…In which Skate and Annoy takes a momentary time out from snarky comments to put on the serious hat of a legitimate editorial news outlet.

UPDATE: A Spohn spokesperson has pointed out that Spohn is not a plaintiff in any lawsuit against California Skateparks or ARC ramps:

FYI we never filed a lawsuit against ARC (we were a whistleblower in that one) and are definitely not filing one against CA Skateparks.

We simply protested their bid rigging practices with the City of LA. No one is suing anyone.

…We made a complaint under the LA Contractor Responsibility Ordinance based on allegations that CA failed to disclose Ciaglia’s interests in his various entities including Site Design Group and Street League, failure to disclose lawsuits against California (Skateparks), failure to disclose his relationship with Dyrdek as part of the multiple millions in sole sourced contracts, attempting to bid rig a previous bid, etc.

The City of LA requires disclosure of all of those things as part of its very restrictive pre-qualification process. Right now, the City is investigating. But there is no lawsuit from Spohn against CA Sk8 or Joe.

All we are trying to get is a fair shot at the projects in the City where we live and pay taxes

On behalf of Skate and Annoy, I sincerely regret misrepresenting facts. Original post below:

At first glance the headline is shocking, Rob Dyrdek and a business associate accused of fraud, collusion, bid-rigging and perjury. Then you have to consider the source, another lawsuit filed by Spohn Ranch. (Correction:Spohn has not filed suit against ARC or California Skateparks. See above. ) And it would be easy to dismiss the investigation as sour grapes, but there’s some meat to it after all. The business of so-called donations of park designs contingent on the contract being awarded to specific construction companies certainly has the appearance of impropriety. If you’re going to make a donation, make it without strings attached, for the benefit of the community and not your buddy/partner’s construction company. Especially when it’s a donation that most design/build firms are happy to make when regulations allow. If you read through all the complaints you’ll be left with the impression that their operational practices are misleading if not outright shady. According to Celebsleaze (UPDATE: Appears to be a website set up explicitly for the purpose of providing links to documentation on the investigation. The rest of the site allegedly contains wholesale plagiarism.) both Dyrdek and California Skateparks make cash contributions back to L.A. City Council members who pushed deals through with the city. Yeah, I know, there goes my credibility, but it’s documented. Still, nobody ever sued their way into a profitable business, tech industry notwithstanding. Spohn Ranch might do better to let their skateparks speak for them instead of the lawyers. But then again, it must be nice for a skatepark builder to have the wheels greased by a major celebrity skateboarder who “donates” designs.

[ Source Celeb Sleaze via Commonwealth Skateboarding on Facebook. ] – Photo: Construction Currents, a construction industry website that also has coverage.

ESPN reports via Portland local Garric Ray that two Portland skateboarders assaulted by a security guards at Portland’s Pioneer Park finally settled the civil suit against the security company out of court. It’s been going on for a couple of years. I remember getting a tip about it when it first happened, so I checked it out. At first it was being spun as a skaters assaulting the security guards and I passed on it. Garric interviews one of the plaintiffs Brian Baca over at ESPN. That’s Brian above in a photo by Ray. I’m not sure why Garric didn’t chose to break this story directly on S&A instead of ESPN. I’m sure we pay nearly as much as ESPN… Quick, what’s double of nothing? Video of the original incident via Transworld after the jump.