controversial independent expenditure against Carlos Bustamante during last year's 1st Supe District special election. Remember? The IE that took a vehicle for Lincoln Club funds to help John Duong's Irvine mayoral campaign, modified its name to Orange County Healthcare, Education and Neighborhood Leaders PAC and used it against the Lincoln Club's endorsed supervisor candidate?

This was the PAC that spent twice as much as it collected in contributions and whose report listed nearly $6,000 in debt to Riverside-based United Press Works. It's final campaign report in July showed zero money in the bank -- meaning the printer got stiffed for $6,000. Except when I called the printer this summer, the owner could not recall being owed any money (and being owed $6,000 isn't something printers forget), meaning the person/persons behind the IE most likely arranged to pay the printer off-the-books so it didn't show up on the campaign report (which is illegal). I wrote a detailed post on the whole smelly matter back in August.

The whole matter was (and is) Hinky with-a-capital-H from beginning to end.

So how does Nick Lecong, Janet's prospective appointee to the Airport Commission, figure into this? Lecong was the bag man for this IE. Lecong forked over $4,000 of his own moolah for the IE and put the arm on a Garden Grove developer for the remaining $2,000 (Lecong used to be a Garden Grove Planning Commissioner - appointed by then GG Councilwoman Janet Nguyen).

Hinkiness seems to follow Lecong. Take this contribution report from the 1st SD special election.  Nick Lecong's  son and daughter each maxed out to Janet for $1,500. Suhch sizable contributions were a bit unusual since the daughter was an office assistant for the County of Orange and the son was a sales associate for Fry's Electronics -- not professions one generally writing $1,500 campaign contribution checks.

I called Nick Lecong back in February 2007 to ask if he was the directing persona behind the IE mailer/phone banks, and if not, then who asked him to donate $4,000. He literally began coughing into the phone, then hung up and refused to answer my subsequent phone calls.

Lecong was planning to move up from Garden Grove Planning Commission by running for City Council in 2006, but later abandoned those plans (and ultimately the Planning Commission) when a prominent city insider reminded Lecong that he lived in Huntington Beach, not Garden Grove.

Lecong endorsed Stanton Councilman Dave Shawver's stint as the government employee unions candidate against John Moorlach in 2006.

I'm sure Mr. Lecong will make a fine appointment to the Airport Commission.