Newport Beach Docks (again): Who is “Concerned Boater”?
September 26, 2019
The alias comments regularly on The Log’s stories; the user neither confirms or denies direct questions of whether he or she is affiliated with the Sheriff’s Department.
NEWPORT BEACH—Surprise, surprise – The Log was accused of having an agenda. Allegations of reporting with a bias or agenda are common in this business. We were most recently accused of having an agenda in one of our Standing Watch columns. The column was about Lt. Christopher Corn’s actions to reduce the amount of time available for public dock use at Newport Beach Harbor from 72 hours to 20 minutes.
A user who identified him/herself as “Concerned Boater” outright stated The Log had an agenda in its coverage of the public docks matter at Newport Beach Harbor. The Log has, indeed, consistently been covering the use of public docks at Newport Beach Harbor, specifically the change in time for use from 72 hours to 20 minutes. The Log’s reporting, most recently, has been trying to determine whether Corn, as a law enforcement officer, had the sole authority to change the use time, without first consulting with or receiving a directive from county staff or policymakers.
“Concerned Boater” posted the first comment on the article online on Aug. 29, and it read: “The Log, as usual, seems to leave out the section(s) (information) that do not support their agenda.”
Concerned Boater went on to list two Orange County Code sections to defend Corn’s changing of the public dock usage times from 72 hours to 20 minutes.
Watchdog Boater, on the online comments, asked whether Concerned Boater was actually Corn himself. Concerned Boater seemed to indicate he was not Corn.
“That’s funny!!! I do know Lt Corn and have been following this from the beginning. I have spoken to him on many occasions about this and agree with most of their (his) decisions,” Concerned Boater stated. “Unfortunately for him, he cannot make false or exaggerated allegations like some of the posters here. So I can only speak for myself and I do know a lot about what is going on because I do my homework and call out those people.”
After reading this comment this writer did a little research. The backend of The Log’s website lists the email and IP addresses of each person who comments on our online articles. The email address associated with Concerned Boater’s most recent comments is ConcernedBoater@aol.com. There are multiple IP addresses associated with that email address. One of those IP addresses is 12.24.53.132.
There is a comment from Concerned Boater posted on an article penned by The Log’s former staff writer, Devon Warren-Kachelein. The comment was posted on June 3 at 2:41 p.m. on an article headlined, “Orange County’s Docks: A Tale of Two Maritime Parking Scenes.” The email address associated with this comment by Concerned Boater is cdcorn1@aol.com; the IP address attached to the email is 12.24.53.132 – the same location as the comment referenced in the previous paragraph.
We’ve included screen shots with this column. There are eight comments, as of Aug. 28, from Concerned Boater and the 12.24.53.132 address. The address is connected to a building in Santa Ana and reportedly owned by the State of California.
The Log has since reached out to Corn – four times to be exact. We presented this same information to him and asked him whether the email address cdcorn1@aol.com is his or affiliated with someone he knows personally or professionally. Corn’s public email address is cfcorn@ocsd.org – slightly different from the “cdcorn” email address affiliated with the Concerned Boater uses on The Log’s website.
Corn – nor the other county officials we reached out – has responded back to The Log to either confirm or deny whether the lieutenant and Concerned Boater are the same person. On each occasion The Log directly asked Corn to confirm or deny whether cdcorn1@aol.com is an email address affiliated with him.
Perhaps either he or anyone else at the county is reading this article? If so, could you reach out and let us know whether Concerned Boater has an affiliation with Corn?
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I hope that the county finally sees that Lt Corn is a bad actor and should not be in a position of public trust. He made a unilateral decision to violate a costal commission directive and from the actions above is clearly willing to deceive the public. How is a person like this in a position of authority. Certainly should have the attention of the Orange County sheriff. Hopefully they can move him to a more appropriate assignment and away from our harbor.
As a sworn Deputy for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, Lt. Corn has an obligation to be honest and forthcoming in all of his dealings, both on and off duty. If Lt. Corn has provided false information to the public regarding Sheriff’s Department related matters (via an alias or not) he needs to suffer the consequences.
The Sheriff and Board of Supervisors need to immediately drop the misguided efforts (led by Lt. Corn) to shut the public out of these County owned public docks at Newport Harbor. We need more public access and involvement at this facility (to serve as watchdogs), not less!
It looks like the matter has been resolved to everyone’s satisfaction. Why is this still being beaten about??
It has not been resolved to the satisfaction of the public. The dock on the north side of the station is still painted red and has signs that it is off limits to the public. This used to be a common pick up and drop off point for people leaving the harbor loading guest that live on the the CDM side of the bay. The dinghy dock hours have been expanded but are not what they used to be and are not what was agreed to by the coastal commission when they county received authorization to rebuild the Habor patrol station. Additionally the parking lot closures are still effective in place. Half the parking lot was closed for “protection “ purposes and the staff at the station seams to have been instructed to park in the few remaining public spots as a means to “ keep the public out”. The county is trying to keep both the hours and closure in effect and has applied to modify the original agreement. As it stands now the residents of NB are not being treated fairly by Lt. Corn or the County. This is a battle that is just starting and water way rights of the city residents are being trampled by the very officers that are sworn to protect and serve the public.
Doug, the matter has NOT been resolved. The Sheriff’s Department was called out for violating the Coastal Act by the Coastal Commission Enforcement division in May of this year. Rather than bring the matter into full compliance of the violations, the Sheriff’s Department has chosen to apply for a retro-active Coastal Development Permit in an attempt to sneak this through. They are attempting to shut down much of the public access that existed at the facility for decades. It appears Lt. Corn has been disseminating misinformation under an alias in order to confuse the general public. This is a shocking development.
The political weight of elected Sheriff Don Barnes is significant. Don’t be surprised if this gets buried under the OC curtain.
Obviously “Concerned Boater” is a regular reader of this web site. His usual comments are conspicuously missing from this specific article though. “Concerned Boater” can type out a comment and state the he is not Lt. Corn. If suddenly “Concerned Boater” vanishes from this comment section, it would then appear as though Corn got caught playing a very childish game.